Stripped of my spirituality - a podcast by BBC World Service

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

Further episodes of Heart and Soul

Further podcasts by BBC World Service

Website of BBC World Service