“To rob the world of a people”: an instance of colonial genocide in the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School

This paper demonstrates, through Sagkeeng First Nation narratives, how the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School (FAIRS) is a micro-instance of genocide. An understanding is offered from the perspective of a settler colonial academic, in consideration of decolonizing principles. Using relational...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ilyniak, Natalia
Other Authors: Woolford, Andrew (Sociology), Hudson, Mark (Sociology) Ladner, Kiera (Political Studies)
Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1993/30295
Description
Summary:This paper demonstrates, through Sagkeeng First Nation narratives, how the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School (FAIRS) is a micro-instance of genocide. An understanding is offered from the perspective of a settler colonial academic, in consideration of decolonizing principles. Using relational theory, namely Actor-Network Theory, this paper discusses how FAIRS’s practices were designed and operated to disrupt relations between Anishinaabe children and their community, and the ways children and their families negotiated and undermined these practices. Data was collected through critical narrative analysis and sociohistoric inquiry to identify and unpack themes of "language," "space/place," and "the natural environment" as identified in FAIRS Survivors’ testimonies, interviews, stories, and memoir. May 2015