Week 10: Cody Groat residential schools and Suspending Damage reading

Eve Tuck's Open Letter: Suspending Damage

Introduction to Damage-Centered Research

  • Eve Tuck: An academic from State University of New York, New Paltz, critiques the effectiveness of damage-centered research.

  • Damage-Centered Research: Research intended to document the pain and brokenness of marginalized communities, aiming to hold those in power accountable for oppression.

    • Flawed Theory of Change:

    • Despite its intention, it reinforces a one-dimensional view of marginalized communities as hopeless, depleted, and ruined.

  • Call to Action: Tuck advocates for a moratorium on damage-centered research, proposing a reformulation of research practices to better benefit communities.

Personal Background and Context

  • Tuck writes from her home in New York, reminiscing about her roots in Alaska, aiming to bridge her diverse backgrounds.

  • The letter addresses educational researchers and practitioners focused on ethical relationship-building with disenfranchised communities.

The Context of Research in Disenfranchised Communities

  • International Polar Year (IPY):

    • Spanning March 2007 – March 2009, included over 200 research projects from 60 nations in the Arctic and Antarctic.

    • For the first time, Indigenous polar peoples were central to research focus, indicating progress.

  • Concerns About ``Urban'' Communities:

    • Rising trends of researchers approaching urban communities for study, creating a sense of surveillance rather than support.

  • Significant Global Movements:

    • Adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (September 2007) emphasizing issues of race, sovereignty, and reparations pertinent to educational practice.

Historical Context and Importance of Ethical Research

  • United Nations report detailing the U.S. as a two-tiered society in education, health, and justice for Indigenous, black, and minority peoples.

  • Kevin Rudd's apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples in 2008, a pivotal moment but lacking actionable measures following the UN declaration.

Historical Misuse of Research in this Context

  • Damage-Centered Research:

    • Often exploits research subjects, focusing on pain without addressing systemic issues.

    • Examples from Aleutian Islands serve to highlight historical exploitation by researchers.

    • Such research continues historical narratives that maintain a damaging view of communities.

    • Tuck emphasizes the need to view research through the dual lenses of context and complexity.

Theoretical Frameworks in Research

  • Theory of Change:

    • Underlying theories in research define project outcomes, who participates, and ethical stances in research.

    • Traditional damage-centered frameworks are often based on litigation models that center around harm.

  • Impact of the Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll Tests:

    • Used as evidence in landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education, reflecting internalized racism among children and furthering narratives of damage.

Alternatives to Damage-Centered Research

  • Desire-Based Research Framework:

    • Emphasizes capturing desires, complexities, and aspirations instead of solely documenting damage.

    • Aims to create a narrative of hope and wisdom, thus depathologizing marginalized experiences.

  • Examples of Effective Desire-Based Research:

    • Sarah Carney's study exposes structural inequities around gender perceptions in public support systems, revealing hidden complexities of responsibility.

Comparative Analysis: Damage-centered vs. Desire-based Interpretations

  • Gate-ways and Get-aways Project:

    • Focuses on alternative interpretations of the GED credential, linking it to youth empowerment rather than a narrative of failure.

    • Advocates for recognizing complexities in youth decision-making regarding education and credentials.

Call for a Moratorium on Damage-Centered Research

  • Proposal Details: Tuck suggests a pause on damage-centered research while communities evaluate past harms and establish research ethics.

  • Goals for a Moratorium:

    • Re-vision Theories of Change: Evaluate the real impact of research in communities.

    • Establish Ethics Guidelines: Create robust ethical frameworks to protect the rights and narratives of communities.

    • Mutual Benefit in Research Relationships: Reassess the dynamics of academic involvement in community research, promoting equitable partnerships.

Regeneration and the Path Forward

  • Concept of Survivance (Gerald Vizenor):

    • Moving past mere survival toward crafting new narratives of agency and resistance within communities.

