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The Horror of St. Michaels Residential School

January 5, 2018 by Hans Tammemagi 5 Comments

St. Michaels Residential School with weathered totem - 2009

Lost amongst dozens of islets in Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and British Columbia’s mainland lies a special place:
Cormorant Island and its village, Alert Bay.

…….

This is home to the Namgis First Nation within the larger Kwakwaka’wakw band, who built an astonishingly rich, creative culture as amply demonstrated today in Alert Bay by the U’mista Cultural Centre, the Big House and a flowering community of artists and carvers. Towering totems with real and mythical creatures abound. Enormous canoes were built from single old-growth cedar trees. Glorious masks representing eagles, thunderbirds, orcas and mythical creatures are used in dances acting out traditional stories and legends. The Namgis, and all First Nations, have a generous, sharing philosophy; the real wealth for Natives is not money, but knowledge of dances and songs.

Alert Bay BC totem poles circa 1910

A thriving waterfront at Alert Bay, circa 1910 – Photo courtesy of BC Archives, Royal British Columbia Museum
. . . . . . .

But the white men came, and in their colonial lust for land, they trampled on those who have lived on it for millennia. As laid bare by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Natives were shoved aside and treated despicably. Cultural genocide, the Commission called it. Canada, a democratic country that prides itself in freedom and liberty, bears a dark stain from those actions.

The worst insult, the cruelest blow, was the establishing of residential schools, which Native children were forced to attend so their Native culture and language could be expunged, beaten out of them if necessary.

St. Michaels Residential School from the waterfront

St. Michaels Residential School from the waterfront in 2009 – note U’mista Cultural Centre to left.
. . . . . . .

About 130 residential schools were set up in Canada and about 150,000 aboriginal children were forced to attend them. Of the 29 schools in British Columbia, one was in Alert Bay on the peaceful, beautiful Cormorant Island. St. Michaels Residential School operated from 1894 to 1974, at first in two wooden buildings, one for girls and one for boys. In 1929, they were replaced by a large, three-storey brick building.

St. Michaels Residential School - date of construction - 1929

The original wooden buildings were replaced by a brick one in 1929.
. . . . . . .

Children were forcibly torn from families and placed into a foreign environment where they were not allowed to speak their language or practice their traditional pastimes. Nor could they visit their families, except fleetingly.

St. Michaels Residential School - View from behind

St. Michaels Residential School – View from behind
. . . . . . .

Although there must have been many instances of proper and loving care, somehow the system came unglued and the brick schoolhouse here and others throughout the country became houses of horror. Given the residential schools were operated by the Anglican, United and Catholic churches, it’s not easy to understand why things went wrong. Abuse of a sexual, physical and psychological nature, even torture, became prevalent. There are numerous documented cases of beatings that resulted in broken limbs, children placed in isolation in black closets often for days, needles pushed through a tongue because the Native language had been spoken, and more, and worse.

St. Michaels Residential School studio - 2009

Although the school was derelict for many years carvers used a basement room as a studio (2009).
. . . . . . .

An estimated 6,000 students died while at residential schools, an astonishingly high number. The risk of an aboriginal child dying at residential school was higher than for a Canadian serving in World War II! When a study showed many of these deaths were caused by tuberculosis, which could be largely avoided, the federal government rejected the results and buried the report. Thus, it contributed to the deaths of many more children.

St. Michaels Residential School - Basement studio used by carvers

Interior of basement ‘studio’ used by carvers; they did magnificent work.
. . . . . . .

Defying credulity, it appears that during the time these schools operated (more than a century) very few, if any, people were charged with criminal offenses for any of these heinous abuses. During my (brief) research I did not find a single case of a person spending a day in court nor being charged, nor paying a fine, nor spending any time in jail. The most that happened was that a few people were forced to resign. The immensity of the cover-up by the federal government is staggering. Thank goodness for the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Pity it didn’t come decades earlier.

St. Michaels Residential School - Behind with two canoes made by carvers

Behind the old school with two canoes made by carvers
. . . . . . .

In February 2015, St. Michael’s Indian Residential School was torn down, no doubt with the hope that its painful memories would disappear with it. The photos here show the school as it was a few years ago.

St. Michaels Residential School is a reminder of how easily the thin varnish of civilization can rub off. Now is not the time for forgetting. But it is a time for healing.

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Filed Under: Canada, First Peoples

Comments

  1. Mary Reher says

    January 7, 2018 at 10:27 pm

    Hans, thank you for this succinct comment on a dark part of Canadian history, thankfully no longer hidden from public scrutiny. May the First Nations people continue to heal, to strengthen, to rise up… so that they will never again be ignored or hurt.

    Reply
  2. Trevor Isaac says

    June 6, 2018 at 12:23 pm

    Im curious who took the nice photo of the school with the close up of the totem pole in the beginning of this article? I’m from Alert Bay and work at the U’mista Cultural Centre next to where the St. Mike’s Residential School once stood.

    Reply
    • Glenn says

      June 6, 2018 at 4:38 pm

      Trevor,
      Hans Tammemagi, the author of the post took that picture.
      Please tell us more about Alert Bay and your work at the U’mista Cultural Centre. I’d love to know more about what’s going on there now.
      Glenn

      Reply
  3. Nancy Rubenstein says

    May 18, 2019 at 12:55 pm

    I would like to contact Hans to ask permission to use his photo of the decaying residential school in a book to be published by Ronsdale Press, Vancouver.
    Thank you fir your help!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Cruising into First Nations Culture, Vancouver Island British Columbia says:
    March 9, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    […] yards away from the modern cultural centre, sits the decaying St. Michael’s residential school, a hulking, red-bricked reminder of the persecution of the Native people. (This cruise took place […]

    Reply

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