Unlearning Distorted Views of History: Residential Schools and Reconciliation

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne speaks with award-winning author Jim R. Miller about his book Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts its History published by University of Toronto Press originally in 2017 and reprinted in paperback in 2022. In his book, Miller addresses and explains the institutional responses to Canada’s residential school legacy. Providing an analysis of archival material and interviews with former students, politicians, bureaucrats, church officials, and the Chief Commissioner of the TRC, Miller reveals a major obstacle to achieving reconciliation – the inability of Canadians at large to overcome their flawed, overly positive understanding of their country’s history. This provocative work asks Canadians to accept that the root of the problem was Canadians like them in the past who acquiesced to aggressively assimilative policies. Jim Miller is a professor emeritus of history and a former Canada Research chair and native newcomer. Relations at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of numerous works on issues related to Indigenous peoples including Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens and Shingwauk’s Vision. Miller authored the first ever accounts of Canada's residential school system and shaped public understanding of issues including treaty rights. He is an officer of the Order of Canada, a winner of the SSHRC Gold Medal for Achievement and Research, and winner of the 2014 Killam Prize in the Humanities. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.