Evanie Han/ Staff Reporter
According to an article from CBC News, the movie Indian Horse directed by Stephen S. Campanelli explores the trauma inflicted upon Indigenous people by the residential school from the voice of an Indian boy, Saul, who continuously uses hockey and alcoholism to find healing and escapism in order to get him out of from the great depression.
Indian Horse tells the story of a First Nations boy, named Saul, who is torn from his Ojibway family and committed to one of the notorious Catholic residential schools. In this oppressive environment, Saul is denied the freedom to speak his language or embrace his Indigenous heritage. Despite this, Saul finds salvation from his favorite winter pastime —— hockey. In the face of his troubled past, the rink serves as a refuge where he can develop genuine skills and momentarily transcend his hardships. However, years on, ice hockey can no longer enable him to rediscover himself and Saul becomes a partly alcoholic and struggles with his self-identity again…
First, it is noteworthy that Indian Horse combines one of Canada’s greatest national glories —— the game of ice hockey, with one of the darkest chapters in its national history —— the tragedy at Canadian boarding schools where Aboriginal children were taught to be good Christians.
Upon entering the St. Jerome residential school, as reflected in the movie, Saul and all the other children are forced to learn Christianity and perform Christian rituals. As a result, they lose their connection with Native spirituality. This European-oriented education is designed to westernize First Nations youth and thus assimilate them into mainstream Canadian society. By forcibly stripping Aboriginal children of their language, spirituality, and any other connections to their own culture, residential schools commit an act of cultural genocide, which is destructive to the transmission of Aboriginal traditions to future generations.
The residential schools’ complete denial of Indigenous culture inevitably influences Saul to radically lose his unique Aboriginal identity. Hence, he starts to accept his fate as a stereotypical Indian and forgets the thoughtful and insightful person he used to be. Saul’s experience demonstrates how the unique Aboriginal identity of native children is erased through forced Christian indoctrination. This prolonged attempt to break his spirit directly causes Saul to experience an identity crisis later in life.
As the movie develops, Saul is introduced to ice hockey and joins the Moose team. At this stage, hockey becomes Saul’s shield against the cultural displacement that is slowly scraping away his identity. Saul comes to believe that the game can lift him up and throw himself into the sport to move himself further away from the horror. Therefore, he treats hockey as the only protection he has to help him escape from the traumatic residential school experience. As described by Saul in the movie, “the game gives me survival”. Saul’s role as a hockey player signifies that he manages to use his extraordinary talent for ice hockey to recapture the main piece of his identity that the residential school has repressed.
Furthermore, in the residential school system, child abuse is a commonplace phenomenon. Corporal punishment is frequently dished out to children to ensure their obedience and compliance. Aboriginal students are constantly at risk of falling victim to physical and sexual abuse. They are so brutalized, humiliated, and isolated that they refuse to speak openly about their sufferings. The painful memories of abuse always haunt residential school survivors for the rest of their lives and lead them to adopt destructive coping methods.
Indian Horse also addresses the topic of abuse from Saul’s perspective. As portrayed in the film, physical punishment is used for Saul when he speaks his native tongue. The forms of physical abuse include beating, lashing, and close confinement. More importantly, not only is Saul suffering from emotional and psychological abuse, but he also endures brutal sexual abuse from his teacher—— Father Gaston Leboutilier, a beloved mentor whom Saul trusts. Initially, Father Leboutilier is described as the only hope who encourages Saul to play hockey and pulls him from his misery. However, when the movie comes to an end, it becomes clear that Father Leboutilier has sexually abused Saul under the guise of being a nurturing and loving companion. Due to the horrific crime that Father Leboutilier committed, Saul goes through years of loneliness, isolation, and low self-esteem.
Soon, ice hockey can no longer protect Saul from the pain of repeated abuse, alcoholism turns out to be his coping mechanism to numb the abusive past, all of which make him a chaotic adult who is being tortured by the repressed memory of the traumatic experience. During the time that he drunk himself, Saul passively resists facing the world and refuses to explore who he is.
Overall, in the process of erasing memories of his abusive experiences, Saul has become strongly dependent on alcohol. He withdraws from his surroundings and experiences profound anxiety due to the abuse he suffered during his formative years, which confirms a direct correlation between alcoholism and residential school abuse.
Healing the wounds of history still remains a daunting task for the Canadian government. The legacy of cultural assimilation continues to affect the well-being of residential school survivors and their descendants. Thus, it is part of every individual’s responsibility to provide culturally safe care to the Natives. People should lessen the continuation of colonialism and increase reconciliation efforts. Only by actively seeking out and acknowledging these hidden histories, and by furthering the visibility of contemporary Native issues, can people begin to cope with a long history of trauma. This is the key to a lifelong education and continued action to support First Peoples.
In conclusion, by portraying the Indigenous cultural genocide from the perspective of a First Nations child, Indian Horse depicts a residential school that severely estranges the characters from their Native roots and inflicts tremendous anguish on them. Remarkably, the traumatic experiences of the characters have lifelong repercussions on them.
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