Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Settler Colonialism and the Politics of Grief: Theorising a Decolonising Transitional Justice for Indian Residential Schools

  • Published:
Human Rights Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article argues that within the context of settler colonialism, the goal of transitional justice must be decolonisation. Settler colonialism operates according to a logic of elimination that aims to affect the disappearance of Indigenous populations in order to build new societies on expropriated land. This eliminatory logic renders the death of Indigenous peoples “ungrievable”. Therefore, this article proposes a decolonising transitional justice premised on a politics of grief that (1) re-conceptualises Indigenous death as grievable, posing a challenge to the logic of elimination and advancing a “decolonisation of the mind”, and (2) resists a purely affective concept of grief in order to mobilise grief as a political resource to demand transformative structural justice. This article consider deaths at Canada’s Indian Residential Schools as a case study of ungrievability under settler colonialism and the Project of Heart as an illustration of a decolonising form of informal transitional justice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Estimates of death rates cannot be applied uniformly across the entire period of IRS operation. The bulk of deaths occurred in the early decades, perhaps peaking around 1905–1907 (Maass interview 2013).

  2. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for this conceptualisation.

  3. Wolfe uses the term the “logic of elimination” rather than genocide for at least two reasons. First, the qualification or hyphenation of genocides (such as “indigenocide”) tends to “devalue” the violence against Indigenous populations. Second, elimination specifies that “settler colonialism is premised on the securing… of territory” (Wolfe 2006, p. 402).

  4. An apology was issued for this forced relocation in 2010. https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100016115/1100100016116. Accessed on 25 June 2015.

  5. The housing crisis in the northern Ontario reserve of Attawapiskat has emerged as a symbol of impoverished conditions of First Nations communities. http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/attawapiskat-s-housing-crisis-a-ground-level-perspective-1.2460256 . Accessed on 25 June 2015.

  6. In 2011, only 4 % of children in Canada were Aboriginal, while almost half of children in state care were Aboriginal. http://aptn.ca/news/2013/05/08/nearly-half-of-children-in-foster-care-aboriginal-statistics-canada/ . Accessed on 25 June 2015.

  7. The oral histories were gathered at community events in which the LHF partnered with local Indigenous organisations. As part of the educational mandate of the LHF, the oral histories are public but are available only through on-site access, although a short sampling is available in video form (http://www.legacyofhope.ca/projects/our-stories-our-strength/video. Accessed on 25 June 2015). The informed consent of all participants included use of their oral histories for research on condition of anonymity. As such, I have changed names and all identifying details in the oral histories I discuss.

  8. All in-text citations for Smith refer to an interview conducted in 2014.

  9. All in-text citations for Bearhead refer to an interview conducted in 2014.

  10. As of 2014, there are 1181 missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/mmaw-faapd-eng.pdf. Accessed on 25 June 2015.

References

  • Alfred T (2009) Restitution is the real pathway to justice for Indigenous Peoples. In: Younging G, Dewar J and DeGagné M (eds) Response, responsibility, and renewal: Canada’s truth and reconciliation journey. Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Ottawa, pp 181–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Androff D K (2012) Adaptations of truth and reconciliation commissions in the North American context: Local examples of a global restorative justice intervention. Advances in Social Work 13(2):408–419

    Google Scholar 

  • Angel N (2012) Before truth: The labors of testimony and the Canadian truth and reconciliation commission. Culture, Theory and Critique 53(2):199–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • APTN (Aboriginal People’s Television Network) (2012). APTN Investigates: Unmarked graves, part II. http://aptn.ca/news/2012/10/15/aptn-investigates-unmarked-graves-part-2/. Accessed on 29 June 2015.

  • Arriaza L and Roht-Arriaza N (2008) Social reconstruction as a local process. International Journal of Transitional Justice 2:152–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balint J, Evans J, and McMillan N (2014) Rethinking transitional justice, redressing Indigenous harms: A new conceptual approach. International Journal of Transitional Justice 8:194–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman Z (1989) Modernity and the holocaust. Polity, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner M and M James (2011) The three r’s of reeking transitional justice: Reparation, responsibility, and reframing in Canada and Argentina. The International Indigenous Policy Journal 2(3):1–129

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler J (2004) Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler J (2009) Frames of war: When is life grievable? Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Card C (2003) Genocide and social death. Hypatia 18(1):63–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CBC (2014). New documents may shed light on residential school deaths. http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/new-documents-may-shed-light-on-residential-school-deaths-1.2487015. Accessed on 26 June 2015.

  • Chrisjohn R and Wasacase T (2009) Half-truths and whole lies: Rhetoric in the “apology” and the truth and teconciliation commission. In: Younging G, Dewar J, and DeGagné M (eds) Response, Responsibility, and Renewal: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Journey, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Ottawa, pp 219–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins J (2011) Global Palestine. Hurst and Company, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Corntassel J, Chaw-win-is and T’Lakwadzi C (2009) Indigneous storytelling, truth-telling, and community approaches to reconciliation. English Studies in Canada 35(1):137–159

  • Czyzewski K (2013) The truth and reconciliation commission of Canada: Insights into the goal of transformative education. International Indigenous Policy Journal 2(3):1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Daschuk J (2013) Clearing the plains: Disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of Aboriginal life. University of Regina Press, Regina

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorrell M (2009) From reconciliation to reconciling: Reading what ‘we now recognise’ in the government of Canada’s 2008 residential schools apology. English Studies in Canada 35(1):27–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas Mary (2002) Purity and danger. Routledge. http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=19533. Accessed 22 September 2014

  • Elgersma Patricia (2011) The colonial dilemma of Canada’s residential school apology and restitution. Journal of Conflict Transformation & Security 1(2):83–98

