BOUNDARIES OF POSSIBILITY: RACE, NOSTALGIA AND THE SASKATCHEWAN CENTENNIAL by Lynn Audrey Caldwell A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto © Copyright by Lynn Audrey Caldwell (2008) Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44816-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44816-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada BOUNDARIES OF POSSIBILITY: RACE, NOSTALGIA AND THE SASKATCHEWAN CENTENNIAL Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Lynn Audrey Caldwell Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education University of Toronto Abstract In Boundaries of Possibility: Race, Nostalgia and the Saskatchewan Centennial, I draw from critical race theory and cultural studies to investigate moments from Saskatchewan Centennial celebrations. Through event observation, interviews with event organizers, and analysis of visual and textual materials, I examine how Saskatchewan is commemorated as a place, as people, and as a past. My analysis interrogates nostalgic identifications with a European invader-settler story toward developing increasingly equitable, heterogeneous and multi-cultured understandings of Canada and Canadian citizenship. This research takes up questions of nostalgia, attachments, irretrievable losses and desired returns, and I structure my line of questioning as a route through which to unsettle invader-settler Saskatchewan fictions and their hold on possibility - and on territory and history. The theoretical framework includes a recognition that the tension between coherence and fracture in commemorative practices means that this Centennial is not one monolithic event consistent in its productions. A critical race perspective further underlines that to the extent that the Centennial does appear consensual and unified, it does so through denials of or diversions from the ongoing and racialized iniquities of colonial nation-building. ii This analysis of race and nostalgia reveals ways that the intentionality and violence of colonization is neutralized or modified in what is imagined as a "reconciliatory" terrain of Saskatchewan, depicted as not so far removed from the processes of colonizing modernity, with a landscape that is not seen to be dramatically/excessively industrialized or urbanized. I argue that Saskatchewan is available and accessed in very particular ways in the sticking of colonial racism to nation in Canada - and that certain attachments to Saskatchewan as a knowable place, population and past contribute uniquely and persistently to ongoing racist national formations. The 2005 Centennial has presented a vital opportunity to decipher such attachments and their particularities; and, the analysis and conclusions of this thesis propose directions for intervention and for reconfigured possibilities. in Acknowledgments My supervisor, Sherene Razack, has been inspiring teacher and guide through this project as well as through many conversations that led to its beginnings, and I am so deeply grateful for her direction and generous encouragements throughout. The members of my thesis committee, Roger Simon and Kari Dehli, and at the defense also Martin Cannon, each provided such thoughtful and engaged readings that continue to shift my perspectives and deepen my commitments in ways that will extend beyond these pages. For close reading and feedback that has broadened the scope of how I situate and imagine the work, I am very grateful to external examiner Diana Brydon. It is hardly possible to adequately acknowledge how much I have learned from OISE/UT student colleagues and friends in ways that have informed this project and shape my imaginings and hopes for much more. Carrianne Leung and Melanie Knight especially, and in so many ways, each provided much encouragement and insight at critical moments and shared many pivotal conversations through every stage of the design and writing. I am also deeply appreciative of learning in the good company of friends and colleagues extraordinaire: Allison Burgess, Andrea Fatona, Anne Wagner, Bonnie Slade (great to have your company for the final stretch!), Carmela Murdocca, Catherine Burwell, Darryl Leroux, Eve Haque, Gada Mahrouse, Gulzar Charania, Holly Baines, Nathaniel Paul, Nupur Gogia (thanks for great company during days in the library!), Paula Butler, Simone Browne, Susan Ferguson, Suzanne Lenon, and Vannina Sztainbok, and collectively various configurations of the SESE student caucus, and students in Sherene's thesis group. I am so grateful for so much I have learned about scholarship, politics, equity, ethics, humour and who knows what else from you all in various encounters along the way, and particularly through some very, very good food fests with many of you. Big thanks also for acts of support and encouragement in Toronto to Brad Berg, Catherine Rose, Christopher Lind, Ena Dua, Gail Allan, Hal Thomas-Rose, Heather Williams, Jennifer Janzen-Ball, Jim Kirkwood, Julie Graham, Karen Williams, Kerry Fast, Lynette Plett (special thanks for extraordinary acts of patience, insight and friendship as I navigated the final months!), Marilyn Legge, Marion Kirkwood, Michael Bourgeois, Noelle Bowles, Savitri Dua, Ralph Wushke, and friends at Bathurst. An extra dose of gratitude for those with whom I shared households at various stages as I was completing this text, including Digger and Bella. Yes, Digger, we had our moments but I loved and appreciated you dearly as a companion in the house! And to all housemates, thank you for conversation and assistance in so many forms. I am also so grateful to Jim and Marion, and to Leif Vaage in Toronto; and to my parents, to my brother and family, and to Brenda MacLauchlan and Ruth Blaser in Saskatchewan for opportunities to be tenant, house-sitter, or frequent extended visitor in your households during my years and travels as a graduate student. Many repeated and generous acts of hospitality have been an immense support to me in the completion of this thesis. For ongoing encouragements in Saskatchewan directly related to this project both academically and personally, I am grateful to Carol Schick, Catherine Barnsley, Mary Jeanne Barrett, Nettie Wiebe, and to Alison Calder and Warren Cariou (even though you IV two aren't exactly in Saskatchewan - adding a Winnipeg paragraph is more complexity than these acknowledgments need!). Thank you to women at a feminist network event in Saskatchewan who invited me to discuss this research with them very early on and in ways that helped me to see the importance of this work; and to Ruth and Brenda who provide so much more than a household to land in for stays in Regina. There are many more friends in the complex geographies of thought and travel to whom I owe and will express words of thanks directly. The questions and analysis of this project have been shaped very much through engagements in graduate course work and I gratefully acknowledge the teaching of course instructors, including the members of my thesis committee, and also especially Sheryl Nestel (teacher of my first and my final course taken at OISE/UT, and generous advisor always). I am grateful also for experiences as teaching assistant in Canadian Studies courses, and have learned much that relates to these pages in conversation with undergraduate students in tutorials and on the pages of assignments, my teaching assistant colleagues Carrianne Leung and Allison Burgess, and professors Emily Gilbert, Joanne Saul, and Todd Gordon. Much appreciation to Danny Wilson at the Centennial Office for an early and helpful conversation about the planning of Centennial events, which helped me in the selection