Books and Broomsticks: Prairie Indigenous Female Domestic Workers and the Canadian Outing System, 1888-1901

This thesis discusses the Canadian outing system, a direct feature of industrial schools in the prairie west prominent in the late nineteenth century. Seen as an extension of the school’s vocational training, the outing system became an outlet with which the Canadian federal government’s Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) could integrate into the lower ranks of Euro-Canadian society young Indigenous girls in a hierarchical system of labour. By examining the roles and education of Indigenous female youth in the industrial school system in the Canadian prairies, this study illuminates how, in the name of assimilation, the DIA implemented the outing system. This thesis highlights how young Indigenous women were compelled to work in homes that exemplified settler values, taking on strenuous labour in environments where attitudes of race and class dimensions were prominent. By drawing from 1901 census data and looking at the settler homes, farms, and establishments in which they worked, this thesis provides an important glimpse into the early history of domestic work for Indigenous women and girls in western Canada and offers insights into the very nature of settler colonialism in early Canadian national history.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Arts

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Nason, Sarah Faye

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Colpitts, George

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Janovicek, Nancy
• Starblanket, Gina

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36963

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/110891