Abdullah Khan
Mrs. Ciufo
ENG3U1
12 October 2015
The Diminishing Aboriginal Culture The Aboriginal culture is no longer prominent in today’s Canadian culture. Most Native people have blended into Canadian culture which has caused them to lose their individualism. The narrator in Rita Joe’s I Lost My Talk demonstrates her loss of identity when the Canadian government assimilate the Aboriginal community and the Aboriginal’s autonomy. To begin with, many Native children in Canada are taken away from their families to learn the European way of life. When the narrator was a “little girl”, she was sent to the “Shubenacadie School” to learn how to speak English and act civilize in European eyes (Joe 3-4). The Shubenacadie School state that their purpose is to “Take the Indian out of the Indian”. The first settlers would take …show more content…
“The children were seized from their community and homes and placed in indoctrination camps until their language, religion, culture, values and societal structure almost disappeared” (Armstrong 239). The author uses the symbol of the school as a place where the Aboriginal children are force to learn things one does not need in life. In addition to teaching the Native kids of Canada how to act proper in the British eyes, they taught how inferior life is for the Aboriginals through colonial discourse. The narrator was taught when she is a little girl that her previous way of life is similar to a “scrambled ballad” (Joe 9). This metaphor shows that the Europeans thought that the Aboriginal lifestyle is uncivilized, unorganized and primitive. The English men used many techniques to discourage the Native culture. They used “racism as a tool to maintain their kind of totalitarianism under the disguise of equal rights” (Armstrong 240). The school is teaching her what the right way of acting is. In conclusion, many Aboriginal children like the narrator in Rita Joe’s I Lost My
Mrs. Ciufo
ENG3U1
12 October 2015
The Diminishing Aboriginal Culture The Aboriginal culture is no longer prominent in today’s Canadian culture. Most Native people have blended into Canadian culture which has caused them to lose their individualism. The narrator in Rita Joe’s I Lost My Talk demonstrates her loss of identity when the Canadian government assimilate the Aboriginal community and the Aboriginal’s autonomy. To begin with, many Native children in Canada are taken away from their families to learn the European way of life. When the narrator was a “little girl”, she was sent to the “Shubenacadie School” to learn how to speak English and act civilize in European eyes (Joe 3-4). The Shubenacadie School state that their purpose is to “Take the Indian out of the Indian”. The first settlers would take …show more content…
“The children were seized from their community and homes and placed in indoctrination camps until their language, religion, culture, values and societal structure almost disappeared” (Armstrong 239). The author uses the symbol of the school as a place where the Aboriginal children are force to learn things one does not need in life. In addition to teaching the Native kids of Canada how to act proper in the British eyes, they taught how inferior life is for the Aboriginals through colonial discourse. The narrator was taught when she is a little girl that her previous way of life is similar to a “scrambled ballad” (Joe 9). This metaphor shows that the Europeans thought that the Aboriginal lifestyle is uncivilized, unorganized and primitive. The English men used many techniques to discourage the Native culture. They used “racism as a tool to maintain their kind of totalitarianism under the disguise of equal rights” (Armstrong 240). The school is teaching her what the right way of acting is. In conclusion, many Aboriginal children like the narrator in Rita Joe’s I Lost My