Residential schools, prisons, and HIV/AIDS among Aboriginal people in Canada exploring the connections

Summary: A reality for many Aboriginal people is that their lives have been influenced by residential schools, even for those who did not attend them. This flawed educational system?if it can be called such?fell short of its primary purpose, which was to educate. Instead, its secondary purpose of assimilation has resulted in a whole new reality for generations that followed the first school opening. The question of whether or not assimilation was inevitable is beside the point. The fact remains that the federal government enlisted church organizations to carry out one of the most known systematic attempts of assimilation that changed Aboriginal people forever. So what does this have to do with HIV/AIDS? Are Aboriginal people living in the past? Why must we constantly raise these issues rather than simply move on? One would have to know the lives and stories of every Survivor to understand the answers to these questions. As to whether Aboriginal people are living in the past does not preclude the fact that, in the last two generations, government and non-Aboriginal society were still determining what was best for Aboriginal people. The systems we speak of, and the subsequent impacts, are believed to impede forward movement. This is also known or referred to as the ?healing needs? of the Aboriginal population. Multiple losses, poor socio-economic status when compared to mainstream Canadian society, and insufficient time to grieve a previous loss before the next loss occurs are all factors that have slowed the healing process for many Aboriginal people. Few non-Aboriginal homes can claim the same level of premature and often violent deaths that occur in many Aboriginal communities. When substance abuse enters the equation, then it becomes easier to see how despair and loss of hope take firm hold. While many Aboriginal communities are climbing out of dark pasts, what remains are significant challenges to retain culture, language, and traditional strengths while seeking to be adaptive to a new era. This report describes some of these challenges.

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