Dear Editor:
We hear much of the horrendous experiences suffered by children in residential schools. Some were good; too many bad. But we hear little of the damage done to the homes.
How do parents act as parents when all their children are forcibly taken from them and there is no communication as the children grow through their teens?
Would you feel helpless? hurt? Angry? Despairing? What could you do in this case of legal kidnapping?
Would you turn to violence? To alcohol? How would you handle your grief and despair?
It was this destruction of the family unit, the breakdown of relationships between siblings, parents, the community year after year for more than 100 years, generation after generation, that contributed to demoralizing conditions.
The terrible loss of life caused by the introduction of European diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza etc. against which the Aboriginal people had no immunity and received little medical help caused even greater havoc in the villages.
And the disastrous change from the historic healthy diet has created an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease.
Both these afflictions can also bring serious complications.
The alarming statistics which we hear of regarding suicide, abuse and illness were all proof of dispirited people.
It is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that we see the emergence of First Nations leaders who are working to instil pride in their culture and courage to move forward into what had been an alien and unwelcoming society. They will make mistakes — as all do — but with increasing confidence, education and acceptance, there will come healthy, hopeful people who are after all an integral part of multi-cultural Canada.
Sheila White
Summerland