Week 11 - Documentary Notes+questions PDF

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Documentary notes - on last 2 residential schools We Were Children Documentary on testimony of 2 survivors from the schools Over 130 years forced to attend residential schools Lyna Hart. - one of the survivors taken to a dormitory, rooms with beds like hospital beds in lines. Taken into a shower room where she was sprayed down and showered, scary having someone she didn't know bathe her. Doused in powder that smells horrible in order to kill ugs after being bathed. Forced to kneel down “heads down eyes closed” and then they started praying. “No talking, do not get out of bed. A sister would be assigned to the rooms and look at you, ensure you are sleeping. Wooden clackers that they would use to wake up the kids .24 hours after the powder, they would shower again, and would then cut hair “I can still remember the cod scissors on my head” “felt that they were taking something away from me… sense of who I was”. Later pans to shower the little girl with new hairstyle. Dining room At the dining room, shows the nun aggressively pointing towards chair and giving young lyna her spot you are 99. Your spot is 99. Glen anaquod Residential school survivor If you didn't send your kids to these schools, hey would throw you into jail He was forced to learn english and french “pourquoi tu ne parle pas?” “Parler en anglais” she would tell him to at least speak in frnech or english, and he would respond back in indian. He wouldn't respond back so he put his hands out and she beat his hands while saying “you will learn to speak god’s language and you will obey. Girl washing hands a lot, and face a lot. She asked why, “because im not white enough” she responds with because we are dirty, and speak in english. Scene with a priest speaking to them, welcoming them and saying that “this is the last time yo will hear your own language” and tells them how they will learn to speak in english, and think in english. Next scene shows chairs with numbers as the un says “find your seats, nice and quiet.” Given tokens, everytime they don’t speak english they will keep them. Signifies speaking in english.

Punishments for not speaking english was holding tongue. If you let go, they will add another 30 minutes Sometimes you will be covered in your own spit. Next scene, shows the kids noticing how they couldn’t see them from some bushes across the road when they lost their ball. Priest watching them making sure they are asleep, shows him taking one child away “come with me” Glen sees his cousin going home to visit his parents, wonders why he never got to go home. Soon, shows glen packing and going home. Building that they call the priest’s building/house. He sees a trap door inside the house, he wanted to go home but also wanted to see what was down there. He was then pushed inside a room and left there by the priest. “What did i do? Let me out” He was inside the room in fetal position crying, wondering how come they did that to him. “That's where our ancestors all went because they were savages” Next scene shows picture of hell and heaven, how they must learn to be like them so they can go to heaven Lyna couldn't get used to the food, the porridge, she would starve herself. She passes out due to starvation. Brought to the infirmary, and would then be force fed. ‘You have to eat” She sneaks away and finds a boy being raped,wondering why he was bent over and naked. She ran back to the infirmary bed. Knowing something bad had happened, but not knowing what it was Shows priest seeing the little boy they let stay there, and goes to the next room where there is another girl who was trapped inside. Glen would hear the door closing, and another person crying. Tapping against the wall made him feel better that he wasn’t the only one down there by himself. Back with lyna at the infirmary, a nurse is attempting to force feed her, as she is attempting to communicate in indian. Nurse says eat then slaps her face. And she starts to fear the nurse. She could hear steps going to her infirmary bed, and she was the only one in there. The priest flips her over, hand covering mouth, smell of tobacco. Assumption that she is being raped. “I remember a lot of pain” she had a special place she would think about to find peace and help her through her experiences. She realizes she’s not the only one that experienced the rape, a lot of children in that school were raped and sexually abused by the preist. The priest died before she left residential school. When

they told her she was gone, she felt a big load lifted. didnt have to worry anymore about being rapedin the infirmary. “When he died i just wanted to dance and laugh, but I knew I couldn't. But I did in that special place” “Don't know how much time passed, seemed like I was in there forever.” Nun came asking in french why he is in there, “who put you in here” they have a conversation in french, “what did you do to this boy” As he was being helped, he tried talking about the girl in the other room, but she was gone. “ I don't know what kind of god they have that loves to hurt another human being. ...What kind of god do they have” all kinds of abuse would not compare to being locked up in that place. The same nurse that saved him bathed him, fed him, that she would watch over him so they can’t do anything to him. ??christmas time, they sent her away because he was trying to speak up for glen.(??? “He’ll never hurt you again” the priest that locked him up was sent to another school/ 5 years later glen and his friend try to run away by pretending to retrieve ball. They guess how long it’ll take to run back to the reserve. They ended up running away and reached their aunts house, but they are caught by the priests because the aunt called the school. Glen inspired the boys to run away. They couldn't escape from the room they were locked in after evading being beat by jumping the priest. They knew what would be coming after trying to escape. The priest later comes back with more and they all beat them for what they had done. All ending up in the infirmary for over a week. Cherished the thought that they fought back, although that had to pay for running away “Nowhere to turn, I just had to live through it” glen. Shows him in class with black eye. 99, takes a new girl inside. The little ones would cry because they’re hungry. Given different chores to do to change behaviour and conform to what they needed to be. The nuns and priests got to eat fresh fruits, vegetables, cookies, compared to what they ate, was just leftovers, from days and weeks ago. She had a lot of duties in the kitchen, whether punished or not. This way she would be able to sneak food away and share with the other kids, A nun caught them, and then snuck them away, and gave them some real food. She told them they were hungry, crying themselves to sleep because of hunger, but one nun actually fed luna dnd the girls with them.

The last day of school, felt freeness, huge burden being taken away. Once you get out of residential school, it was hard to live life. Suddenly in a different world with so much freedom. Deaths, suicides, when they got out of school. Gle himself came close. He was an orphan, and

that’s a hard way to live. “They’re so lucky to have parents” he would hope that his parents would never be orphans. When they left school they would turn to alcohol, life became a bad problem. He was gonna kill himself, until his two oldest kids followed him “doing what he said he’d ever do” realizing that if he killed himself his children would be orphans. 150k attending the schools These are the only ones that were registered and documented Part of an assimilation to integrate indian children Remove and isolate children from the influence from their home, family, and traditions. To assimilate into the dominant culture. Belief that their behaviour was inferior, purpose to kill the indian problem 8000 indian residential school survivors 60 scoop - part of the assimilation mandate, but they still continued. Glen was from the last closed residential school in canada (1996 closed) Malnutrition, dying children yet continued to keep open. Resilient to keep going despite horrors Numbers were assigned to take away who they were, their identity, cut off ties. Exam questions 1) In the documentary, We were children, Lyna was assigned the number 99. 2) In the documentary, We were children, Glen was assigned the number 118. 3) In the documentary, We were children, how long was Lyna in the residential school? 1958-1970 4) In the documentary, We were children, the last residential school closed in 1996 which ___ attended. Glen...