Season 1, Bonus Episode
The Shameful Legacy of Indigenous Residential Schools







Indigenous residential schools have a shameful legacy across the world and through several centuries, right up to the present day. They erased native cultures and religions, and aimed to ‘civilize’ indigenous people. And children attending these schools have also endured horrific conditions and abuse.
We look first at the history of indigenous residential schools in the United States. Over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Native American children resided at these schools and were subject to physical, mental, and sexual abuse.
In Peru, children of the Arakambut were sent to Catholic mission schools and taught Spanish.
In Australia, children as young as 4 years old were placed in dorms, taught menial labor and domestic tasks, and sent to work at 14.
Children of India’s 104 million Adivasis also attended indigenous residential schools. They began during British rule, and continued after Independence, as ashram schools. A 2012 investigation called these ashram schools poorly run and managed, and reports of starvation, ill treatment and inadequate teaching have been widespread.
Time Markers (mins: sec)

* 0:12 Sally General’s experience at Mush Hole
2:22 defining ‘indigenous’
3:47 collaboration with How Did We Not Know That? Podcast
3:55 promo for How Did We Not Know That?
4:48 recording from our closets; please donate!
5:31 Native American boarding schools in the US
6:43 mission of US boarding schools
7:06 ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man’
8:00 early history of Native American education
9:38 ‘Indian Residential Schools’ in the 19th-20th centuries
10:05 erasing Native American identities
11:30 horrific conditions at the schools
12:27 the first US boarding school: Carlisle
13:02 how the US government forced children into schools
13:45 what happened to children after leaving schools
14:20 laws allow Native Americans to determine education
15:10 reckoning or resolution 
15:36 Department of Interior investigation
15:50 Lakota children’s remains returned to reservation
16:48 residential schools in South America
19:40 Australia boarding schools for indigenous
20:20 studies on children attending boarding schools
21:10 boarding schools for Adivasi in India
21:54 British schools for tribal children in Andaman Islands
23:12 Ashram schools for tribal children
23:50 AV Thakkar’s views on tribal education
25:28 conditions in the Ashram schools
26:58 news clip on sexual abuse in tribal schools
28:28 residential schools and resource extraction
29:20 ‘banking model’ of education
30:44 education and a consumer society
31:55 funding from World Bank and UN
33:20 common threads across regions and history
33:53 legacy of colonialism on India tribal schools








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How Did We Not Know That



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