“Canada has no history of Colonialism.” Historical Amnesia: The Erasure of Indigenous Peoples from Canada’s History.
Date
2014-12-18
Authors
Shrubb, Rebecca
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Abstract
Over the past decade, the Ontario Ministry of Education has committed to increase relevant teaching material for Indigenous students. While seemingly significant, a mere “increase” in “Indigenous content” is not enough to combat the racist and colonial mentality inherent within the Ontario history curriculum. Canadian history is steeped with idealistic, imperialist discourses organized around keywords such as peacekeeping and multiculturalism, as well as progress, development, identity, and nation building. The latter serve to not only erase, but also to legitimize the atrocities of Canada’s colonial past. At the 2009 G20 meeting, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated, “Canada has no history of colonialism.” In keeping with scholars such as Smith and Alfred and Corntassel, I argue that not only does Canada have a history of colonialism, but the mainstream curriculum must be decolonized if Canada is to move towards an equal and just society. The theory guiding this research is decolonial theory. In addition, Fairclough’s conceptualization of Systematic Textual Analysis provides the methodological basis for this project. I analyse three textbooks approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education for the grade ten history curriculum, as well as supplementary curriculum documents. Considering two objectives, change and a colonial mentality, I find only modest change between 2000, 2006, and 2008 in Indigenous content in the curriculum. Further, a colonial mentality continued to be deeply entrenched within all three textbooks and the history curriculum itself. This research seeks to open up the questions and responsibilities pertaining to the wrongs of the past and contribute to the burgeoning field of decolonized knowledges and education.
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Keywords
Sociology, Education, Decolonial Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Indigenous education, History, Curriculum, Colonialism, Racism, Multiculturalism, Indigenous knowledges