  • Tuck advocates for reframing the narrative around communities from damage to desire and survivance, emphasizing community power and integrity in relationships to research.

Conclusion

  • Tuck invites readers to engage actively in this critical discourse, emerging from a place that recognizes histories of oppression while envisioning a future grounded in desire, agency, and collaborative research.

  • A shared responsibility exists for communities to demand narratives that heal rather than harm.

INTERVIEW WITH CODY GROAT

Dr. Cody Groat, an assistant professor of history and Indigenous studies at Western University, shares his personal connection and pedagogical approach to teaching about the Indian Residential School system.

Personal Background and Connection to Residential Schools

  • Ancestry: From the Gan Gaga (Mohawk) nation, a band member of Six Nations of the Grand River.

  • Upbringing: Grew up in London and Ingersoll, Ontario, in a predominantly Caucasian community, with limited connection to his Indigenous identity until around age 18.

  • Father's Experience: A survivor of the "60s Scoop" (removed from his family at 6 months, returned at 7 years old), resulting in a broken bond with his biological parents and a lack of knowledge about his family's history.

  • Grandparents' Experience: Stanley Groat and Sarah Maracle, both survivors of the Mohawk Institute residential school, died in the 1980s before residential schools became public discourse. Their experiences were largely unknown to his father and therefore to Cody for many years.

  • Discovery: While touring the former Mohawk Institute with Dr. Kim Anderson during his undergraduate studies in 2012 (when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was gaining momentum), Groat discovered his grandparents' names on a plaque listing former students.

Challenges in Accessing Records and Teaching History

  • Grandmother's Records: Sarah Maracle's admission records were found with difficulty, noted her as "number 0970," and contained incorrect parental information due to her being born out of wedlock and raised by aunts/uncles. She likely attended for 12-13 years.

  • Grandfather's Records: Stanley Groat's records officially "don't exist" according to Canadian government and the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation. The only evidence is a class list from 1919 in a book called
    The Mush Hole.

  • Systemic Barriers: Cyclical purging of historical records contributed to the lack of documentation, reflecting the government's initial view that residential schools were not a groundbreaking event.

  • Balancing Perspectives: Groat teaches the topic with both personal closeness (family's experience) and academic distance.

The "History of Residential Schools" Course at Western University

  • Addressing Lack of Knowledge: Many students and community members are unaware of the residential school system due to systemic barriers to public knowledge. Groat validates this lack of knowledge and works to break down those barriers.

  • Collaborative Teaching: Collaborates with other scholars across Canada teaching similar courses, such as Dr. Sean Carlton (University of Manitoba, non-Indigenous, in-laws impacted) and Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser (University of Alberta, Gwich'in Nation, researching Northern experiences).

  • Controversial Nature: The topic is highly controversial and politicized.

    • Canadian Historical Association (2021): Released a statement calling the residential school system an act of genocide, which was highly contested by an older generation of historians who argued it diluted the term.

    • Residential School Denialism: Acknowledges a spectrum of denialism, from contesting deaths/violence to minimizing negative interpretations by highlighting positive student experiences. Students must understand this politicized context.

  • Influence of Eve Tuck: Groat draws on Eve Tuck's work to move away from purely trauma-informed narratives, striving to incorporate Indigenous resilience and cultural perpetuation, despite the difficult subject matter.

  • Student Sensitivity and Emotional Impact: Recognizes that some students cannot take the course due to their own lived experiences of trauma (e.g., family survivors of residential schools or day schools, personal experiences of violence). He designs the course with trigger warnings for specific weeks but emphasizes it's not solely trauma-based.

Course Content and Historical Trajectory

  1. Purpose of Education: Examines formal and informal curricula in both residential schools (Christianity, manual labor, Western values) and contemporary elementary schools.

  2. Historical Origins:

    • Valladolid Debate (1550): Discusses the debate on Indigenous personhood and the justification of colonization, noting that while Indigenous peoples were deemed human, Christianity was seen as a neutral, civilizing act.