  • Elias B, Mignone J, Hall M, Hong S P, Hart L, and Sareen J (2012) Trauma and suicide behaviour histories among Canadian indigenous population: An empirical exploration of the potential role of Canada’s residential school system. Social Science & Medicine 74(10):1560–1569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth A (2013) Acknowledging settler responsibility: Reconciliation for Canada’s colonial past, present, and future. Undergraduate Transitional Justice Review 1(3):1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Govier T (2006) Taking wrongs seriously: Acknowledgement, reconciliation and the politics of sustainable peace. Humanity Books, Amherst

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant A (1996) No end of grief: Indian residential schools in Canada. Pemmican, Winnipeg

    Google Scholar 

  • Green R (2012) Unsettling cures: Exploring the limits of the Indian residential school settlement agreement. Canadian Journal of Law and Society/Revue canadienne droit et societe 27(1):129–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson J and Wakeham P (2009) Colonial reckoning, national reconciliation?: Aboriginal peoples and the culture of redress in Canada. English Studies in Canada 35(1):1–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry N (2015) From reconciliation to transitional justice: The contours of redress politics in established democracies. International Journal for Transitional Justice. doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijv001

    Google Scholar 

  • Howarth G (2007) Death and dying: A sociological introduction. Polity, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • James M (2010) Uncomfortable comparisons: The Canadian truth and reconciliation commission in international context. Les Ateliers de l’éthique/The Ethics Forum 5(2):24–35

  • James M (2012) A carnival of truth? Knowledge, ignorance and the Canadian truth and reconciliation commission. International Journal of Transitional Justice 6(2):182–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M (2011) Reconciliation, indigeneity, and postcolonial nationhood in settler states. Postcolonial Studies, Special Issue: After Europe 14(2):187–201

    Google Scholar 

  • Jung C (2011) Canada and the legacy of the Indian residential schools: Transitional justice for Indigenous people in a nontransitional society. In: Arthur (ed) Identities in transition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 217–250

  • Legacy of Hope Foundation (n.d.) Our stories…Our strength. http://www.legacyofhope.ca/projects/our-stories-our-strength. Accessed 25 June 2015

  • Lundy P and McGovern M (2009) Whose justice? Rethinking transitional justice from the bottom up. Journal of Law and Society 35(2):265–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCready AL (2009) Redressing redress: The neoliberal appropriation of redress in anti-Indigenous backlash in Caledonia. English Studies in Canada 35(1):161–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGonegal J (2009) The great Canadian (and Australian) secret: The limits of non-Indigenous knowledge and representation. English Studies in Canada 35(1):67–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mieder W (1993) The only good Indian is a dead Indian: History and meaning of a proverbial stereotype. Journal of American Folklore 106(419):38–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milloy J (1999) A national crime: The Canadian government and the residential school system, 1879–1986. University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy M (2011) Apology, recognition, and reconciliation. Human Rights Review 12(1):47–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy R 2013 The scope and bounds of transitional justice and the Canadian truth and reconciliation commission. International Journal of Transitional Justice 7(1):52–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park A S J (2010) Community-based restorative transitional justice in Sierra Leone. Contemporary Justice Review 13(1):95–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Project of Heart (PoH ) (n.d.) http://poh.jungle.ca/step-1-investigation-into-the-history-and-legacy-of-indian-residential-schools-in-canada. Accessed on 25 June 2015

  • Regan P (2010) Unsettling the settler within: Indian residential schools, truth telling, and reconciliation in Canada. UBC Press, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  • Robins S (2013) Families of the missing: A test for contemporary approaches to transitional justice. Routledge, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Seale C (1998) Constructing death: The sociology of dying and bereavement. Cambridge, Cambridge

  • Short D (2005) Reconciliation and the problem of internal colonialism. Journal of Intercultural Studies 26(3):267–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sium A, Desai C, and Ritskes E (2012) Towards the ‘tangible unknowns’: decolonization and the Indigenous future. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 1(1):i–xiii

  • Stanton K (2012) Looking forward, looking back: The Canadian truth and reconciliation commission and the Mackenzie Valley pipeline inquiry. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 27(1):81–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teitel R (2000) Transitional justice. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Thobani S (2007) Exalted subjects: Studies in the making of race and nation in Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) (2012) Truth and reconciliation commission of Canada: Interim report. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Winnipeg

  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) (2015) Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the truth and reconciliation commission of Canada. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC-SA) (1998) Truth and reconciliation commission of South Africa final report: volume 1

  • Veracini L (2011) Introducing settler colonial studies. Settler colonial studies 1(1):1–12

  • Veracini L (2013) ‘Settler colonialism’: Career of a concept. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 41(2):313–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wakeham P (2012) Reconciling ‘terror’: Managing Indigenous resistance in the age of apology. The American Indian Quarterly 36(1):1–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winter S (2011) Legitimacy, citizenship and state redress. Citizenship Studies 15(6–7):799–814

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winter S (2014) Transitional justice in established democracies: A political theory. Palgrave, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe P (2006) Settler colonialism and the elimination of the Indigenous. Journal of Genocide Research 8(4):387–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolford A (2013) Nodal repair and networks of destruction: residential schools, colonial genocide, and redress in Canada. Settler Colonial Studies 3(1):65–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Thanks to anonymous reviewers whose insights have strengthened this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1S 5B6

    Augustine S. J. Park

Authors
  1. Augustine S. J. Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Augustine S. J. Park.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Park, A.S.J. Settler Colonialism and the Politics of Grief: Theorising a Decolonising Transitional Justice for Indian Residential Schools. Hum Rights Rev 16, 273–293 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0372-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0372-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation