The Pope of Rome is in Canada this week. And if you are a devout Roman Catholic, you should be pleased. And if you are not a religious person, you are probably already bored with it. And if you have some aboriginal ancestry, I can imagine the mixed feelings that could be involved.
While residential schools for native Canadians might have offered a potential to proselytize for religious orders, it obviously opened the door to carnal desires. It led to mistreatment and abuse of children for whom the government had accepted responsibility. It led to deaths from diseases to which the children lacked inherited immunity. It was a wrong that we were talking about, to my knowledge, as far back as the 1950s. It took a long time for what was wrong to come into focus.
As someone who spent many years in the business of communications, it was clear to me that Canada’s aboriginal peoples had an oral culture. They passed down the stories of their people through generations. There was little pictorial language.
They went to war with other tribes, took slaves and wives. They were nomadic and followed the seasons. Survival over the winters was the biggest challenge. The best hunter was the natural leader and the woman best invested in midwifery was the natural leader among the women.
When the Europeans came with their blunderbusses and gunpowder, the aboriginal’s world changed, whether they liked it or not.
And, on the whole, the Europeans were poor colonists. They brought with them the bad habits and prejudices of their mother countries. Interaction with native North Americans created new prejudices. Offering to teach aboriginal children to think and act like Europeans was not a good idea. Taking the children was an even worse idea.
And then they let religious orders run the residential schools, which was another very bad idea. Errors compounded and voices of caution were muted.
Which brings us to today and the visit by the head of the Roman church. He says he is here to apologize on behalf of his church. I thought he had already done that. His church believes in absolution. I don’t.
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