Haig-Brown's book balances individual experiences and the various structures involved in residential schools. She writes about various forms of power and hierarchy that Europeans attempted to impose on indigenous students. She also focuses on how these students and their communities resisted these processes, working to regain control over education through strong political action and activities taking place in communities. For example, Haig-Brown describes the transformation of residential school in Kamloops into a centre of community activities.
The senior girls dormitory now houses the Native Indian Teacher Education Program. On the main floor, the Little Fawn Day Care is a busy centre for young children. The cafeteria is now used to prepare meals for Elders’ gatherings, conferences, and meals for students and workers at the former school.
Haig-Brown writes that “Ironically, those buildings which for so long were the centre of a cultural onslaught are now the centre of cultural enhancement and economic development” (p.X).
Leanne Simpson is a writer, scholar, storyteller and activist of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg ancestry and a member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, and works as an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge at Athabasca University. Reflecting on similar issues of residential schools and renewal, she writes:
“If reconciliation is focused only on residential schools rather than the broader set of relationships that generated policies, legislation and practices aimed at assimilation and cultural genocide, then there is a risk that…the historical ‘wrong’ has been ‘righted’ and further transformation is not needed, since the historic situation has been remedied….To me, reconciliation must be grounded in cultural generation and political resurgence. It must support Indigenous nations in regenerating our languages, our oral cultures, our traditions of governance and everything else [that] residential schools attacked and attempted to obliterate” (p.22).
In the clip below, Simpson reads from her book, Dancing on our Turtle's Back. She describes a community procession on National Aboriginal Day in summer 2009.
The senior girls dormitory now houses the Native Indian Teacher Education Program. On the main floor, the Little Fawn Day Care is a busy centre for young children. The cafeteria is now used to prepare meals for Elders’ gatherings, conferences, and meals for students and workers at the former school.
Haig-Brown writes that “Ironically, those buildings which for so long were the centre of a cultural onslaught are now the centre of cultural enhancement and economic development” (p.X).
Leanne Simpson is a writer, scholar, storyteller and activist of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg ancestry and a member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, and works as an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge at Athabasca University. Reflecting on similar issues of residential schools and renewal, she writes:
“If reconciliation is focused only on residential schools rather than the broader set of relationships that generated policies, legislation and practices aimed at assimilation and cultural genocide, then there is a risk that…the historical ‘wrong’ has been ‘righted’ and further transformation is not needed, since the historic situation has been remedied….To me, reconciliation must be grounded in cultural generation and political resurgence. It must support Indigenous nations in regenerating our languages, our oral cultures, our traditions of governance and everything else [that] residential schools attacked and attempted to obliterate” (p.22).
In the clip below, Simpson reads from her book, Dancing on our Turtle's Back. She describes a community procession on National Aboriginal Day in summer 2009.
Last modified: Friday, 17 January 2014, 03:51 PM