Sorvegliare, punire, assimilare. Il collegio autoctono di Sept-Îles a Maliotenam

Abstract

From 1952 to 1971, the indigenous residential school of Notre-Dame de Sept-Îles, in Maliotenam, received about two hundred Innu children each year, mainly from the Côte-Nord of Quebec. After a brief presentation of the history of Canadian residential schools and the Innu First Nation, the article delves into the specific reality of the Maliotenam boarding school. The analysis of discipline as a technology of power and subjection conducted by Michel Foucault proves to be a useful tool for better understanding many aspects of life imposed on boarding students and the tremendous assimilative force of this institution. The psychological, spiritual, physical and sexual violence inflicted on the children and adolescents who attended it are then considered. The second part of the article takes into consideration the medium and long-term impact of this boarding school, the positive aspects recollected by the former boarders but, above all, the establishment of a cycle of dysfunctional behaviors that are passed on from generation to generation and to which former boarders and their families are struggling to escape. Finally, the article considers how the increasing awareness and denunciation of the violence and assimilative policies suffered in the boarding school are part of a wider process of resistance and healing ongoing in the Innu communities and have become an important lever of action and social commitment.

Keywords

• Innu first nation
• Indian residential schools
• Maliotenam
• discipline
• healing