Ways of loving and parenting children were lost to countless family lines as a result of residential schools. Without proper love, care, attention and teaching, children grew into adults who didn't know how else to raise their own children besides what they picked up from the people who ran the schools. From there, trauma continues on through generations.

Shame is a huge feature of residential schools that come to my mind. School officials relentlessly treated Indigenous children poorly, and attacked them if they did not behave or perform in a manner that was acceptable to them. Right at the start from entering the school, then having their belongings taken away, to being forbidden from speaking their language or practicing their culture, to having to pray for parents back home because they were “sinners,” as Elsie Paul had said, were all ways of making the children feel ashamed of who they are.

This makes me think about who enforced these laws and the methods used to maintain this. The pass and permit system, not legislated by the Indian Act, held people on the reserves and prevented people from moving around like many families and communities had before settler colonial powers took over and enforced their regulations on Indigenous society.