Residential schools were a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples in Canada, funded by the Canadian governments Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The schools were established in the 1800s and operated until the late 1990s. The nominal objective of the schools was to educate Indigenous children, but the more damaging and equally explicit objectives were to indoctrinate them into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living and assimilating them into mainstream white Canadian society.

Here are some key features of residential schools:

• Living conditions: The purpose of the residential schools was to eliminate all aspects of Indigenous culture. Students had their hair cut short, they were dressed in uniforms, they were often given numbers, and their days were strictly regimented by timetables. Boys and girls were kept separate, and even siblings rarely interacted, further weakening family ties. The schools were often underfunded and overcrowded, and the quality of education was substandard. Children were harshly punished for speaking their own languages, and staff were not held accountable for how they treated the children. Many students suffered physical and sexual abuse at residential schools, and all suffered from loneliness and a longing to be home with their families.

• Compulsory attendance: The Indian Act made attendance at Indian Residential Schools compulsory for Treaty-status children between the ages of 7 and 15.

• Number of schools and students: About 130 residential schools operated in every province and territory in Canada, except for the provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. Enrollment reached a peak about 1930, with over 17,000 students in 80 schools. It is estimated that about 150,000 Indigenous youth were enrolled in residential schools over the course of their existence.

• Parental resistance: Some parents and families of Indigenous children resisted the residential school system throughout its existence. Children were kept from schools and, in some cases, hidden from government officials tasked with rounding up children on reserves.

The residential school system is viewed by much of the Canadian public as part of a distant past, disassociated from today’s events. However, the recent discoveries of more than 1,300 unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools in western Canada have shocked and horrified Canadians. Indigenous peoples, whose families and lives have been haunted by the legacy of Canada’s Indian residential school system, have long expected such revelations.