All 887 artifacts that make up the Witness Blanket have stories to tell. There are two artifacts that really resonate with the feelings I have about how the Residential School System treated the Aboriginal people. The first are the comparison photos of Thomas Moore and the other is a posterboard story of the Kamloops Indian Residential School about runaways and suicide.
Thomas Moore attended the Regina Indian Industrial School, but that is not the reason I chose it (Where are the Children, n.d.). The side by side photo is a stark visual representation of what Residential Schools did to an entire people. On one side you have a young Aboriginal boy in traditional dress with fur, beading, embroidery, and long braids tied in leather. On the other you see a Euro-Canadian cutout of what a civilized boy should look like. He is in plain military style dress, short cropped hair, and carries himself in a way that, to me, depicts the European ideals of masculinity, nonchalance, civility, and safety.
When you dig deeper, you can see that is it possible that these two photos were staged to show the viewer what the impact of Residential Schools wanted people to see . The “before” picture is carefully set up to depict a certain image: the photo has a gun placed in Moore’s hand. This placement is likely to show how “dangerous” and “savage” the Aboriginal people were. This dangerous and savageness would be (and was) gone after being enrolled in the Residential Schools, as depicted in the very staged second photo. What you cannot see in the in the photo is that the changes were not just skin and cloth deep. Everything was stripped from these children. Names were changed, cultural traditions were ripped away and replaced with foreign Euro-Canadian ideals. While new biblical names were given to the “students” they were often simply referred to by the number they were assigned when they arrived (Quan, 2015). Imagine being completely stripped of everything in your life and then being addressed simply by a random number you were given when you walked in the door.
Not only were Aboriginal children seen as not human but rather savages that were just a number, but if a child forgot their number they would be severely punished. If you spoke your native language or participated in any traditional activity you would be punished. If you lived with the threat of punishment for doing all the things that used to be fine and normal, you might think about ways to leave such a situation.
This is what leads me to the connection with my second artifact. Conditions in Residential Schools were often so terrible that if a death was not caused by a fire due to unsafe housing, disease, or malnourishment, they were caused by exposure when running away or suicide (Kennedy, 2013). As if the complete cultural genocide happening at Residential Schools was not enough. Punishment was so severe that the Aboriginal children would try to run away to avoid it (Kennedy, 2013). In an effort to stop children from running away they would be locked in their rooms with no escape route should a fire start (Kennedy, 2013). Many children died this way. Some of those that did manage to get away would die miles from the school, frozen in the dead of winter or starved to death. Children would take their own lives in the school because there was no other way to escape. Parents and family of the deceased or vanished were never told about it. Not only were families not told about the death after the child had been ripped from their home, stripped of everything familiar, and then locked up to become a “civilized” person, but children were often put in unmarked graves never to be identified again.
So little respect was shown to the Aboriginal people and their traditions, that we will have to work to make it up to them for a long time to come. For over 100 years the rights of Aboriginal people were not only ignored, but absolutely destroyed. By thinking that Aboriginal people were savage and dangerous because they were different, thousands lost their lives and thousands more have to live with the damage is caused.
I connected with both those pieces because of the story behind them. Residential Schools were promoted to be these great things that would change people from “savages” to “civil”. A lot of people believed that what they were doing was the right thing and I am sure they were not all so bad. People were convinced that this was the best means to a necessary end. The second piece shows just how wrong they were in thinking that. So much damage has been caused by Residential Schools to the lives of the Aboriginal people. The damage did not end when the schools closed; it has left huge impacts on the following generations as well. It is hard to imagine what the world would be like if Residential Schools never existed, but I think that the impact would have been great for both Aboriginal people as well as the Euro-Canadian population.
Works Cited
Kennedy, M. (2013, January 3). At least 4,000 aboriginal children died in residential schools, commission finds. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
Quan, D. (2015, June 2). ‘Assault’ on residential school students’ identities began the moment they stepped inside. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
Where Are The Children. (n.d.). The Promise of a Good Education for Aboriginal Children. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
Hipwood Digital (2015). Witness Blanket (1.0) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from iTunes App Store
Mrs. Chyz's Classroom 
A deep meaningful piece. Well done. I particularly note the connection each image has, not only to you, but to each other. Indeed, the changes were much, much more than “skin and cloth.” Effective use of other resources in your essay. Your mark can be found on UR Courses. Sean
LikeLike