Essay Example about St. Anne’s Indian Residential School

St. Anne’s Indian Residential School, simply put, is a place of horror. This Catholic run institution was home to many indigenous Canadian children from 1906 to 1976. Under the guise of education, these children were forced to convert to Catholicism and assimilate into Canadian culture while simultaneously enduring sexual, physical, and psychological torture and assault. Despite what one might think, the pain administered to these children did not just come from faculty of the school, but instead was also dealt out by fellow students. This may be confusing at first, but it can be rationalized when observing Foucault’s analysis of the power and punishment relationship in his book Discipline and Punish. In this book he demonstrates on numerous occasions that if one wishes to gain, maintain, or exert power, an effective way to do so is to punish those without it. After observing the ways in which the faculty treated them, students enrolled at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School assumed that to have power meant to avoid punishment, as you were the one who punished instead.

 “Analyse punitive methods not simply as consequences of legislation or as indicators of social structures, but as techniques possessing their own specificity in the more general field of other ways of exercising power” (Foucault, 1975, p. 23). Although throughout his book Foucault speaks about the relationship between power and punishment from the perspective of a judicial system, most, if not all, of what he says still applies when looking at something on a much smaller, more personal scale. For example, looking at this quote, substituting legislation for something like discipline, Foucault sets up the perfect foundation to begin to understand the reasoning behind the many instances of abuse at St. Anne’s. Looking through Foucault’s lens, we can now see that the faculty didn’t just abuse in order to discipline the students, but instead to maintain their power over them. 

Now that we understand the reasoning behind the faculty’s abusing, we can then begin to break down the reasoning behind the students’ abusing as well. After suffering underneath the faculty for so long, the students also start to observe punishment through the same lens as Foucault. They notice that no matter how well they act or behave, the abuse will always remain, meaning that the punishment cannot just be about discipline. Over time the realization is made that punishment can bring them power too, or at least make them feel like they have any semblance of it. For brief periods of time, they too can feel like they are powerful and in control, something they are so deeply deprived of on a daily basis. The want for power is so strong that it outclasses any form of respect or empathy for fellow students. 

Although they are many other ways to achieve power, such as networking or gaining respect, punishing others is the one chosen by the students. This too can be understood through Foucault’s lens. Throughout Discipline and Punish, Foucault speaks of “the power to punish”. This intentional wording is much different than “ability to” or “capacity to”, as power elicits a much different response. Not only does it come across as something to be desired just for the sake of being powerful, but it also has an exclusivity about it, as if having it automatically places you above someone else without it. It would then make sense for the students, children who have been consistently taught that they are less than those of a different origin, to immediately latch onto this power. For once in their life, they can be above someone. 

The student-on-student abuse within St. Anne’s Indian Residential School is a very confusing thing when observed from a distance, as one would likely expect the children to unite against their abusers rather than to turn against one another. Although the acts are brutal and inhumane, Foucault can begin to rationalize it. Power is addictive, and punishment is one of the easiest and most effective techniques to not only maintain power, but to also gain it temporarily. The students themselves begin to recognize this after observing their abusers, and slowly begin to implement it on one another. This spawns a vicious cycle as abused students observe the students abusing them and begin to follow suit. Slowly but surely St. Anne’s Indian Residential School turns from a strict and brutish school into a genuine nightmare. The drive for power alone is infectious and addictive, however when punishment becomes the sole generator of power in any given scenario, the scenario quickly turns dangerous.