UBC Reports | Vol. 47 | No. 09 | May 10, 2001

Scholar helps heal schools' heavy toll

An educator focuses on the long-lasting lessons to be learned from Canada's residential school history

Rosalyn Ing endured Canada's shameful residential schools and has shed light on their disturbing legacy as part of her doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Education.

"I thought it important and necessary to tell another side of the story," says the soft-spoken member of the Cree Nation and lifelong Anglican, who was moved four times from residential schools and taken from one in the night, away from her siblings.

"For those who tried to run away the punishment was often brutal," she says. "An example was being made to watch a dog viciously attack a little boy. Children were unable to take any action to help. This created mortification of the self in addition to the shame and denial of being First Nations."

Tracing the evolution of racism from 1867-1920 broadened the context and provided comparisons of the impact of the Indian Policy and Immigration Policy for European immigrants.

Her qualitative case study of children of those who endured residential schools involved 10 participants who are pursuing or have completed one to three university degrees.

Consequences shared by study participants included poor self-esteem, family silence about the past and abuse.

"One participant's mother found it hard to hug her own children," says Ing.

Most participants didn't learn of their parent's experiences until university from doing research papers, she adds.

"Residential schools took a heavy toll. Participants and parents had to undergo some form of therapy, but most turned to First Nations spirituality and elders' teachings," she says.

"They're rebuilding their lives in their own culture which was attacked and nearly destroyed by residential schools."

Jean Barman, a noted historian and professor of Educational Studies describes Ing's work as brilliant and innovative.

"Among many discoveries she has given us is the intergenerational impact, even among those who have succeeded in the white world," Barman says.

Ing's thesis earned a Canadian Policy Research Award for "demonstrating the potential to make a contribution to public policy."

The award is sponsored by the Government of Canada in partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

She completed it while co-ordinating the highly successful First Nations Health Careers program aimed at recruiting First Nations students into the health sciences at UBC.

"The scars will always be there," advises Ing. "But you can learn to soften them. Begin your own healing journey."