Title:
Royally wronged : the Royal Society of Canada and Indigenous peoples
Publication Date:
2021
Publication Information:
Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2021]
©2021
Physical Description:
xvii, 365 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
ISBN:
9780228009023
9780228009030
Abstract:
"The Royal Society of Canada's mandate is to elect to its membership leading scholars in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences, lending its seal of excellence to those who advance artistic and intellectual knowledge in Canada. Duncan Campbell Scott, one of the architects of the Indian residential school system in Canada, served as the society's president and dominated its activities; many other members - historically overwhelmingly white men - helped shape knowledge systems rooted in colonialism that have proven catastrophic for Indigenous communities. Written primarily by current Royal Society of Canada members, these essays explore the historical contribution of the RSC and of Canadian scholars to the production of ideas and policies that shored up white settler privilege, underpinning the disastrous interaction between Indigenous peoples and white settlers. Historical essays focus on the period from the RSC's founding in 1882 to the mid-twentieth century; later chapters bring the discussion to the present, documenting the first steps taken to change damaging patterns and challenging the society and Canadian scholars to make substantial strides toward a better future. The highly educated in Canadian society were not just bystanders: they deployed their knowledge and skills to abet colonialism. This volume dives deep into the RSC's history to learn why academia has more often been an aid to colonialism than a force against it. Royally Wronged poses difficult questions about what is required - for individual academics, fields of study, and the RSC - to move meaningfully toward reconciliation."-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
Foreword / Cindy Blackstock -- Introduction: the Royal Society of Canada and the marginalization of Indigenous knowledge / Constance Backhouse and Cynthia E. Milton -- Part one: the Royal Society of Canada's historic role -- 1 Rather of promise than of performance: tracing networks of knowledge and power through the Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1882-1922 / Ian Wereley -- 2 Duncan Campbell Scott and the Royal Society of Canada: the legitimation of knowledge / Constance Backhouse -- 3 "Perhaps the white man's God has willed it so": reconsidering the "Indian" poems of Pauline Johnson and Duncan Campbell Scott / Carole Gerson -- 4 "Sooner or later they will be given the privelage [sic] asked for": Duncan Campbell Scott and the dispossession of Shoal Lake 40, 1913-14 / Adele Perry -- Part two: the Royal Society of Canada and academic writings -- 5 Three fellows in Mi'kma'ki: the power of the avocational / John G. Reid -- 6 "Not a little disappointment": forging postcolonial academies from emulation and exclusion / Cynthia E. Milton -- 7 Nostra culpa? Reflections on "The Indian in Canadian Historical Writing" / James W. St G. Walker -- Part three: rethinking academia and indigeneity -- 8 Forensic anthropology and archaeology as tools for reconciliation in investigations into unmarked graves at Indian residential schools / Katherine L. Nichols, Eldon Yellowhorn, Deanna Reder, Emily Holland, Dongya Yang, John Albanese, Darian Kennedy, Elton Taylor, and Hugo F.V. Cardoso -- 9 Confronting "Cognitive Imperialism": what reconstituting a contracts law school course is teaching me about law / Jane Bailey -- 10 Murder they wrote: unknown knowns and Windsor Law's statement regarding R. v. Stanley / Reem Bahdi -- 11 History in the public interest: teaching decolonization through the RSC Archive / Jennifer Evans, Meagan Breault, Ellis Buschek, Brittany Long, Sabrina Schoch, and David Siebert -- 12 Cause and effect: the invisible barriers of the Royal Society of Canada / Joanna R. Quinn -- Part four: future directions -- 13 Memorandum to the Royal Society of Canada (2019) / Marie Battiste and James Sákéj Youngblood Henderson, endorsed by John Borrows, Margaret Kovach, Kiera Ladner, Vianne Timmons, and Jacqueline Ottmann -- 14 Golden Eagle Rising: a conversation on Indigenous knowledge and the Royal Society of Canada / Shain Jackson and Cynthia E. Milton -- Afterword: closing circle words / Margaret Kovach.
Corporate Subject:
Language:
English
