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Fragments of Truth

Residential Schools and the Challenge of Reconciliation in Canada

Fragments of Truth cover image Read the Introduction

Book

Pages: 240

Illustrations: 54 illustrations

Published: October 2022

Author: Naomi Angel

Editors: Dylan Robinson, Jamie Berthe

Contributors: Jamie Berthe, Eugenia Kisin

In 2008, the Canadian government established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to review the history of the residential school system, a brutal colonial project that killed and injured many Indigenous children and left a legacy of trauma and pain. In Fragments of Truth Naomi Angel analyzes the visual culture of reconciliation and memory in relation to this complex and painful history. In her analyses of archival photographs from the residential school system, representations of the schools in popular media and literature, and testimonies from TRC proceedings, Angel traces how the TRC served as a mechanism through which memory, trauma, and visuality became apparent. She shows how many Indigenous communities were able to use the TRC process as a way to claim agency over their memories of the schools. Bringing to light the ongoing costs of transforming settler states into modern nations, Angel demonstrates how the TRC offers a unique optic through which to survey the long history of colonial oppression of Canada’s Indigenous populations.

Praise

“In Fragments of Truth, Naomi Angel has left us with a wide-ranging meditation on the visual legacies of colonialism. Her unsettling reflections on the afterlife of images guide us through the troubled history of residential schools and their aftermath. She is both agent and observer of a shift in relations of looking, offering a unique perspective on truth, memory, national identity, and the meaning of reconciliation.” - Ronald Niezen, author of #HumanRights: The Technologies and Politics of Justice Claims in Practice

". . . [T]he book is recommended reading, offering informative perspectives that will broaden understandings about what happened and what remains to be done in pursuing meaningful pathways towards reconciliation. It is a powerful reminder that it is imperative for us to continue to probe these  issues so that the future actions (both collective and individual) are undertaken in a manner that is well-informed, open, and reflexive." - Terry Wotherspoon, Historical Studies in Education

"Fragments of Truth is a powerful story of one woman’s journey of looking at the IRS TRC, and the layers and fragments of meanings behind the concept of “truth.” For anyone hoping to earn a greater under-standing of both Indian residential schools and the path towards truth, Fragments of Truth is a must-read." - Jewel Cummins, American Indian Culture and Research Journal

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Naomi Angel (1977–2014) completed her PhD in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University in 2013.

Dylan Robinson is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts at Queen’s University.

Jamie Berthe is Lecturer at New York University.

Table Of Contents

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Preface. Tracing Memory in Naomi Angel’s Archive / Jamie Berthe and Eugenia Kisin  ix
Acknowledgments / Marita Sturken and Faye Ginsburg  xix
Introduction. Reconciliation and Remembrance  1
1. Reconciliation as a Way of Seeing: The History and Context of the Indian Residential School System  19
2. Images of Contact: Archival Photographs and the Work of Reconciliation in Canada  54
3. Nations Gather: Public Testimony and the Politics of Affect  90
4. Reconciliation as a Ghostly Encounter: Discourses of Haunting and Indian Residential Schools  125
Conclusion. Fragments of Truth: Concluding Gestures    160
Notes  167
Bibliography  189
Index  207

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Additional Information

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Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-1857-5 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4780-1593-2 / eISBN: 978-1-4780-2317-3 / DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478023173