Oh boy, Residential schools. The kids were indentured servants more than students, went on for over 70 years. I know a woman that had a hot needle put through her tongue for speaking her Native language. A better term than horrid shit would be cultural genocide.
It was law that all children at the age of 6 must be removed from their homes and placed in church run "schools". The mandate of the schools was to "destroy the Indian to save the child". Of course, with there being priests and nuns involved, there was a lot of sexual abuse going on. Sick fucking shit.
The generational impact is astounding. Pretty hard to grow up in those places and turn out okay, let alone know how to raise a child. Most Canadians are clueless as to the true history of our relations with First Nations people, and a lot still look at them as "dirty savages".
The producer told me a few people walked out tonight saying "I didn't come here for this shit".
Mission accomplished! My goal was to make people uncomfortable, and be in their face. I know I succeeded when people leave. I don't care, we got your $!
Besides, I find that when I'm directing, I don't measure success by the audience. I measure it by the personal growth I see in my actors. I saw two timid little girls with low self-esteem come out of their shells. THAT is success!!!