Truth Before Reconciliation : Confronting Residential School Denialism, livre ebook

“Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation”—The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

The TRC’s Final Report, released in 2015, is the outcome of many years of research and rigorous scholarship by hundreds of academics across Canada. More than 5 million documents from governments, churches, and schools, hundreds of secondary sources, and the testimonies of over 6,000 residential school Survivors informed the Commission’s work.

Despite six volumes evincing the genocide, some Canadians choose to deny, downplay, and disparage these findings in a battle for public memory waged in popular media and across social media platforms. Denialists do not refute the existence of the schools or that abuse happened. Rather, they cherry-pick and distort facts to minimize the harms done to Indigenous communities as they seek to turn reconciliation into a partisan issue and preserve national myths of benevolence.

Countering soundbites with substance, Sean Carleton and Niigaan Sinclair, along with a team of expert historians, educators, Survivors, archivists, and archeologists, analyze the genesis, methods, and consequences of denialism; push back on denialist claims; and highlight some of the primary sources and peer-reviewed scholarship that denialists ignore or misrepresent. Importantly, they also document the harms denialists have inflicted on Survivors and communities.

Embedded in the lived experiences of Survivors and supported by the evidentiary record, Truth Before Reconciliation is a valuable tool to help develop the historical and information literacy needed to identify and combat denialism and anti-Indigenous racism as we collectively build a more honourable future for all.

Introduction, by Sean Carleton and Niigaan Sinclair

Chapter 1. Why Truth-Telling Matters: A Survivor’s Perspective, An Interview with Phyllis Webstad

Chapter 2. Orange Shirt Day Hangover: Municipalities, Indigenous Historians, and the Long History of Denialism, by Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Chapter 3. What We Choose to Forget: Residential School Denialism and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Archives, by Raymond Frogner

Chapter 4. Understanding the Role of Archeology in Residential School Searches, An Interview with Andrew Martindale

Chapter 5. Exposing Residential School Denialism’s Transnational Network, by Sean Carleton, Alan Lester, Adele Perry, Omeasoo Wahpasiw

Chapter 6. Confronting Residential School Denialism in Canadian Classrooms, by Lindsay Gibson and James Miles

Chapter 7. Debunking the “Mass Grave Hoax” Conspiracy Theory, by Reid Gerbrandt and Sean Carleton

Chapter 8. Identifying the Techniques of Settler Colonial Genocide Denialism, by Andrew Woolford

Chapter 9. Residential School Denialism is a Crime, by Michelle Good

Chapter 10. Protecting Survivors, An Interview with Leah Gazan

Chapter 11. Sites of Remembrance: The Role of Public History and Commemoration in Challenging Denialism, An Interview with Krista McKracken, Jackson Pind, Erin Millions, and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey

Chapter 12. Taking Care of Community, An Interview with Neegaunibinessikwe, Crystal Gail Fraser, and Kisha Supernant

Chapter 13: Standing Up for the Truth, An Interview with Kimberly Murray

Conclusion, by Sean Carleton and Niigaan Sinclair