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History Native American

Residential Schools and Reconciliation

Canada Confronts Its History

by (author) J.R. Miller

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2017
Category
Native American, Native American Studies, General, History
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487502188
    Publish Date
    Sep 2017
    List Price
    $51.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487514846
    Publish Date
    Oct 2017
    List Price
    $41.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781487521844
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $32.95

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Description

Since the 1980s, successive Canadian institutions and federal governments as well as Christian churches have attempted to grapple with the malignant legacy of residential schooling through official apologies, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

 

In Residential Schools and Reconciliation, award-winning author J.R. Miller tackles and explains these institutional responses to Canada’s residential school legacy. Analysing archival material and interviews with former students, politicians, bureaucrats, church officials, and the Chief Commissioner of the TRC, Miller reveals a major obstacle to achieving reconciliation – the inability of Canadians at large to overcome their flawed, overly positive understanding of their country’s history. This unique, timely, and provocative work asks Canadians to accept that the root of the problem was Canadians like them in the past who acquiesced to aggressively assimilative policies.

About the author

J.R. Miller is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of numerous works on issues related to Indigenous peoples including Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens and Shingwauk’s Vision, both published by University of Toronto Press.

J.R. Miller's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, The Sir John A. Macdonald Prize

Editorial Reviews

"Miller’s study does not examine the history of residential schools or draw upon horrors recounted by survivors; rather, it looks at what churches, courts, and the state itself have done in reaction, sometimes haltingly. Here his scholarship breaks new ground: few scholars have traced the nitty-gritty of how reconciliation was and is negotiated or set it so firmly in a historical context."

<em>The Canadian Historical Review</em>

"Professor Jim Miller of the University of Saskatchewan pulls back the curtain on the historical blame game. Residential Schools and Reconciliation documents Ottawa’s handling of Aboriginal issues. This is not ancient history. It just happened."

<em>Blacklock’s Reporter</em>

‘For those who want to understand Canadian reconciliation attempts and their historical context specifically pertaining to residential schools, Residential Schools and Reconciliation is where they should turn.’

<em>Saskatchewan Law Review </em>

"As colonial nations around the world seek pathways to post-conflict reconciliation, J.R. Miller’s timely work is an important reminder of both the potential obstacles and the healing possibilities of such initiatives."

 

 

<em>Publishers Weekly</em>

"In this book, Miller provides Canadians with an invaluable, insightful, and accessible resource on reconciliation in Canada."

<em>Canada’s History</em>