Canadian Indian residential school system

Seeing histories of forced First Nations labour: the 'Nii Ndahlohke / I Work' art exhibition

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 8, 2023

The exhibition brings together artists from the communities whose children attended this institution, and it runs until June 24, 2024.

Key Points: 
  • The exhibition brings together artists from the communities whose children attended this institution, and it runs until June 24, 2024.
  • It emerged from the Munsee Delaware Language and History Group, a community-based language and history learning project.

Manual labour demands

  • Their labour was invisible within the school budget.
  • However, the Indian department was aware that Mount Elgin students were not given progressive training in skilled trades and that manual labour demands on students kept them out of the classroom and therefore compromised their education.

Farm labour, domestic service

  • Manual labour prepared students for limited work opportunities: farm labour for boys and men, and domestic service for girls and women.
  • Significantly, forced labour was a key issue in student resistance at Mount Elgin including running away, setting fires and attempting to ruin farm equipment.

Labour as central theme

  • Nii Ndahloke / I Work, addresses histories of student labour at Mount Elgin but also its larger impact on reserve and settler economies of southwestern Ontario in the era.
  • The show also addresses histories of gendered experiences of Indian education, racism, student illness, intergenerational collaboration and the preservation of different forms of labour and the stories and metaphors that accompany them.

Artists’ own histories

  • The artists’ resulting works range widely and meaningfully address the artist’s own histories.
  • As part of the exhibition design, a red line along the wall follows visitors around the exhibit.

Community-based approach

  • The exhibition reflects a different approach to both history and curation.
  • We hope people will leave with is a better understanding of the residential school system in Canada as a shared history.
  • Mary Jane Logan McCallum receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and The Social Science Research Council of Canada, Heritage Canada, Ontario Arts Council.
  • Julie Rae Tucker receives funding from the Social Science Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Arts Council.

We fact-checked residential school denialists and debunked their 'mass grave hoax' theory

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a “mass grave hoax” regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada.

Key Points: 
  • Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a “mass grave hoax” regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada.
  • Although many have called for him to resign, he is just one of many people who subscribe to this false theory.
  • A hoax is an act intended to trick people into believing something that isn’t true.

There is no media conspiracy

    • As two settler academic researchers, we decided to investigate the claims of a media conspiracy and fact-check them against evidence.
    • To find out, we analyzed 386 news articles across five Canadian media outlets (CBC, National Post, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and The Canadian Press) released between May 27 and Oct. 15, 2021.

‘Preliminary findings’ of ‘unmarked burials’

    • A National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Memorial Register has to date confirmed the deaths of more than 4,000 Indigenous children associated with residential schools.
    • But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) noted its register of missing children was incomplete, partly due to a large volume of yet-to-be-examined and destroyed records.

Countering harmful misinformation

    • In the two years since, a number of commentators, priests and politicians, including the P.E.I councillor with his sign, have downplayed the harms of residential schooling — or questioned the validity, gravity and significance of the the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s announcement.
    • We hope that our research can contribute to this work and that our report helps to debunk the “mass grave hoax” narrative specifically.

Cherry-picked ‘evidence’

    • Myths, however, are not pure fiction; they often contain a kernel of truth that is exaggerated or misrepresented.
    • This selective representation of evidence is commonly referred to as cherry-picking, and it’s easy to see how those spreading the “mass grave hoax” narrative rely on cherry-picked evidence.
    • By September, denialists were misrepresenting the extent of media errors to push the conspiratorial “mass grave hoax” narrative online.
    • And we hope our report sparks a national conversation about how important language is when covering this issue.

Challenging Residential School denialism

    • According to Daniel Heath Justice and Sean Carleton (one of the authors of this story), residential school denialism is not the denial of the residential school system’s existence.
    • Read more:
      Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism

      Residential school denialism, like climate change denialism or science denialism, cherry-picks evidence to fit a conspiratorial counter-narrative.

Truth before reconciliation

    • This is the strategy of disempowering and discrediting residential school denialism advocated by former TRC Chair Murray Sinclair.
    • We hope others will join us in this type of research to help Canadians learn how to identify and confront residential school denialism and support meaningful reconciliation.
    • As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in its final report, without truth there can be no genuine reconciliation.

