Education work: Canadian schools and the emergence of indigenous social movements

This dissertation explores 20th century Canadian assimilationist educational systems and the emergence of contemporary indigenous social movements. It focuses on the ways in which schools contributed to transformations in identities and the division of labor in indigenous communities at the local scale, and, conversely, how the state transformed the division of labor for indigenous peoples. Finally, I examine how shared experiences and symbols from resistance to these schooling processes were used by indigenous activists in the construction of indigenous social movements pushing for indigenous land rights and sovereignty. Each substantive chapter of this dissertation reflects a different site that helps illustrate these processes at work. First, I detail the genocidal consequences of transformations in the division of labor in the first half of the twentieth century. Next, I examine vocational training programs for Residential School students and the ways in which labor, gender, and morality interacted in the mid-twentieth century. I then study efforts by a local indigenous community to have a day school built after forced relocation to a reserve without a school. After that, I study racialized integrated schooling efforts and the use of quota systems for the admittance of indigenous children in public schools in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, I look to the historical moment of the White Paper of 1969 and its effect on indigenous social movements, particularly in the context of news media.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Riopelle, Cameron

Contributors dc:contributor

• McDermott, Monica
• Gille, Zsuzsa
• Sandefur, Rebecca
• Byrd, Jodi
• Kral, Michael

• Canada
• Indigenous
• Residential schools
• Day schools
• Colonialism
• Vocational training
• White Paper of 1969

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Cameron Riopelle

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97402

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97402