Attawapiskat is a small town in our big country and as a whole we need to look out and help one another. We are one as a whole and “our nation is only as good as we treat our most vulnerable” (Boyden, 2016, para. 21) as some of our most vulnerable are our aboriginals. They are people too and we need to treat them accordingly and not as we have for the 140 years of residential schools. In Joseph Boyden's essay “The true tragedy of Attawapiskat”, he talks about how abuse in residential schools impacted many generations of the aboriginal people, how poor the living conditions were for the children in the schools and how the camps are restoring what the government has broken.
Residential schools were built to eliminate the aboriginal population; …show more content…
They have stayed detached from the rest of Canada and the world in their own small communities (Gilmore, 2016, para. 3). The Canadian government in the early 1900’s saw this as their responsibility to educate the aboriginal population and created these schools with poor living conditions. In many of the residential schools across the country disease, fires and experiments where a normal occurrence. Tuberculosis killed 20 times more aboriginals than it did any other child in Canada in 1880 (Young, 2015, para. 6). This was mainly because the schools did not have the same health care that the rest of the country had access too. Many of the kids were also used for experiments, mainly with vitamins. The scientists would use them as human guinea pigs and would give some children vitamins and deny the other's use of any. (Young, 2015, para. 6). Fires were also very common in the schools and killed many as the doors of the rooms were always locked. Many children could not escape and would die from the smoke and heat. (Young, 2015, para. 6). The thousands of aboriginal children who were forced into these schools lived in such conditions as if they were living in an underdeveloped country; even though Canada is considered a developed country. The government killed many aboriginal children and wounded May more; …show more content…
When the government took the children away from their homes they forced them to become like the rest of Canada and practice English and Christianity. This brought them away from what they originally spoke and believed. Boyden has helped to build a camp for the children of these communities so they can once again connect with their homeland. Boyden being a mix-blood aboriginal knows what it is “to feel despair so crushing you don’t want to live anymore” (Boyden, 2016, para. 8). The camps are meant to help the youth revert to their original ways. Boyden cares for the people of Attawapiskat and what has happened to them. There is no rhyme or reason for him to help this small community and the others near it other than he feels that they are the ones liable for giving him his writing career and he has the desire to give back (Boyden, 2016, para. 7). The residential schools stripped the aboriginals from their way of living and these camps are there aiding to restore what the government has
Residential schools were built to eliminate the aboriginal population; …show more content…
They have stayed detached from the rest of Canada and the world in their own small communities (Gilmore, 2016, para. 3). The Canadian government in the early 1900’s saw this as their responsibility to educate the aboriginal population and created these schools with poor living conditions. In many of the residential schools across the country disease, fires and experiments where a normal occurrence. Tuberculosis killed 20 times more aboriginals than it did any other child in Canada in 1880 (Young, 2015, para. 6). This was mainly because the schools did not have the same health care that the rest of the country had access too. Many of the kids were also used for experiments, mainly with vitamins. The scientists would use them as human guinea pigs and would give some children vitamins and deny the other's use of any. (Young, 2015, para. 6). Fires were also very common in the schools and killed many as the doors of the rooms were always locked. Many children could not escape and would die from the smoke and heat. (Young, 2015, para. 6). The thousands of aboriginal children who were forced into these schools lived in such conditions as if they were living in an underdeveloped country; even though Canada is considered a developed country. The government killed many aboriginal children and wounded May more; …show more content…
When the government took the children away from their homes they forced them to become like the rest of Canada and practice English and Christianity. This brought them away from what they originally spoke and believed. Boyden has helped to build a camp for the children of these communities so they can once again connect with their homeland. Boyden being a mix-blood aboriginal knows what it is “to feel despair so crushing you don’t want to live anymore” (Boyden, 2016, para. 8). The camps are meant to help the youth revert to their original ways. Boyden cares for the people of Attawapiskat and what has happened to them. There is no rhyme or reason for him to help this small community and the others near it other than he feels that they are the ones liable for giving him his writing career and he has the desire to give back (Boyden, 2016, para. 7). The residential schools stripped the aboriginals from their way of living and these camps are there aiding to restore what the government has