CONTINUE TO HONOUR THE VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF RESIDENTIAL, DAY AND BOARDING SCHOOLS WITH THE ROYAL CANADIAN MINT'S TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION KEEPSAKE

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, September 26, 2023

All net proceeds from sales of the Truth and Reconciliation Keepsake are being donated to the Na-mi-quai-ni-mak Community Support Fund, established by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Key Points: 
  • All net proceeds from sales of the Truth and Reconciliation Keepsake are being donated to the Na-mi-quai-ni-mak Community Support Fund, established by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
  • Honouring the Survivors and the children who never returned home, the Truth and Reconciliation Keepsake raises awareness about the intergenerational impacts of Residential, Day and Boarding schools.
  • "The Truth and Reconciliation Keepsake helps us acknowledge the truth of the Indigenous children who never returned from Residential, Day and Boarding schools," said Royal Canadian Mint President and CEO, Marie Lemay.
  • All net proceeds from the sale of the Truth and Reconciliation Keepsake will support the work of Na-mi-quai-ni-mak Community Support Fund, established by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Chief Dr. Robert Joseph is the recipient of the 2023 Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations

Retrieved on: 
Friday, August 4, 2023

Toronto, ON, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) proudly announces Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, a prominent advocate for Indigenous rights and reconciliation, as the recipient of the 2023 Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.

Key Points: 
  • Toronto, ON, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) proudly announces Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, a prominent advocate for Indigenous rights and reconciliation, as the recipient of the 2023 Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.
  • A Hereditary Chief of the Gwawa’enuxw First Nation, Chief Dr. Robert Joseph is a leader of change and an influential voice in reconciliation.
  • "I am so honored and filled with a sense of immeasurable gratitude to be receiving the Canadian Aboriginal Business Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.
  • “We are thrilled to recognize Chief Dr. Robert Joseph’s remarkable achievements with the Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations,” said CCAB president and CEO, Tabatha Bull.

St. Bruno's Indian Residential School Ground-Penetrating-Radar Report Released

Retrieved on: 
Friday, June 23, 2023

JOUSSARD, AB, June 23, 2023 /CNW/ - Sucker Creek First Nation Chief Roderick Willier and Driftpile Cree Nation Chief Dwayne Laboucan welcomed over 400 registered Survivors, Descendants, and Community Members – from across Treaty 8 – to the St. Bruno's Indian Residential School Gathering.

Key Points: 
  • JOUSSARD, AB, June 23, 2023 /CNW/ - Sucker Creek First Nation Chief Roderick Willier and Driftpile Cree Nation Chief Dwayne Laboucan welcomed over 400 registered Survivors, Descendants, and Community Members – from across Treaty 8 – to the St. Bruno's Indian Residential School Gathering.
  • This Gathering was rescheduled to June 23rd through June 25th due to the recent wildfire state of emergency across Alberta.
  • In his opening remarks, Driftpile Cree Nation Chief Dwayne Laboucan stated:
    "This afternoon's Indian Residential School Gathering is being held on the site of the former St. Bruno's Indian Residential School, a site where 1.13 acres was surveyed by the UofA in the Summer of 2022 (Phase 1).
  • This survey work used advanced ground-penetrating-radar technologies and data analysis to identify locations that have a high potential for containing unmarked graves.

King Charles's coronation: How the place of Britain and the Crown has shifted in Canadian schooling

Retrieved on: 
Friday, April 28, 2023

Imagining and building nations is central to school systems, and began in Canada shortly after Confederation in 1867.

Key Points: 
  • Imagining and building nations is central to school systems, and began in Canada shortly after Confederation in 1867.
  • Ironically perhaps, it may be the move toward reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and settler Canadians that could revive the focus of the Crown in Canadian schooling.

‘Agency for national unity’

    • Following Confederation, Canada grew both by adding new provinces and territories and through immigration.
    • This coincided with the push for universal public education which policymakers of the day saw as “an agency for national unity and social harmony.”

      Read more:
      Egerton Ryerson: Racist philosophy of residential schools also shaped public education

      According to Canadian historian Desmond Morton, that purpose was achieved in English Canadian schools by focusing on “the historical myths of British nationalism … What mere Canadian citizenship could compete with the claims of an empire that spanned the known universe?” These myths, he notes, were conveyed by texts like adapted editions of the Irish National Reader, the first textbook used in Upper Canada.

1897 Royal celebrations

    • The impetus for this focus on empire flourished during Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1897.
    • These celebrations inspired an outpouring of patriotic sentiment, and a push to foster patriotism in English Canada’s schools.
    • The first Empire Day was celebrated in 1899 and coincided with Queen Victoria’s 80th birthday, adding fervour to the event.

