Session 2

The Ethics of Queer Archives: Curatorial Practice’s Responsibility to Celebrate, Preserve, and Make Accessible – Callie Melter

Abstract: This paper compares archival projects that celebrate queer life (like The ArQuives) with material holdings at Library and Archives Canada that trace the purging of those suspected of “homosexual activity” from the Canadian Armed Forces from the 1950s-1990s. My paper identifies and assesses archival practices in order to examine the ethical considerations that institutions make when curating archives of queer life. Taking an historical and archival approach, I ask how historical documents that trace queer trauma can be reclaimed by archival projects so that queer archival materials are under the stewardship of the queer community and so too contribute to the makeup of that community.

This project is motivated by the nation-wide class action lawsuit that was launched in 2016 against the Canadian Government by survivors of the LGBT Purge. The Complainants argued that they had been unfairly excluded from their duties as Civil Servants based on the grounds of their participation in homosexual behaviour. When a settlement was reached in 2018 in favour of the Complainants, a not-for-profit corporation was established in order to manage a portion of the funds that were awarded to survivors for the work of reconciliation and memorialization. This corporation, The LGBT Purge Fund, is working to collect, preserve, and make accessible approximately 11,000 pages of archival material that the Canadian Government was obligated to turn over as a part of the settlement. These documents contribute to a larger picture of LGBT+ life in Canada and will be the object of focus for this paper.

 Biography: Callie Metler is a second year PhD candidate in English Literature. Her research interests include women’s autobiography, comics, and archive studies. Since completing her comprehensive exams on Gay and Lesbian literature in November, she has been researching for her dissertation which will examine archives of queer life in Canada.

Dismantling the Euro Canadian school system and rebuilding an inclusive learning environment with equitable Indigenous perspectives and knowledge within the curriculum – Jamie McCullough

Abstract: I am interested in researching racism in education and the need to create space for Indigenous knowledges within the Euro Canadian education system. The education system in Canada was originally established for the success of a white middle-class society, while all other classes and races either conformed through manipulation and pressure or were altogether excluded through barriers of language, class and lived experiences. Indigenous people were forced to attend residential schools where they were stripped of their culture, language, family, and identity. The relationship between Indigenous people and the school system has strong elements of resistance, abuse, trauma, neglect, and loneliness. Non- Indigenous educators who are teaching Indigenous education, must be prepared to relearn the historical truths of intergeneration trauma from the residential school era, to build authentic and inclusive spaces for Indigenous youth in schools. For the education system to create safe spaces, the school structures must be dismantled and rebuild through the lens of critical pedagogy.

Critical pedagogy works to decontextualize Eurocentric epistemologies and to seek social justice, fairness, and equality in education. Critical theory and critical pedagogy both have the potential to transform traditional pedagogy. The education system needs transformational changes from all levels, including government and community, to promote an authentic learning environment. Critical pedagogy works to deconstruct dominant power dynamics and anthropocentric views, which will require stepping outside of the framework of education and dismantling the colonial view of education and its relationship to progress and modernity. Taking a critical lens to education means looking at the sites of education and how they hold power, distribute knowledge, and reproduce ‘social norms’ that become normalized through repetition.

 Biography: Jamie McCullough is in her third year of the SICS PhD program and working on her dissertation proposal. She is interested in race and racism in education and inclusive pedagogy. Her research will seek to produce resources that will assist non-Indigenous educators teaching Indigenous studies. In her career, she is the director of programs at Experiences Canada and has built a strong network of educators across Canada, whom will be involved in her research in an advisory role. She is a wife, aunt, sister and proud mom to 4 children.

Resisting Colonial Extractive Research Methods: An Argument for Critical Discourse Analysis – Katherine Morton Richards

Abstract: Too often within settler-colonial academia, Indigenous people and communities are treated as “sources” of data, available for harvesting and settler analysis. Even in work that seeks to be with and for Indigenous people, there is an all-too-common pressure for research to be extractive in nature. Over the course of several years, this pressure to be extractive clashed with my intentions as a settler colonial researcher interested in exploring the meaning-making found within Indigenous-state relations and their symbols in Canada. In this manuscript, I discuss not only the decision based on the current political climate and shifting research priorities to end my PhD research field work, but also offer an assessment of critical discourse analysis as a less oppressive method for studies of settler colonialism.

This assessment of critical discourse analysis and also what remains of my abandoned project read together as an exploration of what alternative data collection may look like for settler-colonial researchers combatting the pressure to be extractive in settler research involving Indigeneity, colonialism, and Indigenous-state relations.

Biography: Katherine (she/her) is a settler researcher, originally from unceded Coast Salish territory who know works, lives, and researches on unceded Mi’kmaq territory and traditional territory of the Beothuk. Katherine teaches in law and society, sociology, political science, and history in the areas of Indigenous-State relations and Indigenous identity. She is ABD in her PhD program and holds a MA in Political Science. Katherine’s research interests include intersections between gender and Indigeneity, colonial violence, place making, hitchhiking, and ugliness as a political category.