What Role Do Historians Play in ‘Truth and Reconciliation’?

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What Role Do Historians Play in ‘Truth and Reconciliation’?

We are currently in the midst of a national conversation about cultural genocide, recently reaffirmed in the public eye by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As regular readers of Clio’s Current can attest, this blog aims to engage with issues of national and international significance. We have written extensively about Aboriginal history, but have yet to discuss the role historians might play in the future. To assess this question, it is necessary to explore some of the issues in Aboriginal history thus far "uncovered" by historians.

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Politicized Scholarship: Exploring Themes in Aboriginal History, Part II

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Politicized Scholarship: Exploring Themes in Aboriginal History, Part II

A few weeks ago, we published the first post in a short series examining the origins and evolution of Aboriginal history the Canadian context. We traced some of the more influential works in the field to explore the hold of prominent analytic debates, and explored the contribution of recent studies such as James Daschuk’s Clearing the Plains. Today, we continue our short series with a brief post on the influence of legal affairs and land claims, examining in particular the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry and the Hawthorn Report.

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Agency and Victimization: Exploring Themes in Aboriginal History

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Agency and Victimization: Exploring Themes in Aboriginal History

In our last post we took a brief look at the historical legacy of Canada’s founding Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, who historian James Daschuk claims instituted a policy of starvation against First Nations in an effort to “clear” prairie lands for railway construction. Aboriginal peoples were either denied food or given rotten meat and diseased animals. Thousands died as a result, but the Dominion government secured its railway and considered the policy a success. Daschuk’s widely acclaimed book Clearing the Plains is one of the more recent examples in Canadian historical literature to have employed a narrative structure that focuses on the colonial victimization of Aboriginal peoples. Today we offer a quick survey of some of the more influential works on Aboriginal history and Native-Newcomer relations, laying the foundation for a short series that explores the growth and evolution of the field.

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Hero or Villain: Sir John A. Macdonald in Recent Canadian memory

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Hero or Villain: Sir John A. Macdonald in Recent Canadian memory

Much has been made of the 200th anniversary of Sir John A. Macdonald’s birth this past January. You may have heard of the events and speeches in Kingston, the city most associated with Macdonald, or more likely read about Macdonald in the spate of articles debating whether he should venerated by Canadians at all. The argument that Macdonald is the most important Father of Confederation – the man who (some suggest singlehandedly) created our nation – is not new, but its rejection question some seminal myths about Canada.

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A Colonial Burden: Aboriginal Educational Reform in Canada

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The next Canadian federal election is scheduled for this coming October. While that date may seem far away, we are nearing a new campaign season which is sure to generate much interest and debate. One of the key issues entering the next election will surely be Aboriginal relations and the growing gap that exists between First Nations and the rest of Canada. The gap can be viewed in terms of financial and health related issues, as well as education of youth in particular. Indeed, First Nations communities currently face multiple crises. In light of this, today’s post focuses specifically on the push in Canada for Aboriginal educational reform.

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What is a Royal Commission? Exploring Public Inquiries and Canada's Aboriginal Peoples

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Much ink has been spilled and bytes transmitted over recent calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Both those for and against have raised the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) because the Liberal government failed to enact the changes it suggested, the logic that an inquiry would either be without substantive impact, or the RCAP’s failure requires another attempt. Today on Clio’s we look at the history of Royal Commissions in Canada as we explore their value and purpose.

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