Building a Legacy: (Re)Visiting Community-Sheltered Histories of Residential Schools in Canada

people in orange shirts looking a brick building

Building a Legacy: (Re)Visiting Community-Sheltered Histories of Residential Schools in Canada

Among many actions, reconciliation responds to the structural legacy of Indian Residential Schools (IRS). Studying the architectural histories, alongside Survivors’ recollections of their lived experiences within these institutions narrativizes the un/told stories that find shelter in their design and spatiality. These narratives guide the reconstruction and reconstitution of former IRS sites as restorative places for future generations. By centring community-led projects, including those at the Sandy Bay Residential School and the Mohawk Institute, as well as calling for the dismantling of colonial narratives that inform denialism, this roundtable discussion invites us to consider the importance of community-sheltered histories that strengths the truth and honours the memories of Survivors and their families.

Presenters

Jamie Nienhuysen is a member of Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation and a PhD student in the Indigenous Studies program at the University of Manitoba. She also serves as the project coordinator for Sandy Bay’s Search for Missing Children and Unmarked Burials project. Jamie’s research focuses on community-based historical documentary work exploring the history and legacy of the Sandy Bay Indian Residential School.

Cody Groat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the Indigenous Studies Program at Western University. He is a Kanyen'kehaka citizen of Six Nations of the Grand River. Cody is the Project Lead for a UNESCO World Heritage nomination of former residential school properties and is the author of Always a Part of the Land: the Federal Commemoration of Indigenous Histories (2026).

Magdalena Miłosz is a settler/immigrant writer and architectural historian based on the Haldimand Tract/Kitchener, Ontario and is a doctoral candidate at McGill University. As a historian at Parks Canada, she collaborated on research in support of Tk̓emlúps Te Secwépemc’s nomination of the former Kamloops Residential School as a national historic site. Website: www.magdalenamilosz.com

Sean Carleton is a settler historian and Associate Professor of History and Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of Lessons in Legitimacy: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Rise of State Schooling in British Columbia and co-editor of Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism.
Social Media: @seancarleton.bsky.social