"Confronting the truths of Canada’s Indian residential school system has been likened to waking a sleeping giant. In The Sleeping Giant Awakens, David B. MacDonald uses genocide as an analytical tool to better understand Canada’s past and present relationships between settlers and Indigenous peoples. Starting with a discussion of how genocide is defined in domestic and international law, the book applies the concept to the forced transfer of Indigenous children to residential schools and the "Sixties Scoop," in which Indigenous children were taken from their communities and placed in foster homes or adopted. Based on archival research, extensive interviews with residential school Survivors, and officials at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, among others, The Sleeping Giant Awakens offers a unique and timely perspective on the prospects for conciliation after genocide, exploring the difficulties in moving forward in a context where many settlers know little of the residential schools and ongoing legacies of colonization and need to have a better conception of Indigenous rights. It provides a detailed analysis of how the TRC approached genocide in its deliberations and in its Final Report. Crucially, MacDonald engages critics who argue that the term genocide impedes understanding of the IRS system and imperils prospects for conciliation. By contrast, this book sees genocide recognition as an important basis for meaningful discussions of how to engage Indigenous-settler relations in respectful and proactive ways." -- Provided by publisher

"With the growing strength of minority voices in recent decades has come much impassioned discussion of residential schools, the institutions where attendance by Native children was compulsory as recently as the 1960s. Former students have come forward in increasing numbers to describe the psychological and physical abuse they suffered in these schools, and many view the system as an experiment in cultural genocide. In this first comprehensive history of these institutions, J.R. Miller explores the motives of all three agents in the story. He looks at the separate experiences and agendas of the government officials who authorized the schools, the missionaries who taught in them, and the students who attended them.

Starting with the foundations of residential schooling in seventeenth-century New France, Miller traces the modern version of the institution that was created in the 1880s, and, finally, describes the phasing-out of the schools in the 1960s. He looks at instruction, work and recreation, care and abuse, and the growing resistance to the system on the part of students and their families. Based on extensive interviews as well as archival research, Miller's history is particularly rich in Native accounts of the school system.

This book is an absolute first in its comprehensive treatment of this subject. J.R. Miller has written a new chapter in the history of relations between indigenous and immigrant peoples in Canada." -- Provided by publisher

Manore, Jean L. "Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools." The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 79, no. 1, 1998, pp. 130-131. https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/224254….

McCarty, Teresa L. "Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools." Ethnohistory, vol. 45, no. 1, 1998, pp. 172-174. https://www-jstor-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/483192?seq=1#….

Titley, Brian. "Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools. (Book Reviews/Recensions)." Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol. 30, no. 1, 1998, pp. 171-172. https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/215639….

Hoist, Wayne A. "Reviewed Work: Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools by James R. Miller." Arctic, vol. 50, no. 3, 1997, pp. 270-271. https://www-jstor-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/40511708?pq-o….

Wilson, Donald J. "Reviewed Work: Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools by J. R. Miller." Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, vol. 22, no. 3, 1997, pp. 352-355. https://www-jstor-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/1585843?pq-or….

"Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory is a collection of 17 articles that resulted from a conference sponsored by Nin.D.Waab.Jig. and Wilfred Laurier University in 1994. The conference addressed the status of ethnohistory in Canada as it related to Aboriginal People and was designed as multidisciplinary and holistic. Two of the contributors reflect the Aboriginal Perspective and the essays by Dean Jacobs of Walpole Island and renowned historian Olive P. Dickason are important contributions. The remaining topics are wide-ranging and a few are noteworthy. Elizabeth Graham's paper reports on a work in progress, The Mush Hole: a History of the Mohawk Institute and Mount Elgin Residential Schools. This paper explores some of the negative uses and abuses of power in the administration of these two southern Ontario residential schools. Historian David T. McNab offers another notable essay that explores the importance of water to the people of Walpole Island as reported in the treaty-making process. Other papers discuss Walpole Island history and oil and gas rights; Mi'kmaw history, fishing rights, agriculture, and folklore; Ontario history, law, and sovereignty including the Six Nations Confederacy. The final section includes essays about Samuel Hearne, Canadian reserves and apartheid, and the Sechelt and Nunavut agreements. Overall this volume provides a wide range of historical research with an Ontario First Nation focus." - Provided by GoodMinds.com

Johnston, Charles M. "Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory." Canadian Historical Review, vol. 80, no. 3, 1999, p. 501. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A56249865/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=B….

Trott, Christopher G. "Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory." University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 1, 1999, p. 159+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A62549631/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=B….

