adventuresofahistorystudent

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

Some light on the dark history of residental schools

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

I think one of the most disturbing things about the popular narrative we teach around the Holocaust is how the “No one knew,” myth still flourishes and is still widely spoken and believed. “No one knew what was happening until the camps were liberated! The world was shocked!” was taught to me when I was a child and was likely taught to many of you too. I’ve even heard it said aloud in Holocaust testimonies classes, even after we’ve read testimonies that directly contradict this falsehood. People are really fucking attached to it.

“No one knew!” has been repeatedly disputed and disproven, to the point where the mass narrative of it has become terribly indicative of people’s need to dispel feelings of guilt and shame above all else. Even above telling the truth.

Im p sure the original narrative of “no one knew!” was in part the result of low-level German and Polish bureaucrats seeking to avoid arrest and prosecution, because there was a dearth of specific written orders in regards to outlining the machinations of The Final Solution. Which allowed many to claim ignorance and innocence. But it also has been useful in the reimagining of the allies role in the Holocaust, reimagining their complicit silence and inaction into the shock and disgust of witnesses and good liberators.

Because people DID know. Jan Karski infiltrated the Warsaw ghetto before it was liquidated and witnessed firsthand exactly what was happening to the Jewish people. He was sent by the Polish Underground to the UK carrying a message for the UN titled “The Mass Extermination of the Jews in German Occupied Poland.” He had a direct audience with Roosevelt, where he attempted to provide details of what was happening to compel the allied forces to act before it was too late. This was in 42-43.

In 1944, the New York Times published a story about the Warsaw ghetto uprising WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING. This wasn’t a mystery in the states. People knew about the forced ghettoization of the Polish Jews and what they faced as they fought back.

Lanzmann’s Shoah presents several interviews with Polish onlookers outside of Treblinka who, in laughing and awkward remembrance, explained how they would slash their fingers across their throats at Jewish people arriving in cattle cars to “warn them about their fate.” This was in the early period of the Holocaust, before the mechanized, mass exterminations of Auschwitz.

Also in Shoah, several Polish women and men in villages outside of Sobibor (who smilingly explain that their lot in life improved after the local Jews were rounded up and transported to the death camp) acknowledged that yes, at the time, they knew of the fate of their neighbors. They knew they were going to their death and would not be returning. Which is the only way we can explain how quickly Jewish homes and businesses were taken over by their neighbors and city councils.

Like. I’m neck deep in Holocaust testimonials lately and keep knocking my head against this specific Holocaust myth and I feel horrified that it continues and people keep fucking saying it with little introspection on why the narrative is so attractive to them.

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

July 3, 1937

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

I put this on my facebook but wanted to share these resources and information here as well. And please if anything needs to be tagged please let me know! Trigger warning: Residential Schools, Indigenous violence, death

Going to start this off with some resources for Indigenous people who may find the news out of BC triggering.

Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society (IRSSS) Crisis Line: 
1-866-925-4419
www.fnha.ca Hope for Wellness Help Line: 
1-855-242-3310 www.hopeforwellness.ca KUU-US Crisis Line Society
1-800-588-8717
Youth Line: 250-723-2040
Adult Line: 250-723-4050
www.kuu-uscrisisline.com

Now to my fellow settlers, we REALLY need to pick up the slack here. It is not the time to ask Indigenous people to spoon feed us information on how to help. They are grieving, they are mourning, they should not have to tell you how to be an ally here. Learn to use Google. If you're shocked by the remains of 215 children being found in Kamloops consider your own education on this. How were you taught about this subject in school, or how were you not taught about it more likely?

You want to see change happen here? Do the leg work. Stop depending on the Indigenous people of this land to do it all. If you don't know where to start here are some resources for learning, and I'm so thankful to those who have shared these links while they have to work through their own trauma. Heads up it's a lot of reading, but it is the least we can do at this point in time. There's also a playlist of Indigenous people reading the TRC Report if you have a hard time with reading. 1. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991-1996), "Renewal: A Twenty-Year Commitment” https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/ 1100100014597/1572547985018#chp7 2. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2008-2015), "Calls to Action" http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf 3. Read the TRC Report: https://www.youtube.com/playlist? app=desktop&list=PLxPr_RIsvg9JJWoiRx2kl2v24r_pu7JbR 4. Canada’s Residential Schools: Missing Children and Unmarked Burials: http:// http://www.trc.ca/.../Volume_4_Missing_Children_English... 5. National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, "Calls for Justice" (2016-2019): https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/

Below are also a couple of links with things you can immediately do, a petition for a national day of mourning, and info on the current logging of old growth in BC. Call for a National Day of Mourning for the Lost Children of Residential School: 
https://www.change.org/.../justin-trudeau-call-for-a... Fairy Creek Old Growth Logging: 
https://twitter.com/SaveFairyCreek Fairy Creek Blockade resources: https://linktr.ee/TheRainforestFlyingSquad

If anyone has other resources please share them.

