Their heads were shaved or their hair cut to erase culturally significant hairstyles. Their native clothing was taken from them they were forced to wear school-provided European style clothing. During the residential school era, children were forcibly taken from their families and transported to boarding schools – often far away from their homes, because children would frequently escape if the school was close to their home. In First Nations culture, there also exists a strong spiritual link between land and people, where living in a certain place was part of one's spiritual wellbeing and communal belonging. As is the case with all cultures, indigenous culture was dependent on traditions passed down through teaching by elders and family members. It amounted to a cultural genocide on First Nations by 'killing the Indian in the child' (the stated purpose of the residential schools), severing the link between children and their native culture by relocation and re-education. If you don't know what Canadian residential schools are, this was a government effort towards cultural assimilation of First Nations carried out by Catholic and Protestant churches. This past week, a mass grave containing the remains of 215 children was discovered outside a former residential school in Kamloops BC. I do take issue with the author linking his text with a real cultural genocide whose effects are still felt today, especially because in The House in the Cerulean Sea, a cultural genocide plot is spun into a feel-good fantasy about love conquering all.

I take no issue with using real historical events as inspiration for a fantasy retelling, in which the resulting story is conceptually removed from that history. Why? Because I found out, as of this morning, that author TJ Klune used the history of Canada’s residential schools, and in particular, a cultural genocide tactic called “the 60s scoop” as inspiration for his book’s plot, in which magical children are abducted and placed in a state-run orphanage. The House in the Cerulean Sea has been vaguely on my TBR forever. TW for discussions of genocide against indigenous people, including mentions of death, rape and abuse. Warning, there's going to be some really tough stuff ahead.

The cerulean sea