"For over 100 years, thousands of Aboriginal children passed through the Canadian residential school system. Begun in the 1870s, it was intended, in the words of government officials, to bring these children into the “circle of civilization,” the results, however, were far different. More often, the schools provided an inferior education in an atmosphere of neglect, disease, and often abuse.

Using previously unreleased government documents, historian John S. Milloy provides a full picture of the history and reality of the residential school system. He begins by tracing the ideological roots of the system, and follows the paper trail of internal memoranda, reports from field inspectors, and letters of complaint. In the early decades, the system grew without planning or restraint. Despite numerous critical commissions and reports, it persisted into the 1970s, when it transformed itself into a social welfare system without improving conditions for its thousands of wards. A National Crime shows that the residential system was chronically underfunded and often mismanaged, and documents in detail and how this affected the health, education, and well-being of entire generations of Aboriginal children." -- Provided by publisher

Milloy, J. S., & Angel, M. R. (2000, 99). A national crime: The Canadian government & the residential school system, 1879 to 1986]. Manitoba History, 48-49. http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-c…

Luby, B. (2019). J. R. miller, residential schools and reconciliation: Canada confronts its history and john S. milloy, A national crime: The canadian government and the residential school system, 1879 to 1986. Historical Studies in Education / Revue d'Histoire De l'Éducation https://journals-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/0…

"Out of the Depths: The Experiences of Mi'kmaw Children at the Indian Residential School at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia is the personal memoir of Isabelle Knockwood. As a child of five, she was sent to a Catholic residential school in 1936. Her memories of this education system have haunted her throughout her life and as a mature adult she enrolled in a university program where the basis of this book began. In addition to her first-person account, the author interviewed 27 former Mi'kmaw students and conducted archival research. The book begins with a chapter on her life before attending residential school. She explains the Mi'kmaw use of the talking stick in traditional Mi'kmaw culture as well as childrearing and education. These early years during the 1930s are fondly remembered. When she arrives at residential school the feeling of intense fear is overwhelming. The chapters describe the origins of this residential school, the everyday life at the school, work and play, rewards and punishments, and student forms of resistance. The interviews with other students recount the beatings, shaven heads, solitary confinement and a host of mental, sexual, and physical abuses. The author recalls an early attempt by the parents to assassinate the school principal. This idea was dismissed when the helpless parents believed their action would only lead to future abuses of their children. The final chapters describe the last days of the school as well as ghosts and hauntings associated with the school. Knockwood wrote this book as her personal form of healing and her contribution to the literature on residential schools is significant. In this newly updated fourth edition, Knockwood speaks to twenty-one survivors of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School about their reaction to the apology by the Canadian government in 2008. She has also included a section called, Discussion between Isabelle and Gillian. This section explores how the author worked with Gillian Thomas to write Out of the Depths. Their revealing discussion describes family violence, post-secondary education, and racism issues. Anyone interested in the Mi'kmaw, First Nation education, and residential schools should read this moving account of one woman's triumph over her experiences." -- Provided by publisher

Hulan, Renée. "A Just Allotment of Memory: Witnessing First Nations Testimony in Isabelle Knockwood’s Out of the Depths." Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes, vol. 46, no. 1, 2012, pp. 53-74, 254. https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/102104….

Miller, Virginia, Thomas, Gilliam and Knockwood, Isabelle. "Out of the depths: the experiences of Mi'kmaw children at the Indian residential school at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia // Review." Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, 1995, pp. 165 - 166. https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/215640….

"The twelve essays that make up Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations illustrate the development in thought by one of Canada's leading scholars in the field of Native history - J.R. Miller. The collection, comprising pieces that were written over a period spanning nearly two decades, deals with the evolution of historical writing on First Nations and Métis, methodological issues in the writing of Native-newcomer history, policy matters including residential schools, and linkages between the study of Native-newcomer relations and academic governance and curricular matters. Half of the essays appear here in print for the first time, and all use archival, published, and oral history evidence to throw light on Native-Newcomer relations.

Miller argues that the nature of the relationship between Native peoples and newcomers in Canada has varied over time, based on the reasons the two parties have had for interacting. The relationship deteriorates into attempts to control and coerce Natives during periods in which newcomers do not perceive them as directly useful, and it improves when the two parties have positive reasons for cooperation.

Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations opens up for discussion a series of issues in Native-newcomer history. It addresses all the trends in the discipline of the past two decades and never shies from showing their contradictions, as well as those in the author's own thinking as he matured as a scholar." -- Provided by publisher

Lawrence, Bonita. "Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations: Selected Essays." University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 75, no. 1, 2006, pp. 180-181. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/193492.

Morantz, Toby E. "Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations: Selected Essays." The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 87, no. 1, 2006, pp. 134-136. https://muse-jhu-edu.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/article/195343.

