The Triumph of Olemaun: Survivance, Empathic Unsettlement, and Restorying the History of Canadian Residential Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-146
Author(s):  
Anah-Jayne Markland
Keyword(s):  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Mandatory Education ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Age Appropriate

The ignorance of many Canadians regarding residential schools and their traumatic legacy is emphasised in the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a foundational obstacle to achieving reconciliation. Many of the TRC's calls to action involve education that dispels and corrects this ignorance, and the commission demands ‘age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples' historical and contemporary contributions to Canada’ to be made ‘a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students’ (Calls to Action 62.i). How to incorporate the history of residential schools in kindergarten and early elementary curricula has been much discussed, and one tool gaining traction is Indigenous-authored picturebooks about Canadian residential schools. This article conducts a close reading of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton's picturebook When I Was Eight (2013). The picturebook gathers Indigenous and settler children together to contest master settler narratives regarding the history of residential schools. Using Gerald Vizenor's concept of ‘survivance’ and Dominick LaCapra's notion of ‘empathic unsettlement’, the article argues that picturebooks work to unsettle young readers empathetically as part of restorying settler myths about residential schools and implicating young readers in the work of reconciliation.

The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. MacDonald ◽  
Graham Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Indian Residential Schools ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Le Canada

Abstract. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been investigating the array of crimes committed in Canada's Indian Residential Schools. Genocide is being invoked with increasing regularity to describe the crimes inflicted within the IRS system, the intent behind those crimes, and the legacies that have flowed from them. We ask the following questions. Did Canada commit genocide against Aboriginal peoples by attempting to forcibly assimilate them in residential schools? How does the UN Genocide Convention help interpret genocide claims? If not genocide, what other descriptors are more appropriate? Our position might be described as “fence sitting”: whether genocide was committed cannot be definitively settled at this time. This has to do with polyvalent interpretations of the term, coupled with the growing body of evidence the TRC is building up. We favour using the term cultural genocide as a “ground floor” and a means to legally and morally interpret the IRS system.Résumé. La Commission de vérité et réconciliation a enquêté sur la matrice de crimes commis dans les pensionnats indiens au Canada. Le mot génocide est invoqué avec une régularité croissante pour décrire les crimes infligés au sein du système des pensionnats, l'intention derrière ces crimes, et l'héritage qui s'en est ensuivie. Nous posons les questions suivantes: le Canada a-t-il commis le génocide contre les élèves Aborigènes en essayant de les assimiler de force dans des pensionnats indiens? Comment la Convention des Nations Unies sur la prévention de génocide peut-elle aider interprétations des revendications de génocide ? Si ce pas de génocide, quel autre descripteur est plus approprié ? Notre position pourrait être décrite comme « séance de clôture »: la question de génocide ne peut être réglée définitivement en ce moment. Cela concerne les interprétations polyvalentes du terme, couplé avec le corps grandissant d'évidence que le CVR accumule. Nous préférons le terme génocide culturel comme « un rez-de-chaussée » et comme un moyen de légalement et moralement interpréter le système IRS.

Instructive Past: Lessons from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples for the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jula Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Class Action ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Indian Residential Schools

AbstractOver time, the Canadian state has used a variety of mechanisms to address its troubled relationship with its indigenous population, the most prominent of which so far was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). RCAP was mandated to develop both a constitutional framework and a comprehensive social-welfare policy. Staffed predominantly with constitutional lawyers, it articulated a sophisticated constitutional theory, which was not implemented, and did little to ameliorate the living conditions of Aboriginal people. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools (TRC), while arising from the settlement of a national class action, can be seen as a successor commission to RCAP. It follows in the procedural footprints of RCAP in a number of ways, including in the profile of its key appointments. This article argues that looking back at the successes and failures of RCAP can be instructive for the TRC as it carries out its mandate, allowing us to predict some areas that will be particularly challenging. In these areas, the TRC will require a departure from the RCAP blueprint if it is to achieve the ambitious goals of a TRC in a non-transitional-justice context.

