Creation date in repository: 2023-07-24

Abstract: In September 2021, a painful page in Canada’s history was reopened as 1,300 unmarked graves were found across former residential schools in Canada. From the 17th century until the late 1990s, residential schools existed and expanded in Canada, with the aim to Europeanize the Indigenous children. These schools were funded by the federal government in collaboration with the different churches as a process of colonization by assimilation, destroying and erasing Indigenous cultures, identities, and history. The residential school survivors’ efforts have not been in vain, as there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the harm, effects, and losses, as well as the general recognition of the need of conciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous population. This project addresses the history of Canadian residential schools, as well as the interaction between language and culture. The aim is to understand language and culture suppression, and its consequences on account of the residential school system that operated for almost two centuries in Canada’s cultural context. An experimental study was conducted to investigate 1) whether students aged 18- to 22-years know what residential schools were, and 2) whether language loss triggers culture loss and if both are intertwined. For the first part, the experiment recruited 67 undergraduate university students who committed to a questionnaire shaped between history, language, and culture questions. For the second part, four field professionals were asked for interviews to reach an inner perspective that would complement the research. The results suggest that most students aged 18- to 22-years do not know what residential schools were or what happened in Canada, and that language loss does entail culture loss. This research puts into focus the significance of teaching and learning a country’s history to avoid committing the same mistakes in a future.

Subject: Filologia

Language: en

Subject areas: Filologia Philology Filología

Department: Estudis Anglesos i Alemanys

Student: Domínguez Anguera, Carla

Academic year: 2021-2022

Title in different languages: Pèrdua de la llengua i la culura a cause de l'imperialisme colonial a les escoles residencials canadenques. Language and culture loss due to colonial imperialism in Canadian Residential Schools Pérdida de la lengua y la cultura a causa del imperialismo colonial en las escuelas residenciales en Canada.

Work's public defense date: 2022-06-14

Access rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Keywords: Escoles residencials, Canadà, indígenes, història, llengua, cultura, relació entre llengua i cultura, trauma intergeneracional, imperialisme dels colons. Residential schools, Canada, Indigenous, History, Language, Culture, Relationship between language and culture, Intergenerational trauma, Settler imperialism. Escuelas residenciales, Canadá, indígenas, historia, lengua, cultura, relación entre lengua y cultura, trauma intergeneracional, imperialismo de los colonos.

Confidenciality: No

TFG credits: 9

Title in original language: Language and culture loss due to colonial imperialism in Canadian Residential Schools

Project director: Manegre, Marni Lynne

Education area(s): Anglès

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV)