UNCRC 30
Storyboard Text
- In the 1880's, the Canadian government started funding Catholic residential schools. Indigenous children were taken from their homes and were transported to the schools.
- In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practise his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language.
- Article 30
- Over 150,000 Indigenous children were stolen from their parents over the ~16 year period to be assimilated. They were stripped of their culture, including name, religion, and language.
- Children put through residential schools ended up dead, or graduated traumatised and disconnected from their culture. Many turned to alcohol and drugs after they left.
- In 1990, Canada signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The document includes Article 30, which protects the right of children in minority groups to enjoy their culture, speak their own language, and practise their own religion.
- The last Indian reservation school closed in 1996, six years after the UN CRC was ratified in Canada. In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commision of Canada was founded to document the truth of residential schools, releasing 94 calls to action to the Canadian government to help reconcile with the Indigenous peoples of Canada, which include 5 calls to action on language and culture.
- In 2000, Indigenous children can go to regular schools, wear their given culture and names proudly, practise their religion freely, and not live in fear of being stolen from their household.
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