11 | Witnessing and the Canadian TRC

March 18, 2025

Unveiling the River's Secrets: A Musqueam Woman's Journey of Environmental Stewardship - Science World
In this class, we will reflect on what it means to be witness to Indian Residential Schools in Canada, exploring principles of respect and reciprocity, in addition to practices of responsibility and solidarity. In the first hour of class, we will attend the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. In the following hours, we will hold a discussion of the readings, reflections on what witnessing means to you, and listen to a presentation on artist Kent Monkman.  If you are unfamiliar with Canadian TRC, go through website and report here.

Readings – do 3 readings (not including video)

  1. Watch: Kamloops residential school survivors recall students going missing, digging of graves in orchard  (recommended if unfamiliar with history, and to learn of memory practices of Indigenous communities in Kamloops, content warning).
  2. Nagy, Rosemary. “Settler witnessing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.” Human Rights Review 21 (2020): 219-241.
  3. Hunt, Sarah. “Researching within relations of violence: Witnessing as methodology.” Indigenous research: Theories, practices, and relationships (2018): 282-295.
  4. Craft, Aimée, and Paulette Regan, eds.  ‘Chapter 7. What Does Reconciliation Mean to Newcomers Post-TRC?’  (UBC Library).
  5. Justice, Daniel Heath. Why Indigenous literatures matter. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2018, Chapter 1 How Do We Learn to Be Human?
Further reading
  1. Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Tabula Rasa 38 (2021): 61-111.
  2. Tuck, Eve. “Suspending damage: A letter to communities.” Harvard Educational Review3 (2009): 409-428.
  3. Simpson, Leanne. B. (2017). Land as pedagogy. In, As we have always done: indigenous freedom through radical resistance, pp. 145-174. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  4. Craft, Aimée, and Paulette Regan, eds. Pathways of reconciliation: Indigenous and settler approaches to implementing the TRC’s calls to action. Vol. 2. Univ. of Manitoba Press, 2020. Read: Chapter 5, ‘Teaching Truth before Reconciliation’ (119-141) and, ‘Chapter 7. What Does Reconciliation Mean to Newcomers Post-TRC?’  (UBC Library).
  5. Morin, Peter. 2016. This is what happens when we perform the memory of the land. In Martin, K., Robinson, D., Garneau, D., eds., Arts of engagement: taking aesthetic action in and beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 67-91. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Presentation
Artist: Kent Monkman ‘Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience’

Photo: https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/unveiling-the-rivers-secrets-a-musqueam-womans-journey-of-environmental-stewardship/