In 2011, the Canadian government designated September 28 as British Home Children day.
Paul Henderson, “British Home Children: BC women reflect on shameful period in Canadian history”, The Free Press, September 28, 2019
Who were the "Home Children"?
Socio-economic disadvantaged children were torn from their families and brought to a foreign land--Canada. Some were welcomed into loving families. Others... Others faced overwhelming cruelty. And yet... And yet...
photo by ldyck
Home
Children
In
the mid-1800s [,during the Industrial Revolution,] many children in
the United Kingdom lacked adequate care. They were hungry, sometimes
resorting to stealing, and many were living on the streets—think of
the works of Charles Dickens. Even children living with their parents
in the workhouses were not much better off, often worked 14-hour days
or more with little food. Many died before they reached 20. [1]
[And, as a result of the revolution, t]raditional extended families
were broken up and many moved to urban areas to find work and a
better life. And so, if anything happened to one of the parents,
there was no immediate family nearby to take them in. [T]here was no
social system in place to help [the families] through...difficult
circumstances. [2]
Independently,
several people of different religious backgrounds came to the same
conclusion: the problem could not be solved in Britain. These
children had to be removed from the streets and given food and
clothing. They had to be taught to read and write, given work skills
and solid religious training, then sent abroad where farm labour was
desperately needed. They had no future in England, Ireland or
Scotland…
Maria
Susan Rye...arrived in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, in 1869 with a
group of 68 children taken from the poorhouses of London and
Liverpool. They were initially housed in a converted jail which Maria
had brought with her own money and renamed Our Western Home. [Maria
was the first of many women and men who brought groups of children
from Britain to Canada.]
More
than 80,000 children (some scholars even say 100,000), mostly ages 9
to 14 but some scarcely 3 years old, were sent...between 1869 and
1939. None of them was accompanied by a parent.
They
were regarded as orphans, even though two-thirds had at least one
parent who was still alive. [3][And,
in fact, h]ome children were often told that their parents were dead
so that they could break their emotional ties more easily. [1]
Sometimes
[placing the children in these homes]...was meant to be a temporary
solution until the family got back on their feet and there are cases
on record where some parents went back to
pick their children up, only to find that they had already been sent
away. Sometimes the parents received an ‘after
sailing’ notification, informing them
that
their children had been emigrated a week before. [2]
[The
children were shipped] overseas to Canada with bright promises of a
better life, with a home, a family, fresh air, and healthy food. [3]
Once
in Canada, the children were sent to receiving homes right across the
country until farmers picked them up or they were sent on their
destinations with a cardboard sign around their necks. There were at
least seven applicants for every child shipped to this
country. [2]
[The] farmers completed a Form of Indenture. [1]
The
terms
would require the children to be housed, fed, clothed and sent to
school. A small fee would be paid for fostering younger children,
older children would help with chores, and more extended labour would
be required from adolescents. At 18, the terms of indenture were to
be discharged. [2]
[S]ome
children did...find homes and families in Canada, others found
nothing but poverty and misery. While many were well treated, many
others experienced appalling living and working conditions and even
in some cases psychological, physical or sexual violence. [3]
Children
could be ‘returned’ and reassigned. Many were moved from one farm
to another. Some ran away or simply disappeared, some died from
ill-health or injuries resulting form neglect and abuse, some
committed suicide…
[T]he
belief in eugenics that was running rampant throughout the UK and
North America caused
children to be considered inferior stock to their Canadian
counterparts. They were stigmatized as such, merely because they were
poor and needed help. In communities where these children were meant
to be fostered and nurtured, they were often taunted and made to feel
shame for being a Home Boy or Home Girl. [2]
[They] were shamed about their origins, shamed about parents who
couldn’t care for them, and taught that a better life meant turning
away from their primal identity of family. [4]
This shame caused many Home Children to remain silent about their
backgrounds their entire lives [2] [and
is responsible for] a spate of suicides in the 1920s. [5]
[T]he
majority of children continued to be sent right up until the advent
of the Second World War, after which heightened social consciousness
condemned the sending of any more children to Canada in this way… Britain
not only sent children to Canada, they also sent them, up to the
early 1970s, to South Africa,
Australia, and New Zealand.
Despite
all the trials that they had to endure, these...British Home
Children...set down roots in Canada
and contributed to the country’s social, economic and political
development. Many of them served
in the Canadian Army during the First World War and the Second World
War. Today, over 10% of
all Canadians are thought to be descendants of British Home Children.
Although...their
story is part of the school curriculum in Ontario, the British Home
Children [‘s] legacy of trauma and child abuse...is not well-known
by the vast majority of Canadians.[5]
[A]nd their descendants have yet to receive an official apology from
the Canadian government such as those made by the government of
Australia in 2009 and the government of the United Kingdom in 2010.
[3]
By
honoring their memory, [Home Children Canada, established in 2012]
seeks to ensure that the
Home Children’s contributions and struggles are never forgotten and
their rightful place in history is
acknowledged with dignity and compassion. [6]
[1]
The Canadian Immigration Historical Society, “A Silent History: The
British Home Children”, January 1, 2011
https://cihs-shic.ca/the-british-home-children/
[2]
Lori Oschefski, Home Children Canada, “Who Are the British Home
Children?” British
Home Children in Canada
https://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/
[3]
Lara Neilson Bonikowsky, “Uprooted Lives: the British Home
Children”, in The Canadian Encyclopedia, April 13, 2013
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/children-lost-and-found-feature#:~:text=On
%2024%20February%202010%2C%20the,various%20British%20colonies%2C%20including
%20Canada.
[4]
Barb Janes, “Shame, secrets and dark histories: Remembering the
legacy of British home children”, CBC,
September 28, 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pov-barb-janes-british-home-children-1.5296069
[5]
Paul Henderson, “British Home Children: BC women reflect on
shameful period in Canadian history”, The
Free Press,
September 28, 2019
https://www.vicnews.com/news/british-home-children-b-c-women-reflect-on-shameful-period-in-canadian-history-61605
[6]
Home Children
Canada https://www.britishhomechildren.com/
photo by Eleanor Cocker
I purchased my orange shirt from Eddy Charlie and Kristine Spray. You can learn more about them and Orange Shirt Day here.
"artist Bear Horne gifted [his] design to Eddy Charlie and Kristine Spray to be used in this advocacy work."
Books that helped me connect with Orange Shirt Day...
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (book review)
is like a slap shot--a quick and powerful read.
Barren Ground by David A Robertson (book review)
is set in early November in Winnipeg and is about two Cree foster children--thirteen-year-old Morgan and twelve-year-old Eli.
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (book review)
is historical fiction about the 60s scoop
Two Tricksters Find Friendship by Johnny Aitken and Jess Willows (book review)
is a year in the life of a new mutually supportive friendship between Jessie, a white girl, and Johnny, an Indigenous boy.
Song: "O Seim" by Susan Aglukark
On this blog in October...
