PSY 3123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Indian Act, Ethnocentrism, Substance Abuse
28 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
February 16, 2018
Diversity in Canadian Families
Guest Lecturer - Jacky Chan
Overview
Indigenous peoples in Canada
Families of European settlers
Immigrant and refugee families
Applied research ļ¬ndings
Community programming for newcomer families
Indigenous Peoples in Canada
We need to acknowledge that we are on stolen land:
-Reconciliation
-Need to address the signiļ¬cance that their land has to Indigenous people
First human settlements in the Americas can be traced back to 50 000 years ago
First Nations settlements date back to 500 BCE
-Contact with Europeans 1000 CE
Inuit settlements date back to 1000 CE
European settlement 17th and 18th centuries
Emergence of the Metis people
NB: important to recognize the difference between First Nations, Inuit, and Metis - theyāre not all just native
-They have unique cultures
Forced Assimilation
A form of cultural genocide
The arrival of Christian missionaries in the 1600s: very racist ethnocentric ideas that the Indigenous people were
uncivilized
Indian Act 1867: systematic policy of forced assimilation
-Banned traditional ceremonies
-Punishing those who donāt follow traditional Christian values
-The creation of the reservation system
ī”1
February 16, 2018
ā¢Prevents movement - easier to control if they were all in one area
ā¢Usually placed in less valuable land
-Formation of education program
ā¢Had some beneļ¬ts - taught trades and skills
ā¢People started ļ¬ghting it when Indigenous people started āstealing our jobsā
Residential schools (1847-1996)
-"Need to separate children from their families to educate and civilize themā
-Didnāt care that children were dying at a higher rate in residential schools than in their villages - didnāt justify a
policy change
ā¢āGeared towards a ļ¬nal solution of our Indian problemā
-Weaned them away from their cultural traditions and those of their ancestors in favour of ācivilized habitsā
-āIndians are uncivilized. The aim of education is to destroy the Indian.ā
Stolen Children
The legacy of Canadaās residential schools:
-Odds of dying for children in Indian residential schools: 1/25
-Odds of dying for Canadians serving in WWII: 1/26
Have really hidden the effects of residential schools
We have all directly beneļ¬ted from the oppression of the Indigenous people
-Push them away so we can build cities, universities, etc.
-Destroy their culture so we can build one mainstream culture
Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma
ī”
Residential school:
-Trying to wipe out your ethnic identity - you donāt have a sense of self, greatly impacts well-being
Attends
residential school
Disconnection
from family
Trauma and its
aftermath
Capacity as a
parent
Child at-risk
ī”2
