Canadian native education policy : a case study of the residential school at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia

Abstract

Early educational policies for Canada's Indians were assimilative; residential schools established throughout Canada were intended to remove Indian children from home influences and to riase them in the culture and values of the Whiteman. The only such school built in the Martitime Provinces was the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia, which operated under the auspices of the Catholic Church. This study considers the governmental policies for Indian education as exemplified by this one school. The Annual Reports of Indian Affairs were used to prepare a brief overview of the history of native education in Canada, with an emphasis on the evolution of the residential school ideal. Records from the Public Archives of Canada were studied extensively to provide an accurate history of the Shubenacadie school from its inception in 1930 to its close in 1967. Consideration was given to the rationale for this type of educational institution in the Maritimes, and to the government's policies for admission, health care, vacation, and discharge. Truancy records and correspondene files provided a view of the school from the point of view of the students and their parents. To try to understand the entire residential school experience, recent media accounts of the school were reviewed, and this information was augmented by interviews with some of the former students. This history illustrates the basic cultural differences which divided the Indian children from the school administrators, and contributed decisively to the ultimate failure of the residential school system. A look at such alternatives as integrated provincial schools and segregated band-controlled reserve schools, suggests that Indian educational problems are still far from their solution.