Doing Public History in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 10-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Milloy
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Public History ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Public ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Governmental Support ◽  
History Of

The author discusses his experience with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with writing a history of the residential school system for First Nations students in Canada and with producing an archive accessible to both scholarly researchers and the public. Funding and limited governmental support for the project limited its scope and effectiveness, but the TRC has helped educate the Canadian public about residential schools, and has made progress towards reconciliation.

scholarly journals So Near Yet So Far: The Extent of Aboriginal Inclusion in Canada

Federalism-E ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Melanie Gillis
Keyword(s):  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Federal System ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Canadian Federalism ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
Residential Schooling

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) visited Halifax October 2011 to recount the atrocities which occurred in residential schools in Canada. For over one hundred years Aboriginal children attended these government-funded schools aimed at extinguishing the culture, spirituality, and knowledge of Aboriginal Peoples.1 Although extreme, the example of residential schooling demonstrates that Aboriginals were considered outsiders in Canada. While the schools themselves no longer exist, the debate about Aboriginals and the extent to which they are outsiders in the Canadian federal system persists. Political scientist Jennifer Smith (2004) contributes to this debate by describing who is ‘in’ and ‘out’ in terms of Canadian federalism [...]

scholarly journals The Validity of Self-Report Measures in Assessing Historical Knowledge: The Case of Canada’s Residential Schools

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg D. B. Boese ◽  
Katelin H. S. Neufeld ◽  
Katherine B. Starzyk
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Baseline Measure ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
School Knowledge ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) strives to increase public education regarding residential schools. A baseline measure of the public’s residential school knowledge could be useful to evaluate the progress of the TRC. The National Benchmark Survey, Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study, and Canadian Public Opinion on Aboriginal Peoples Report are three existing surveys that provide such a baseline, though each use only self-report measures. We measured residential school knowledge of 2,250 non-Indigenous Canadian undergraduate students through self-report (subjective) and multiple-choice (objective) measures. Analyses revealed a statistically significant correlation between self-reported and objective knowledge of residential schools.

scholarly journals Off to School: Filmic False Equivalence and Indian Residential School Scholarship

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Comme Point ◽  
National Film Board ◽  
Residential Schooling

This article uses two short, mid-twentieth century documentaries produced by the National Film Board of Canada as an entry point into charting popular and scholarly representations of Indian residential schools. The article begins with a close reading of one 1958 film followed by an overview of how scholarship has changed over the last fifty years, particularly alongside and sometimes because of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The article advocates centring survivor testimony and provides major turns in considering as well as teaching about residential schooling and settler colonialism in Canada as well as ways of how to teach about and learn from it. The article concludes with a close reading of a second film, produced in 1971 by Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, which offers a decidedly different perspective from the film discussed at the beginning of the article.RésuméCet article utilise deux courts documentaires produits par l’Office national du film à l’époque du centenaire de la Confédération comme point de départ permettant d’étudier les représentations populaires et universitaires des pensionnats indiens. L’article s’amorce sur une lecture attentive d’un film de 1958, puis propose un aperçu des changements survenus dans la littérature académique au cours des cinquante dernières années, en particulier grâce à la Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada. Il met l’accent sur le témoignage des survivants et propose des changements importants, à la fois dans la façon de comprendre le système des pensionnats et le colonialisme canadien, de même que sur les façons de l’enseigner et les leçons à en tirer. L’article se termine par l’analyse d’un second film produit en 1971par la cinéaste Abénaquis Alanis Obomsawin, qui offre une perspective très différente de celui tourné en 1958.

scholarly journals "That’s my Auntie"

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista McCracken ◽  
Skylee-Storm Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Project Report ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
School History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archival Work

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called for increased access to archival material documenting the history of Residential Schools. What does this access and associated programming look like? How can archives approach sharing Residential School history in an ethical and culturally appropriate way? This project report provides examples of reciprocal approaches to archival work by drawing on a case study of the community-guided work undertaken by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA) and the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC).

Historical Policy of the Roh Moo-hyun’s Government in South Korea: Seeking Reconciliation with the Past

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-315
Author(s):  
Natalya N. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Historical Justice ◽  
20Th Century History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Historical Past

Historical policy was one of the main directions of the domestic policy of the Roh Moo-hyuns government (2003-2008). The ideological justification of revising the 20th century history of Korea was the idea of building a new Korean society based on the principles of democracy and the rule of civil rights and freedoms. Through the implementation of a new historical policy the Roh Moo-hyuns government tried to prove that the creation of such a society was impossible without revealing the truth about the historical past, in which the state repeatedly neglected civil rights and committed crimes. Increased attention to issues of restoration of the historical justice is typical for the current government of Moon Jae-in, the political successor of Roh Moo-hyun. Based on the analysis of the governmental documents, legislation this paper reveals the main disagreements between political parties of the Republic of Korea around the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, identifies the key results of its activities.

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