For about 100 years, native children in Canada were sent to residential schools. They were forcibly removed from their homes at a very young age, sometimes as young as five years old, and packed off to these schools to become 'civilized.'

Physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools. Aboriginal languages and traditional practices were quashed. "The whole concept was to take the Indian out of the child," says Marjolaine LaPointe, circle member with the Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabe-Kwewag Services Circle. "The vast majority of these children experienced lots of abuse and violence."

The residential schools finally gained public notoriety for their abusive and repressive practices. Following public outcry, their doors were shut, one by one. The last school was closed in 1983. The Canadian government and organizations that ran the schools have since apologized to Native Peoples, and attempted to compensate for the damage done.

Yet Native communities and families, including Peterborough families, still struggle with the pain and damage left behind.

"The residential school system has created a situation within aboriginal communities that continues cycles of violence," says Marjolaine. "The abuse that was perpetrated and learned within those schools has become an intergenerational thing."

Children whose parents went to these schools are still feeling the legacy of the residential school system. After all, their parents were taught that this was the correct way to handle children. Then later on in life, these same parents are powerless to be helpful as grandparents for the same reasons.

Beginning this fall, the Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabe-Kwewag Services Circle is going to be providing counseling to anyone affected by the legacy of the residential schools. "It's our time to prevent that violence and that abuse from continuing," says Marjolaine.

Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabe-Kwewag Services Circles is a culturally relevant counseling service for Aboriginal People in the counties of Victoria, Haliburton, Peterborough, Northumberland and the Region of Durham. Counseling is of a holistic nature and includes traditional healing methods such as one-on counseling and sacred circles.

For more information about the circle or the residential school healing program, contact the circle at 705-741-0900 or 1-800-663-2696.

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