Silencing Voices: Indigenous day schools and the education section of the 1958 Hawthorn report for British Columbia

Abstract

In 1954, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration commissioned anthropologist Harry Hawthorn to investigate problems faced by Indigenous people in British Columbia. This article focuses on Hawthorn’s report, The Indians of British Columbia (1958) and compares its recommendations with the original source questionnaire responses found at the University of British Columbia’s Archives and Special Collections. The responses examined, collected near the peak of day school enrollment in British Columbia, offer new insights directly from educators about their perspectives on the problems faced by Indigenous children attending day schools, and more broadly Indigenous communities as a whole. Key changes apparent in the questionnaire responses and 1958 report showcase the absence of Indigenous voices in any of the questionnaires and a lack of interest from educators in the communities, though such interest is claimed in the report. Both the questionnaires and Hawthorn’s resulting report recommend a consistent antithetical juxtaposition of Indigenous versus western, the discouragement of family ties, and the limitation of formal education to school-aged children. Such findings work to balance Hawthorn’s status as an advocate of Indigenous rights with the damaging realities indicated through and supported by his report. Through this analysis, we aim to further understandings of the impact of day schools on communities in British Columbia, and to view kinship within a reality of resilience and survival.