Artefact 5: Physical Abuse in Residential Schools

Citation : Troian, M. (2019, February 7). “a very painful artifact”: Strap used at Residential School moves from family home to Archives. APTN News. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/a-very-painful-artifact-strap-used-at-residential-school-moves-from-family-home-to-archives/

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Residential Schools included many forms of physical abuse. Many teachers used straps, like the one shown in the image above, to punish students. They also used things like rulers, belts and whips. 

Arthur Fourstar started attending the Birtle residential school in Manitoba when he was 5 years and 10 months old (Legacy Of Hope, 2025). He shared that he got physically abused a lot and would often get beat up over very small things (Legacy of Hope, 2025). He also shared, “If somebody ran away from school and they caught that person, that student, whether it was a young girl or a young boy, they used to make us go into this workshop area where they had big wooden benches and they used to strip that boy or that girl and bend them over a table and whip them. They used to make us watch that” (Legacy of Hope, 2020). Rev Mary Battaja also attended a residential school when she was young (Legacy of Hope, 2020). She stated that she would get hit with straps if the teacher caught her making a tiny mistake like whispering to another student in class (Legacy of Hope, 2020). 

Despite the fact that it’s been years since Arthur and Rev Mary were in Residential schools, they are still greatly impacted by the trauma. While sharing their stories, they could not control their tears and had to take breaks to strengthen themselves. The impact Residential Schools had is still impacting all Indigenous people till this present day. Many women are still continuing to get taken advantage of, both physically and mentally (Ogden et al, 2023). Residential Schools normalised treating Indigenous people poorly.

Bibliography : 

Legacy of Hope Foundation. (2020, November 25). https://legacyofhope.ca/wherearethechildren/stories/fourstar/

Ogden, C., & Tutty, L. M. (2023). My Parents, My Grandparents Went Through Residential School, and All this Abuse has Come From it: Examining Intimate Partner Violence Against Canadian Indigenous Women in the Context of Colonialism. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 38(23/24), 12185–12209. https://doi-org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1177/08862605231192580