cultural genocide
Erasing a people's soul
Cultural genocide is the systematic destruction of a group's cultural identity while leaving the people themselves physically alive.
It includes forced assimilation, banning languages, removing children from families, destroying religious sites, and suppressing traditions.
The term emerged from debates about whether the 1948 Genocide Convention should cover cultural as well as physical destruction: Residential schools were instruments of cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples.
- ethnocideDeliberate identity erasure
- erasureAct of wiping away
- mass gravesShared burial for many
- boarding schoolsResidential institutions for pupils
- KamloopsInterior plateau city
cultural assimilation · settler colonialism · broken treaties · mother tongue · native language · oral traditions · traditional practices · cultural identity · residential schools · stolen children · intergenerational trauma · eugenics · cultural imperialism · sacred sites · ancestral lands · truth commissions · silencing · forced
- Indigenous CanadaFirst Nations, Metis, Inuit, Cree, Ojibwe
- persecutionHolocaust, pogrom, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, mass murder
- atrocitiesHolocaust, massacre, massacres, ethnic cleansing, mass execution
- cultural erasureethnocide, forced assimilation, cultural erasure, identity loss, cultural amnesia
- Indigenous PolicyIndian Act, treaty negotiations, land claims, consultation, inherent rights
- colonialismcolony, colonization, colonial rule, colonial powers, colonizer
cultural genocidecultural preservation
Protecting community traditions and artifacts
cultural renaissance · heritage conservation · language preservation · heritage preservation · cultural revival
cultural genocidemulticulturalism
Coexistence of diverse traditions
cultural diversity · cultural integration · self-determination · indigenous rights · cultural exchange