After watching part B microlecture on The Secret River by Kate Grenville, I learned about the aboriginal camps held in Australia. Before this lecture, I had some previous knowledge on residential boarding school and knew to some degree the atrocities that went on there but I never really thought about Australia doing a similar thing. In camps such as Moore River, aboriginal children, were sent to to learn ways in which to assimilate into western society. There, much like in residential boarding schools in the U.S., the children were often treated poorly. Many children died from diseases and infections that were could have been treatable for those times. In other words, if there was more care and well being present for the children, many death could have been avoided.
I didn't actually know that there are Native Americans who actually had positive or some good experiences in their boarding schools. I always thought of it as this horrible place where they were forced to forget their culture and their language in order to assimilate into western society, so it came as a small shock that there were some who didn't have such a hard time and found lifelong friends.
I still wonder though what exactly happened to the children who went to the aboriginal camps. Did they go straight to the home they grew up in or where they sent somewhere else? And, would they only let you leave the camps if they thought you conformed to western ideology or at a certain age?
Hi Monique! We had similar reactions in watching this lecture. I was surprised that I had never heard of the Aboriginal boarding schools before this, and I wonder if that is just due to us learning mostly American history, or if it truly is a very minimally talked about occurrance. Either way, I hope that some more recognition and discussion can be brought to this subject. I was also surprised by some of the positive experiences, I remember the NPR read where a student stated that he feels more comfortable there than at public school, because they honor his culture. Something I wonder is if all the boarding schools like this still operating today have shifted to a more positive encouragement of culture, or if there are still some around that are focused on assimilation and stripping of culture?
ReplyDeleteHi Monique, I also had some previous knowledge of residential boarding schools. However, the only ones I was aware of were boarding schools created for juvenile youth. Their stories of abuse ended up being quite similar to the stories we heard about in the micro lecture. I had never thought about Australia doing the same thing either, but I do have some knowledge of the Native American boarding schools in the U.S. My Grandpa was in an orphanage on the Blackfeet Tribe Reservation. However, he was not shipped off from the tribe like other Native Americans. It also surprised me how some Native Americans had great experiences at these boarding schools while others were so awful.
ReplyDeleteHey Monique, thanks for sharing! I, too, had some previous knowledge of the boarding schools. However, I also didn't know that some previous students had positive experiences there. Also, your question of whether the students left at a certain age or when they were "westernized" enough is super interesting to me. If I had to guess, I'd probably say age since these are technically considered schools. Thanks for sharing your insights!
ReplyDeleteHi Monique! I also didn't realize that some Natives had positive experiences during this time period. It was really interesting to find this out during the microlecture. I'm not exactly sure of the correct answers to your questions, but I would assume they would finally let you leave once you came of a certain age. I feel like it would be hard to tell when they had assimilated to western society.
ReplyDeleteHi Monique, I agree that it is super terrible the things that happened in these camps, and I am also left with some questions. What interests me the most is the obsession with assimilation. Assimilation is a reoccurring theme in The Secret River as we see that when colonists think about learning from the culture of the aboriginals, they see it as an admission of their own ways being inferior.
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