ARTFUL PLACES: CREATIVITY AND COLONIALISM IN BRITISH COLUMBIA’S INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS Sarah de Leeuw A thesis submitted to the Department of Geography in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada September 2007 © Sarah de Leeuw, 2007 ABSTRACT Residential schools for Aboriginal children were a primary site of negotiations between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous subjects. These schools, and the records of peoples who occupied them, provide opportunities to better understand colonialism in British Columbia. Residential schools were places created to transform Aboriginal children, through assimilation, into a modernizing and colonial society. They are simultaneously places that offer access to Indigenous articulations of self and Indigeneity, expressions of resistance, and exertions of agency. Cultural products created by children in residential schools, particularly creative art products, allow us to visualize and understand Indigenous response to and evasions of colonial education. When taken together with Aboriginal peoples’ testimonies about the residential school experience, and with colonial records of the schools’ intents, children’s creative materials and expressions allow some access to the complex places that constituted the cultural geography of colonialism in British Columbia. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Years ago, when I was the Coordinator of the Terrace Women’s Resource Centre and worked with a number of First Nations individuals and organizations in northern British Columbia, I was constantly reminded by those with whom I worked that “it takes a community to raise a child.” The same might be said about writing a Ph.D. dissertation: it takes a community. Without a large and vibrant community of thoughtful, supportive, kind, humorous, and stimulating people, I could never have completed a dissertation, let alone all the other requirements of a Ph.D. So profound have people’s influences been on my thinking, I sometimes do not have the words to express my gratitude. But I will try. My supervisors, Audrey Kobayashi and Anne Godlewska, are the bedrock of this research. Without them, I simply never could have expressed the story I wanted to tell. It was fortuitous that most members of my committee were also people from whom I took classes. In their willingness to have conversations with me, inside and outside the classroom, Linda Jessup, Peter Goheen, and Laura Cameron expanded my understandings of geography, art theory, and the many other (often un-nameable) aspects of undertaking graduate research and writing a dissertation. The Department of Geography at Queen’s University was my home away from home for four years. Consequently, the people who populated the Department’s halls became close friends and confidantes, each contributing to my thinking and working, and my enjoyment of everyday life. Mark Rosenberg, Eric Moore, Barry Riddell, Betsy Donald, Beverly Mullings, Joyce Davidson, and John Holmes have all, in unique and individual ways, ii sustained me as I worked on this research. The same is true of Joan Knox, Kathy Hoover, Sharon Mohammed, and Sheila MacDonald: I often suspect that without the presence of these four women, there would be no Department of Geography at Queen’s. I was once told that without friendship, life is meaningless. I know without hesitation that those who privilege me with their friendships are those who make my life meaningful. I consider developing life-long friendships with Mark Skinner, Emilie Cameron, David Fortin and Karen Cocq a far greater achievement during my time at Queen’s than completing a Ph.D. The wonderful thing about life-long friendships is their durability: over the four years of working on a Ph.D., and during the many years prior to this work, I have counted on the durability and patience of many. Thank you to Carmen Ellison, Allison Sivak, Renee Prassad, Deborah Thien, Kevin Knox, Peter Hepburn, Debbie Scarborough and Stephanie Forsyth, Melissa Munn, Esther de Leeuw, David Mathers, Jennifer Clinesmith, Greer Kaiser, Mike Pacey and his daughters Nadia and Danny, Jess and John Dafoe, Toby Moorsom, Thomas Gleeson, Jess and Shawn Place, Christiana Weins, Margo Greenwood, Tina Fraser, Warner Adam, and, without question and most importantly of all, Luke Eades. More recently I have had the pleasure of developing new friendships, many of which sustained me in the final weeks and months of writing a dissertation, moving towards defence, and keeping my head above water. I am thankful to Gordon Hunter, Michaela Buenemann, Sandy Dall’Erba, J.P. Jones III, Sallie Marston, Steve Yool, Mathew Kurtz, Carla Lewis, Sandy Griffin, and Jane Rogers for their unwavering beliefs that everything would be fine. It was also my profound pleasure to have been examined by Cole Harris during the defence of my dissertation; he has left me both inspired and aware of the ongoing work this project deserves. iii At a very pragmatic level, all research requires funding and the willingness of professionals to assist in tracking down materials, references, and other odds-and-ends. My work was generously funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Graduate Scholarship program, and Queen’s University. I am in debt to the all the staff, archivists, and volunteers at the following long list of institutions: Queen’s University Library, Port Alberni District Historical Society Archives and Alberni Valley Museum Archives, Alert Bay Community Museum, UBC Rare Books and Archives, Anglican Dioceses of Caledonia Archives, Archives of the Dioceses of Prince George, British Columbia Archives, Chemainus Valley Historical Museum and Archives, Chilliwack Community Archives, Kitimat Centennial Museum and Kitimat Centennial Museum Archives, Ktunaxa-Kinbasket Tribal Council Archives, Les Archives Deschâtelets - Oblates de Marie Immaculée, Lytton Museum and Archives, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Royal British Columbia Museum, Secwepemc Cultural Education Society Archives, St. Anne’s Academy Archives, Union of British Columbian Indian Chiefs, Williams Lake Library and Community Archives, and the Yale and District Historic Society and the Historic Yale Museum. Thank you to every person behind every desk I arrived at. No other two people play a more important role in my life and work than Mary and Dionys de Leeuw. Thank you mum and dad – for everything. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements............................................................................................................. ii List of Tables, Figures, and Images.................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Thinking Matters Through...................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: “But Let Us Not Forget…”..................................................................................................6 Chapter 3: “Mutually and Inexorably Entwined Histories:” Voices and Deliberations of Colonial British Columbia ...............................................................................................................24 3.a From Different Places: The Written Histories that Produce British Columbia ...................................................................................................26 3.b Places Apart and Separating Places: Considerations of British Columbia’s Eighteen Indian Residential Schools .........................................................43 3.c A Placed Summary: Locating New Methodologies and Possibilities for Expanding British Columbia’s Colonial Histories ....................................53 Chapter 4: “The Indian in Transition, The Indian Today:” Shifts and Developments of Indian Schooling Policies in Canada.............................................................................................61 4.a. “Effectual Means of Ameliorating the Condition of the Indians:” The Bagot Commission and Early Indian Policies in Canada ..........................67 4.b To “Have Them Constantly in Hand:” Acts that Governed Indians in Canada........................................................................................................73 4.c “Long Range Objectives:” Constructions of the Indian Into the 20th Century.......................................................................................................89 Chapter 5: “If We Want the Future of the Tribe to Be Happy, We Must Save the Children:” Colonial Imaginings and Transformations in British Columbia’s Residential Schools...................95 5.a “Responsibility for the Advantages Enjoyed and the Paramount Duty of Serving Others:” Alice Ravenhill and the Colonial Project in British Columbia ...................................................................................................99 5.b Needing “No Apology:” Perspectives of Residential School Teachers and Administrators at The Kitimat Home for Girls........................................111 v 5.c “The Pupils Patiently Trained Me:” Experiences and Views from St. George’s Indian Residential School ........................................................132 Chapter 6: “School Discipline is Thought of As an Over-all Plan:” The Material Places of Residential Schools in British Columbia .........................................................................140