scholarly journals Indigenous Dress Theory in Canadian Residential Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawkay Ottmann
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Indigenous Worldviews ◽  
Indian Residential Schools ◽  
School History ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Archival Record ◽  
The Individual

Indian Residential Schools were apart of Canada’s aggressive assimilative policy for Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Métis, Inuit), demonstrating the attempts to erase Indigenous people as a cultural and political entity. Ultimately, the schools were key to the “cultural genocide” that occurred. Upon arriving at the schools, Indigenous children would be stripped of their clothes, which was quickly replaced with foreign dress. The act of forcibly taking away and replacing the clothing of the children entering Indian Residential Schools is a direct result of the assimilative policy. This paper outlines Western dress and uniform theory. From there, an Indigenous dress theory is proposed based on Indigenous epistemologies, which emphasizes the differentiation between Western and Indigenous worldviews. Indian Residential School history is shared before examining the use of dress in the schools. Finally, Western and Indigenous dress theories are used in tandem to analyze the events and effects of stripping Indigenous children of their clothes. Understanding the individual experience is possible due to the voices of school. Survivors who shared their stories with the TRC and The Legacy of Hope Foundation, those who rote their own words down, and the voices found in the archival record.

2. Dispossessions

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Donald Wright
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Land Sharing ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Nations People ◽  
Indian Act ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
First Nations People

‘Dispossessions’ covers the exploitation of Indigenous Canadians who saw the treaties they signed as land-sharing agreements while the European settlers interpreted them as selling the land outright. Groups with no treaties, like the European-Indigenous Metis, were particularly vulnerable. Residential schools for Indigenous children provided opportunities, but also played a part in cultural genocide. The Indian Act, an attempt to solve the problem on the government’s terms, dictated who could identify as Indian. Some communities and individuals have succeeded in reclaiming their land, rights, and histories, but life is still challenging for many Indigenous or First Nations people.

Squaring the Circle: How Canada is Dealing with the Legacy of Its Indian Residential Schools Experiment

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-265
Author(s):  
Pamela O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Squaring The Circle ◽  
Indian Residential Schools ◽  
The Social ◽  
Compulsory Attendance ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Abuse And Neglect

Canada, like Australia, is belatedly confronting a problem that has long been denied and ignored. Each country is now reckoning the social costs of past policies which sought to achieve the forced assimilation of indigenous children. In Canada this policy was mainly implemented through laws requiring the compulsory attendance of Indian children at school. Some 100,000 children were directed to church-operated residential schools where their cultural transformation could be effected in isolation from their families and the outside world. That isolation left them highly vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

scholarly journals Jordan’s Principle: Reconciliation and the First Nations Child

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Colleen Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Nations Child ◽  
The Individual

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was mandated to “document the individual and collective harms” of residential schools and to “guide and inspire a process of truth and healing, leading toward reconciliation.”  The stories of survivors revealed the intergenerational and egregious harms of taking children from their families and communities. In seeking to redress the legacy of the residential schools era, the TRC Calls to Action include greater recognition of self-governance of Indigenous Peoples, as well as numerous recommendations for equitable funding of health, educational, and child welfare services.

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.

A Deeper Understanding of Cultural Safety, Colonising and Seating in a Teacher Education Program: A Preliminary Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-189
Author(s):  
Ed Harrison ◽  
Peter McKay ◽  
Marsha Spencer ◽  
Bernadette Trimble
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Cultural Safety ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Individual

This preliminary study considers the implications of where students of Aboriginal descent sat in a teacher education classroom, its significance in relation to the space of the classroom, the importance of the place to the individual and its links to creating a climate of cultural safety in the classroom. Six students from two cohorts of varying sizes were interviewed as to why they sat where they did in the classroom and why the place where they sat remained relatively stable. The study uses quotations from the students and reflectively seeks to understand their experience in the class. Risking themselves in a university context which itself is the product of the very colonisers who created the conditions for cultural genocide through residential schools. It is tentatively concluded that where First People sit in the classroom maybe reflective of the territory to which they belong.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Genesis and Design1

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (02) ◽  
pp. 199-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Nagy
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Indian Residential Schools ◽  
Public Inquiry ◽  
Public Record ◽  
Settlement Negotiations

Abstract How and why did Canada end up with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) rather than a judicially based public inquiry in response to Indian Residential Schools? Using a constructivist-interpretivist approach with interview research with twenty-three key actors, this article traces the path toward the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. It examines in particular the shift from calls for public inquiry to truth and reconciliation. In sourcing the idea of a TRC, it gauges the balance between transnational influences and home-grown elements and suggests that two different approaches to a truth commission were merged during the settlement negotiations. One approach, associated with the Assembly of First Nations, focuses on accountability and public record, and the other, associated with survivor and Protestant organizations, is more grassroots and community-focused. This article looks at hybridity and gaps in the TRC’s design, suggesting that the two visions of a truth commission continue to exist in tension.

Trauma Histories, Impact of Residential Schools, and the Mental Health among Manitoba First Nations Adults living On On-Reserve

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Elias ◽  
Amanda Woods ◽  
Madelyn Hall ◽  
Say Hong ◽  
Javier Mignone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Trauma Histories

scholarly journals Canada’s history of failing to provide medical care for Indigenous children

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakhshan Kamran
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Current Status ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Canadian Government ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
History Of ◽  
Services And Supports

Abstract In December 2007, the House of Commons unanimously supported Jordan’s Principle, a commitment that all First Nations children would receive the health care products, social services, and supports, and education they need, in memory of Jordan River Anderson. However, the process of applying for Jordan’s Principle was convoluted and not transparent, leaving several cases not being responded to. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found the definition and implementation of Jordan’s Principle to be racist and discriminatory in 2016, ordering the Canadian government to make immediate changes. Failing to make changes to Jordan’s Principle, the Canadian government was found to be noncompliant with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal orders in 2018. This article provides one case example of Jordan’s Principle that was not responded to, details on the current status of Jordan’s Principle, and information on the recent implementation of the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families.

scholarly journals Racial Profiling, Surveillance and Over-Policing: The Over-Incarceration of Young First Nations Males in Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Grace O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Racial Profiling ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Clear Cut

Historically, countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand have witnessed an increased over-representation of minority groups who are exposed to the criminal justice system. For many years in Australia, young First Nations males have been over-represented in the juvenile justice system in all states and territories. Many of these young males have disengaged from their schooling early, some through deliberate exclusion from the education system and others by choice. However, the choices for many young First Nations males may not be as clear cut as first might seem. This paper shows that over-representation in the juvenile justice system may be as a direct result of racial profiling, surveillance and over-policing of First Nations peoples within Australia. The literature addresses the ways in which young First Nations males experience these phenomena from an early age, and the long-term effects and consequences that can arise from these occurrences. An analysis of the current research both internationally and within Australia is thus conducted.

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