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

(tw for dehumanization, child death, racism, anti-indigenous violence, genocide, cultural genocide) 

the remains of 215 children were recently uncovered in a mass grave on the site of a former residential school in kamloops, bc. the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation conducted this survey on the grounds of the kamloops indian residential school. some of the children whose bodies were found were as young as three years old. the school operated as a residential school from 1893 to 1977 under the control of the catholic church and, later, the canadian government. neither the church nor the government can currently be held legally accountable for this, as one of the conditions of the TRC agreement between them and survivors.

here are some easily-found resources for self-educating and to support indigenous peoples and communities - please feel free to add more & to seek information for yourself: 

- 11 indigenous organizations to support (elle canada); i encourage people to do their own research, but these are good places to start 

- canadian charities helping indigenous communities in canada (true north aid); see above caveat 

- reconciliation canada - get involved ; options to volunteer, donate, and learn

- twitter thread of indigenous-owned businesses 

- twitter thread of links in support of the no more stolen sisters movement (focusing on justice for and prevention of missing & murdered indigenous women and girls) 

- twitter thread of information and resources (including some linked above) to inform yourself about the ongoing genocide and cultural genocide of indigenous peoples in canada. 

- indian residential schools survivors society - donate 

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

#repost @oncanadaproject from Instagram

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🗣Please Share & Amplify

➡️Our history in Canada is horrifying, & until we acknowledge that & recognize the truth, we will continue upholding systems built on a foundation of racism, violence & harm without question.

215 Indigenous children were found buried at a Kamloops residential school site, some as young as THREE years old.

That residential school only closed in 1978. The last residential school closed in 1996. This isn't some distant history that we are talking about.

And Indigenous people continue to be oppressed in this country, the effects are very much felt in present day.

We should be collectively grieving this atrocity as a country.

—

Please share any accounts or resources we should follow here or link on www.OnCanadaProject.ca/SettlersTakeAction

Click the title slide for accounts you should follow to learn more.

—

Support is available for anyone affected by the lingering effects of residential schools, and those who are triggered by the latest reports. The Indian Residential School Survivours Society (IRSSS) can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-721-0066.

#oncanadaproject

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

(via 12jkre5kwpt61.jpg (460×720))

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

The Evening News, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1912

Jewell County Republican, Kansas, July 5, 1912

The Butte Inter-Mountain, Montana, April 22, 1912

The Baltimore Sun, Maryland, May 1, 1912

The Atchison Daily Globe, Kansas, April 20, 1912

The Holton Signal, Kansas, May 2, 1912

Chicago Tribune, Illinois, April 22, 1912

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

White supremacy and colonization really forced that male/female binary forced onto so many communities, lands, and cultures, huh?

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

Sutematsu Oyama (1860-1919): Japan’s First College-Educated Woman

Full entry (with footnotes) here. Patreon here. Art notes behind the cut.

Keep reading

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

damn i know everyone’s been saying twitter is tumblr five years ago but some people are having an argument in my mentions about how the wellerman sea shanty is problematic because it references sugar and tea and rum - all products of the british empire’s slave trade

gang if we’re gonna ban songs that reference unethical consumption we’ll be left with like: crazy frog

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

Went to the Aboriginal artifact exhibit in Chicago. And it’s interesting. How many blankets and masks and totem poles say ‘unknown source’, because every five seconds my mom would stop and point to something and say. “Pauline’s grandmother made that,” or, “That belongs to Mike’s family, I should call him” because. It’s all stolen

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

it fucks me up that tolkien only died in 1973. dude has the vibe of a victorian scholar who wrote all his manuscripts by candlelight but then you look him up and realise that he knew what color tv was. what the fuck.

[adventuresofahistorystudent]

'kids these days have it easy' thats the point thats the point thats the whole point we're here to make it better for whoever comes after you sad selfish self absorbed puddle of wank