Friesen, John W. "Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations: Selected Essays." Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, 2005, pp. 153-155. https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/215636….

Teasdale, Guillaume. "Reflections on Native-Newcomer Relations: Selected Essays." Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec, vol. 35, no. 1, 2005, pp. 90-92. https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/169689….

"This inspiration and very emotionally moving program looks at the "other side" of the Residential Schools experience. As many First Nations "survivors" share their stories we come face to face with the fear, confusion and sometimes hurtful experience that were the Residential Schools. Seen from a First Nations perspective we come to realize just what effect these schools have really had on First Nations people then and now and we start to realize some of the healing that has begun as a result of finally facing the truth about these schools. A must see for all audiences!" -- Provided by publisher

"In From the Iron House: Imprisonment in First Nations Writing, Deena Rymhs identifies continuities between the residential school and the prison, offering ways of reading 'the carceral'—that is, the different ways that incarceration is constituted and articulated in contemporary Aboriginal literature. Addressing the work of writers like Tomson Highway and Basil Johnston along with that of lesser-known authors writing in prison serials and underground publications, this book emphasizes the literary and political strategies these authors use to resist the containment of their institutions.

The first part of the book considers a diverse sample of writing from prison serials, prisoners’ anthologies, and individual autobiographies, including Stolen Life by Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson, to show how these works serve as second hearings for their authors—an opportunity to respond to the law’s authority over their personal and public identities while making a plea to a wider audience. The second part looks at residential school narratives and shows how the authors construct identities for themselves in ways that defy the institution’s control. The interactions between these two bodies of writing—residential school accounts and prison narratives—invite recognition of the ways that guilt is colonially constructed and how these authors use their writing to distance themselves from that guilt.

Offering new ways of reading Native writing, From the Iron House is a pioneering study of prison literature in Canada and situates its readings within international criticism of prison writing. Contributing to genre studies and theoretical understandings of life writing, and covering a variety of social topics, this work will be relevant to readers interested in indigenous studies, Canadian cultural studies, postcolonial studies, auto/biography studies, law, and public policy." -- Provided by Publisher

Andrews, Jennifer. "From the Iron House: Imprisonment in First Nations Writing." Canadian Journal of Native Studies, vol. 30, no. 1, 2010, p. 189+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A286514957/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=….

Bomberry, Victoria. "From the Iron House: Imprisonment in First Nations Writing." American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 32, no. 4, 2008, pp. 162-165. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A195881303/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=….

Dobson, Kit. "Indigenous Defamiliarizations." Canadian Literature, no. 200, 2009, p. 189. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A234570489/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=….

"From the iron house; imprisonment in First Nations writing." Reference & Research Book News, Aug. 2008. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A183483701/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=….

McKegney, Sam. "From the Iron House: Imprisonment in First Nations Writing." University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 1, 2010, pp. 496-498. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A340743517/BRIP?u=utoronto_main&sid=….

"Fifteen-year-old Buckley (Buckley Petawabano) attends residential school, where he longs for his home and dreams of fishing and hunting. Yet when he returns to the reserve for the summer he feels like a stranger, unable to speak his Cree language or live off the land like his father and brothers. Johnny (Johnny Yesno), an Indigenous caretaker at the school, takes Buckley under his wing, introducing him to Indigenous history, culture, and knowledge. After finding Buckley’s frozen body in the snow, Johnny pieces together the events of the boy’s short life and tragic death, which left him unable to find a place for himself between the white and Indigenous worlds.

Featuring the soulful music of Willie Dunn, this film was inspired by the true story of Charlie Wenjack, a young Anishinaabe boy who froze to death running away from residential school in 1966. The film was made with members of the Indian Film Crew and features Chief Dan George." - From the NFB website

"The adoption of Aboriginal children into non-Aboriginal families has a long and contentious history in Canada. Life stories told by First Nations people reveal that the adoption experience has been far from positive for these communities and has, in fact, been an integral aspect of colonization. In an effort to decolonize adoption practices, the Yellowhead Tribal Services Agency (YTSA) in Alberta has integrated customary First Peoples’ adoption practices with provincial adoption laws and regulations. Introducing this unique agency, the authors outline the history of First Nations adoptions and, through an interview with a YTSA Elder, describe the adoption ceremonies offered at YTSA. Themes that emerged from interviews with adoptive parents and youth who have been adopted through this new integrated practice are also explored, and important recommendations for policy and practice in First Nations adoption are offered." - Provided by Publisher

Tam, Dora M. Y. "Aski Awasis/Children of the Earth: First Peoples Speaking on Adoption." Social Work Education 32.8 (2013): 1107-8. https://journals-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/detai…