Re-covenanting and the Apology for the Residential Schools by M. Shivaun Corry B.A. (Hons.), Simon Fraser University, 2009 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Communication Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology M. Shivaun Corry 2012 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2012 Approval Name: M. Shivaun Corry Degree: Master of Arts (Communications) Title of Thesis: Re-covenanting and the Apology for the Residential Schools Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Frederik Lesage Assistant Professor Dr. Gary McCarron Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Brook Pearson Supervisor Lecturer Dr. Stuart Poyntz Internal Examiner Associate Professor Date Defended/Approved: December 14, 2012 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract This thesis analyses Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Apology for the Indian Residential School System and its media coverage as a process of re-covenanting. The author demonstrates that, by splitting the totem of the identity of Canada into a sinning chapter and an essential national character, members of the totem domain were able to sacrifice the totem of Canada, which had been polluted through violations of the beliefs in equality and human rights in the residential school system though the symbolic sacrifice of the leader and representative of the people, the Prime Minister. After sacrificing the totem of the sinning nation through the humiliation of the confession of sin and apology, the totem was regenerated to its unpolluted, ideal state. This apology process constitutes a narrative of re-covenanting in line with Abrahamic and more universal religious structures, reaffirming our commitment to the values of the apology. iv Dedication To those who forgive. v Acknowledgements I would like express my deepest gratitude to my senior supervisor, Dr. Gary McCarron, who inspired me to join the communications department and for his hard work and patience. I would also like the sincerely thank my second supervisor Dr. Brook Pearson for putting up with my panics. In addition, thank you to Dr. Stuart Poyntz, Dr. Christine Jones, Dr. Kirstin McAllister, Dr. Bryan Hayden, Dr. Jody Baker and Bernie Bowker whose classes inspired me to conduct this research. I would also like recognize the help of Dr. Roman Onufrijchuk, who directed me towards the work of Kenneth Burke and, more importantly, acted as my cultural interpreter in the foreign land of academia. I would also like to acknowledge that this work would not have been completed without the financial assistance of Simon Fraser University and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the inspiration from discussions with my fellow graduate students and the amateur sociologists and fellow flaneurs Calvin Martin and Hakan Ozboz. Finally, I would like to thank my father for teaching me the joys of the life of the mind and to my mother, whose love, dedication and joy is an inspiration. vi Table of Contents Approval .......................................................................................................................... ii Partial Copyright Licence ............................................................................................... iii Abstract .......................................................................................................................... iv Dedication ....................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ vi Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... vii List of Tables .................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures................................................................................................................. ix 1. Introduction: A New Covenant............................................................................. 1 1.1. The Concept of the Covenant ................................................................................. 2 1.1.1. Covenant and Sacrifice: .............................................................................. 5 1.1.2. Covenantal Framework ............................................................................... 5 1.1.3. Re-Covenanting and the Burkean Order ................................................... 10 1.2. Chapter Outline .................................................................................................... 12 1.3. Significance of the Study: ..................................................................................... 14 2. Literature Review: Apology and Ritual ............................................................ 16 2.1. The Public Apology Defined and Explained .......................................................... 16 2.1.1. The Modern Term ..................................................................................... 17 2.2. The Proliferation of the Public Apology ................................................................. 20 2.3. The Importance of the Apology and the “Predicament of Irreversibility” ................ 24 2.4. Civil Religion and Secular Ritual ........................................................................... 26 2.4.1. Religion, Ritual, Social Cohesion and Power ............................................ 27 2.4.2. Bellah’s “Civil Religion in America” ............................................................ 28 2.4.3. Civil Religion in Canada ............................................................................ 30 2.5. The Role of the Media in the Apology Ritual ......................................................... 31 2.6. Media Events ........................................................................................................ 32 2.6.1. Media and the Public Sphere .................................................................... 32 2.6.2. The Media Event as Secular Ritual ........................................................... 33 2.6.3. The interaction of organizers, broadcasters, and audience ....................... 36 2.6.4. Framing: A Conscious or Unconscious Process? ...................................... 38 3. Theoretical Underpinnings: Re-covenanting .................................................... 41 3.1. In the Beginning: The Creation of the Sin and the Cycle of Redemption ............... 42 3.1.1. The need for the narrative of Order, Pollution, Sacrifice, and Redemption .............................................................................................. 44 3.1.2. The Concept of the Totem......................................................................... 48 3.1.3. Defining Identity in Opposition to the Scapegoat ....................................... 51 3.1.4. Words as medicine.................................................................................... 54 3.2. Canada’s Original Sin ........................................................................................... 56 4. Analysis: From a Sad Chapter to a New Dawn ................................................. 58 4.1. Key Frames .......................................................................................................... 59 4.1.1. Revelation ................................................................................................. 60 vii 4.1.2. The Search for an Adequate Sacrifice ....................................................... 60 4.1.3. Symbolic sacrifice through humiliation: lowering to raise, killing to be born again ................................................................................................. 62 4.1.4. The Power to Heal .................................................................................... 67 4.1.5. Catharsis ................................................................................................... 68 4.1.6. Splitting the Sinning Nation from the Cleansed Nation .............................. 70 4.1.7. Rebirth ...................................................................................................... 76 4.1.8. Uniting the nation through the media event ............................................... 79 4.2. Missing Frames: What’s Not There ....................................................................... 83 4.2.1. The Totem Secret ..................................................................................... 83 4.3. The Narrative ........................................................................................................ 87 5. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 88 5.1. Reasons for Pessimism ........................................................................................ 88 5.2. Reasons for optimism ........................................................................................... 91 5.3. The Necessity of Further Research ...................................................................... 94 5.3.1. Backlash ................................................................................................... 94 5.4. The Future ............................................................................................................ 95 References ..................................................................................................................