The Indian Residential School Survivors' Stories Database is a project that seeks to bring the multitude of Stories from Residential School Survivors available online in one searchable format. These items are created by organizations external to the University of Toronto Libraries, and this collection brings them together and places them in conversation.
Jacobs, Beverley and Andrea Williams. 2008. Legacy of Residential Schools:
Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women. Pg. 119-142 in From Truth to Reconciliation Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools by Marlene Brant Castellano, Linda Archibald, and Mike DeGagne.
Ebook also available.
The legacy of the residential school system has had a profoundly negative impact on Aboriginal people that will be experienced for generations to come. It is indisputable that Aboriginal peoples have suffered as a result of the residential school system imposed to eradicate their cultures and rights. This paper seeks to share the harsh reality that the current vulnerability of Aboriginal women and youth is linked directly to the impacts of colonization, including the residential school system and the social environment that created it. One of the outcomes of this history is that many Aboriginal women today continue to be challenged by fundamental issues of safety and survival. is paper begins with an overview of the historical, social, and economic factors that have contributed to increased risk to the safety and security of Aboriginal women. It presents preliminary findings of the Sisters in Spirit initiative research and the approach undertaken by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) in its work with grieving families. e paper concludes with suggestions about how this information might inform the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process.
Blackstock, Cindy. 2008. Reconciliation Means Not Saying Sorry Twice:
Lessons from Child Welfare in Canada pg. 163 -178 in From Truth to Reconciliation Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools by Marlene Brant Castellano, Linda Archibald, and Mike DeGagne.
Ebook also available.
This paper reviews evidence of Canada’s failure to meaningfully redress inequalities in the treatment of vulnerable First Nations children and the impact of jurisdictional debates between federal and provincial governments on child and community well-being. The popular movement in support of Jordan’s Principle, putting children first when conflicts around financial responsibility arise, is described along with emerging guidelines for Aboriginal child welfare and child health services. The primary responsibility of child-serving professionals to implement children first principles is underlined, particularly in light of professional collaboration with past intrusions on Aboriginal families. The paper concludes with an a affirmation that putting children first must be a foundational principle for reconciliation in order to ensure the historic violations of children in the residential school system are not replicated.
Abstract: As part of the broader spectrum of strategies to assimilate Indigenous people in Canada, the federal government developed the Indian residential school (IRS) system. The schools, which were funded by the government and managed by the churches, were designed to strip the children of all that was Indigenous, their traditions, customs, values, and languages. While attending the schools many children encountered rampant abuse and neglect, the legacy of which is apparent in the present day individual and community dysfunctions such as substance abuse, loss of languages, and inability to parent, as well as sexual, emotional, psychological, and behavioural problems.
Former students actively began to seek redress for the IRS experience by launching class action lawsuits against the churches and federal government1 in the early 1990s. As a response to the lawsuits, the governments issued the Statement of Reconciliation in 1998 and a Statement of Apology in 2008. This paper employs Nancy Fraser’s tripartite theory of justice to evaluate the transformative potential of these responses. I conclude that the federal government’s responses to IRS serve only as case-specific surface remedies that fail to account for the range of deeper injustices that arise from the colonial project.
This article investigates some of the kinds of social work that the twinned concepts of truth and reconciliation are currently performing in Canada. Though they are intimately associated with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) and Indian residential schools, it is submitted that it is important to investigate the multiple ways in which truth and reconciliation as concepts are deployed by TRCC supporters, analysts, and critics alike. The author argue that there is in fact no clear consensus in what truth and reconciliation should mean for residential school survivors or for Aboriginal peoples more generally in the context of a contemporary Canada with uneasy ties to its own colonial history. Through a detailed examination of the Canadian TRCC, he demonstrate that the commission's framing of truth and reconciliation rests on a fundamental indeterminacy. It is suggested further that this indeterminacy can be seen as both problematic and productive, facilitating perspectives that undergird state legitimization and powerful critiques of that same state and its relation to Indigenous peoples (Publication Abstract).
The social situation Native people find themselves in on reserves is often blamed on a lack of education. The thought behind this suggestion is that "education" itself is neutral and automatically leads to a rise of the standard of living. I discuss that the situation we Native people are in is partly due to that very "education," which, as a continuation of residential schools, is still breaking down our cultures and societies. Education for Native people can be successful only when it has grown within the culture of the people (Publication Abstract).
The Indian Residential School System, an institution of colonization that reflects White racist culture, has had deleterious effects on the lived social reality of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The intergenerational effects are manifested in social, cultural, economic, political, spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, and linguistic ways. Sadly, citizens of Canada are overwhelmingly unaware and misinformed about the Indian Residential School System's egregious legacy. This article represents one attempt by descendants of the Indian Residential School System to interrogate the mnemonic landscape of Canada-one that has a tradition of forgetting, erasing, or making invisible Indigenous peoples histories, their realities and their existence. Using photovoice methodology, three urban Native youth helped to answer the question, "How do urban Native youth interpret and experience the intergenerational effects of the Indian Residential School System in Canada?" Through a critical examination of their photographs, my research partners visualized pedagogy and power by engaging in critical consciousness, by educating the greater community, and by talking back to the master narrative of Canadian society (Publication Abstract).
Wolochatiuk, Tim. 2012. We were children.
This film revolves around the stories of two residential school survivors, Lyna and Glen. They talked about their experience and how they were forced to forget their language, origins and faiths while attending the Indian residential schools. Their stories are reenacted, accompanied by Lyna and Glen telling their story through voice-over. Dramatized scenes transport the viewer to the boarding schools, where children are subjected to various forms of abuse including emotional, mental, physical and sexual abuse. The film provides insights to the aftermath of attending the Indian residential schools. For instance, Glen suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of mental and physical health issues, and before the film was released, committed suicide. A film and discussion guide is also available.
For more NFB films and documentaries, view the Residential School channel.
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