    • New France and Early Institutions: Marie de l'Incarnation (Ursuline nun) established early educational institutions. She faced critique for assimilationist goals but is also venerated for founding the first school for girls (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) in North America. This introduces the concept of dual legacies, applicable to figures like John A. Macdonald and Egerton Ryerson.

    • Pre-Confederation Upper Canada: Indigenous political leaders like John Brant (Mohawk Nation) and Reverend Peter Jones (Ojibwe Nation) initially advocated for these schools as "cross-cultural educational ventures" for children to gain skills for a changing society, before they became increasingly assimilationist.

  3. Post-Confederation Canada (1867 onwards):

    • British North America Act: Designated "Indians and land reserved for Indians" as a federal responsibility. Since education was provincial, the federal government created the Indian Residential School system to fulfill its perceived duty to educate Indigenous children.

    • Partnerships with Churches: The federal government, lacking capacity, partnered with various religious denominations (Catholic, Anglican, United, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian Churches) to run the schools, providing financial resources while churches provided staff and curriculum.

    • Chronic Underfunding and "Half-Day System": Persistent underfunding led to students working 6-8 hours daily in manual labor, farming, or domestic tasks (sometimes loaned out to wealthy families) to fund the schools, reducing time for academic curriculum.

    • Systemic Violence: Lack of oversight, societal perceptions of Indigenous inferiority, and underfunding led to widespread physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and student-on-student violence, perpetuating intergenerational trauma.

    • Linguicide: Initially, Indigenous languages were used by teachers in early schools. As assimilation goals solidified in the early 1900s, the use of Indigenous languages was violently suppressed through punishments like whipping, beating, or forced starvation.

    • Classroom Curriculum: Integrates discussions of actual classroom content, using archival documents from Western University (Anglican church curriculum, assimilationist picture books, student assignment booklets).

    • Recreation and Leisure: Explores recreational activities (Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, cadets, sports teams like the St. Michael's Ducks hockey team for Fred Sasakamoose), while cautioning against their weaponization by denialists to downplay the harms.

Course Conclusion and Lasting Impacts

  1. Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA, 2006): The largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history, leading to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).

  2. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC): Mandated by the class-action lawsuit, its scope was legally limited (e.g., could not accuse specific employees of crimes). Inspired by South Africa's TRC (apartheid) and Australia's Stolen Generation report (1997, which framed similar events as genocide).

  3. The "Genocide" Debate: Discusses the controversial term:

    • Recognition: The House of Commons and Pope Francis have recognized the system as genocide.

    • Academic/Public Debate: Divisive within historical academia and the public.

    • UN Genocide Convention (1951): Written by Raphael Lemkin. "Cultural genocide" was intentionally removed due to lobbying by the Canadian government (Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent). The convention includes the targeted removal of children.

    • Legalist vs. Pluralist Definitions: Examines interpretations based on the strict legal text of the convention versus broader Indigenous perspectives on the totality of colonial experience.

Guiding Course Statement

  • Groat's central argument: "The Indian residential school system was developed with the specific intent of culturally assimilating Indigenous children into non-Indigenous society; chronic mismanagement based on broader societal perceptions of Indigenous peoples as being lesser led to sustained incidences of physical, sexual, and psychological violence and associated trauma."

Pedagogical Philosophy

  • Course Mandate: Groat argues against making the course mandatory due to the traumatic nature of the content for many students and the potential for a hostile environment with denialist participants.

  • Class Size: Caps the class at 50 students to foster engaged dialogue, one-on-one interaction, and a sense of community.

  • Instructor's Well-being: Limits how often he teaches the course to prevent desensitization to the severe content (e.g., student deaths, sexual violence) and to manage the emotional toll.

  • Transformational Impact: Believes the course can be transformational, especially for students without prior knowledge of their heritage or for analyzing intergenerational impacts (e.g., loss of Mohawk language in his family).