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Heart and Soul: Stripped of my spirituality

Stripped of my spirituality

17/02/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Stripped of my spirituality

How Native Americans forced into Church boarding schools are reclaiming their spirituality

Mary was four when she was snatched from home and sent to Catholic boarding school. Now she and her friends are seeking healing through their own Native American spirituality.

Aged four, Mary was playing in her parents’ front yard, when she was grabbed by “the government people” and taken to a Catholic boarding school to be turned into a Christian. She’s just one of thousands of Native Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes and put into boarding schools from the 1800s right up to the 1970s. According to a US government report, the purpose of these schools was to strip indigenous people of their spiritual beliefs, culture and land. A government investigation also found that physical, emotional and sexual abuse was “rampant”. Indigenous Americans’ spiritual beliefs are now experiencing a renaissance, but is this revival enough to enable Mary and her friends heal from a childhood of trauma in America’s residential schools?

Presenter: Leana Hosea 
Producer: Leana Hosea with Rajeev Gupta
Production co-ordinator: Nancy Bennie 
Editor: Helen Grady

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