1940s and beyond

    • Toward the end of the 1930s and into the 1940s there was a shift away from this focus on what some called “Anglo conformity” in Canadian schools and society more generally.
    • Second, many educators and others began to see assimilationist approaches to schooling as morally wrong.
    • They were beginning to recognize the injustice of what Mi'kmaw scholar Marie Battiste later called “cognitive imperialism” to extinguish alternative conceptions of society and nation.

1947 Canadian Citizenship Act

    • A growing sense that Canadians needed to imagine themselves as an independent people was fostered by Canada’s participation as an independent and important part of the war effort against the axis powers.
    • It found expression in the Canadian Citizenship Act in 1947.

Assumptions of citizenship

    • In later decades, the assumptions of citizen education began to shift from a focus on conformity to broader ideas of cultural pluralism including affirming forms of gender, sexuality or racialized identity as goals for education.
    • An example is the iconic painting “The Fathers of Confederation,” copies of which have adorned some textbooks or hung in schools.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

    • Of significance for thinking about the role of the Crown in Canada is that The Constitution Act of 1982 grounds treaty and other Indigenous rights in Canada in the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
    • Many Indigenous and other legal scholars recognize the proclamation “as an important first step toward the recognition of existing Aboriginal rights and title.” The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) notes the proclamation set an approach to treaty making based on mutual respect.

$12.5 million announced to build new healing house in Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, March 23, 2023

Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc has selected an architect to lead the construction process and will be working with the membership to create a welcoming design.

Key Points: 
  • Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc has selected an architect to lead the construction process and will be working with the membership to create a welcoming design.
  • The federal funding is in addition to previously committed funds by the FNHA toward healing initiatives at Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc.
  • Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc chose, by a community referendum, to keep the Kamloops Indian Residential School building that the federal government formerly owned.
  • In partnership with Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc and Indigenous Services Canada, FNHA is pleased to fund and support the new healing house that will help to address needs for trauma-based healing.

Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet Artistic Director & CEO Stepping Down

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 23, 2023

WINNIPEG, MB, Feb. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - On behalf of the Board of Directors, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet chair Don Leitch is pleased to announce Artistic Director & CEO André Lewis, O.M.

Key Points: 
  • WINNIPEG, MB, Feb. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - On behalf of the Board of Directors, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet chair Don Leitch is pleased to announce Artistic Director & CEO André Lewis, O.M.
  • They anticipate announcing a new Executive Director by the end of June 2023 and a new Artistic Director in 2024.
  • On his retirement from dance in 1989, he was welcomed into the position of Associate Artistic Director prior to becoming Artistic Director in 1996.
  • In 2018, Lewis was also appointed to CEO of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and has held the dual role ever since.

Historic Class Action Lawsuit Launched by Survivors of the Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School to Seek Recognition and Justice

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

A lawsuit has been commenced by six Survivors and intergenerational Survivors of the Île-à-la-Crosse residential school seeking compensation for the harms and abuses the Survivor suffered from attending at the School.

Key Points: 
  • A lawsuit has been commenced by six Survivors and intergenerational Survivors of the Île-à-la-Crosse residential school seeking compensation for the harms and abuses the Survivor suffered from attending at the School.
  • The Île-à-la-Crosse Survivors Committee, and the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan are supporting this proposed class action.
  • The harms endured by Survivors have resulted in long-term mental health challenges, and the loss of Indigenous culture, language, and identity.
  • "For too long, the truth of the residential school experience of Métis children has been ignored by Canadians.

Canadian Commission for UNESCO and McMaster University Library announce addition of Basil H. Johnston Archives to the Canada Memory of the World Register

Retrieved on: 
Monday, October 17, 2022

OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 17, 2022 /CNW/ - McMaster University Library and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO are pleased to announce that the Basil H. Johnston Archives have been added to the Canada Memory of the World Register.

Key Points: 
  • OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 17, 2022 /CNW/ - McMaster University Library and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO are pleased to announce that the Basil H. Johnston Archives have been added to the Canada Memory of the World Register.
  • These textual materials are supplemented by photographs and sound recordings, including recordings of Basil Johnston narrating traditional Ojibwe stories.
  • - Vivian Lewis, McMaster University Librarian
    What is the significance of being included in the Memory of the World Register?
  • The Canada Memory of the World Register provides universal access to our artistic, cultural, economic, geographic, linguistic, political, scientific, spiritual and identity-based heritage.