Back to Index

Gilbert OskabooseA bronze plaque for all time....
by Gilbert Oskaboose

Here is an idea for a bronze plaque to be erected outside whatever residential school you attended. This one is written specifically for the "boys and girls" of Garnier Residential School and Saint Josephs of Spanish, Ontario.

Rewrite the plaque to suit your own set of circumstances. Add or delete whatever you think is relevant to your situation. Apply for some of that dirty money from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and put it to a good use. Let the whole goddamn world see what really happened in those residential schools. Let the younger generations understand. Dont worry about "offending" anyone. It was us survivors that were offended.

This plaque commemorates the terrible experiment in social engineering committed here by the Canadian government and the Blackrobes (Jesuits) against the native people of Ontario and Quebec.

Thousands of native children were brought here to be "assimilated" forcibly into the mainstream of Canadian society, according to government policy of the day. They were forbidden to speak their own languages. Contact with parents was limited to two months out of the year. Contact with siblings was limited to two months plus one day. Family ties and bonds were completely destroyed in this cruel manner. The children were frequently cold and lonely and always hungry. They endured endless beatings by Jesuit "disciplinarian," classroom instructor and schoolyard bully alike. Most savage of the beatings were those reserved for the brave kids who ran away. When recaptured they were shaved bald, stripped naked, draped over a bench and beaten to within an inch of their lives. Child witnesses forced to watch this spectacle were warned that they would be next if they tried to run. The children were abused: physically, emotionally, sexually, culturally, spiritually and intellectually.

The experiment in cultural genocide failed. We did not become White. We spoke our languages in secret. We struggled to retain our traditions and customs and beliefs. We know who we are. We are Ahnishnawbek, Cree, Odawa, Potowatomee and Haudenosaunee. We came home minus our languages and our cultures and unable to build a simple cooking fire in the woods and were rejected by our people as "little brown white men," but we kept the faith in who we are. We kept the faith.

Know that you do not teach Love and Christianity through harsh discipline and endless beatings. You only teach fear and an undying rage. Know that you dont teach gentleness and parenting skills under the loving stokes of a strap wielded by childless nuns and white men wearing black dresses. You only teach anger, resentment and spiritual confusion. It shouldn't have hurt to have been a native child.

Indian Country will never recover from the era of these infamous residential schools, but it will survive. Many many generations will pass before the dark shadow of these evil times will be forever erased from our collective consciences.

Gilbert Oskaboose, a retired Ojibway journalist from the Serpent River First Nation in Northern Ontario wrote a weekly column here on FirstNations.com. With the permission of his family, we are privileged to continue to present Gib's words and stories, many of which are still relevant today.

Gib is a residential school survivor. During his retirement, Gib was engaged in a class action law suit against the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the federal Department of Indian Affairs for their respective contributions to a residential school lost childhood.

In 2000, Gib suffered a stroke and he was no longer able to continue writing.. He his mind and spirit are still strong though his body is now weak. Gib is currently living in an nursing home in Ontario. Thanks and well wishes go out to him and his family.

As Gib would say, "Write on, young native writer, write on...." His hope is that young writers will pick up their pens and use their voice to comment and describe the world we live in.

The pen has been now been passed to you, the next generation.