Royally Wronged | McGill-Queen’s University Press (original) (raw)

Probing Royal Society of Canada scholars’ complicity in the marginalization of Indigenous knowledge and the destruction of Indigenous communities.

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.

"This valuable and timely collection should spark reflection and conversation both within and beyond the Royal Society of Canada. Royally Wronged helps unravel the lingering legacies of colonialism in the ‘knowledge' we have produced." Sarah Carter, University of Alberta and author of Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy

“Representing courage, resilience, and resurgence, [the cover image] captures the recurring themes and ultimate promise of Royally Wronged, a wonderful collection of essays about the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), its historical treatment of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledge, and where it might go from here. Animating Royally Wronged is an earnest and genuine effort to think through Canada as a colonial project and to assess the place of knowledge, knowledge networks, and knowledge dissemination in that project.” University of Toronto Quarterly

Constance Backhouse is professor of law at the University of Ottawa.

Cynthia E. Milton is professor of history at the University of Victoria.

Margaret Kovach is professor of education, Department of Educational Studies, at the University of British Columbia.

Adele Perry is distinguished professor, history and women's and gender studies, and director of the Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba.

Figures xi

Foreword xiii
Cindy Blackstock

Introduction: The Royal Society of Canada and the Marginalization of Indigenous Knowledge 3
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 21
Ian Wereley

2 Duncan Campbell Scott and the Royal Society of Canada: The Legitimation of Knowledge 59
Constance Backhouse

3 “Perhaps the white man’s God has willed it so”: Reconsidering the “Indian” Poems of Pauline Johnson and Duncan Campbell Scott 88
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, 1913-14 111
Adele Perry

PART TWO: THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA AND ACADEMIC WRITINGS

5 Three Fellows in Mi’kma’ki: The Power of the Avocational 131
John G. Reid

6 “Not a little disappointment”: Forging Postcolonial Academies from Emulation and Exclusion 152
Cynthia E. Milton

7 Nostra Culpa? Reflections on “The Indian in Canadian Historical Writing” 179
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 203
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 230
Jane Bailey

10 Murder They Wrote: Unknown Knowns and Windsor Law’s Statement Regarding R. v. Stanley 250
Reem Bahdi

11 History in the Public Interest: Teaching Decolonisation through the RSC Archive 276
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 298
Joanna R. Quinn

PART FOUR: FUTURE DIRECTIONS

13 Memorandum to the Royal Society of Canada (2019) 319
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 326
Shain Jackson and Cynthia E. Milton

Afterword: Closing Circle Words 335
Margaret Kovach
Contributors 345
Index 353