‘The abiding condition was hunger’: assessing the long-term biological and health effects of malnutrition and hunger in Canada’s residential schools

Abstract

Recent studies of residential school survivors and their families focus on the impact of school experiences on the social determinants of health, especially mental health. Less studied is the connection between residential school survivorship and patterns of chronic disease risk among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Narrative accounts, supported by archival records on school food service, provide consistent evidence that children who attended Canada’s Indian residential schools experienced chronic undernutrition characterised by insufficient caloric intake, minimal protein and fat, and limited access to fresh produce, often over a period of five to ten years. When examined in the light of literature on the intergenerational effects of twentieth-century famines, this evidence suggests that high prevalence of metabolic risk factors among Indigenous peoples in Canada may be directly associated with the nutritional deprivations experienced by children in residential schools.

Des études récentes sur les survivants des pensionnats Indiens et de leurs familles se sont concentrées sur l’impact de l’expérience scolaire sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé, en particulier la santé mentale. Un aspect moins étudié est le rapport entre la survie à ces pensionnats Indiens et les caractéristiques associées aux risques de maladies chroniques chez les peuples autochtones du Canada. Les comptes-rendus descriptifs, étayés par les documents d’archives relatifs au service d’alimentation scolaire, fournissent des preuves constantes que les enfants qui fréquentaient les pensionnats Indiens du Canada souffraient de sous-nutrition chronique caractérisée par un apport calorique insuffisant, peu de protéines et de lipides et un accès limité aux produits frais, souvent sur une période de cinq à dix ans. Lorsqu’elles sont examinées à la lumière des textes sur les effets intergénérationnels des famines du vingtième siècle, ces preuves suggèrent que la prévalence élevée de facteurs de risques métaboliques chez les peuples autochtones au Canada peut être directement associée aux privations nutritives subies par les enfants dans les pensionnats Indiens.

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