The Scope of the TRC in Canadian Francophone Contexts

Editorial Team:

Nancy Wiscutie-Crépeau, University of Ottawa

Jo Anni Joncas, Université de Sherbrooke,

Laurie Pageau, Université Laval 

Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, University of Ottawa

 

“Canadians have much to benefit from listening to the voices, experiences, and wisdom of Survivors, Elders, and Traditional Knowledge Keepers—and much more to learn about reconciliation. Aboriginal peoples have an important contribution to make to reconciliation. Their knowledge systems, oral histories, laws, and connections to the land have vitally informed the reconciliation process to date, and are essential to its ongoing progress.” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2015, p. 9) As we enter the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, set to begin in 2022, we feel it is crucial that all Canadians, both Anglophones and Francophones, have access to resources to fully understand the scope of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) (2015) and its Calls to Action (Tupper, 2014). Yet, to our knowledge, a large majority of the research is still addressed to a majority English-speaking Canadian context (and mostly in English). For example, Anglophone provincial policies related to public schooling curricula and/or teacher education programs are a step ahead in terms of addressing the 94 Calls to action put forth by the TRC (2015) (Pilote and Joncas, 2020). The same is true for research.

 

Côté (2019) notes that "research on issues of integration of Aboriginal perspectives in French-language education in Canada is in its infancy, in both majority and minority settings" (personal translation; p. 25). Added to this is the small number of French-language resources in education that address First Nations, Inuit and Metis histories, perspectives and contemporary issues. However, within Canadian Francophone contexts, school and university communities have unique historical and contemporary relationships with Indigenous Peoples that require a fine-grained understanding in order to implement the TRC's (2015) Calls to Action. As an example, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (NIMMIWG) has produced the additional "Kepek-Québec" (2019) report to account for specific relationships and particular issues, such as the language barrier in that province.

 

The demands to recognize unique relations among Francophone and Indigenous People in Canada are tinged with respect, but also a desire to draw attention to their particular identity claims (Salée, 1995). Lefevre-Radelli and Dufour's (2016) study of francophone and anglophone universities in Montreal identify a distinction between them regarding the politics of inclusion of Indigenous perspectives, which they situate in relation to differing political, geographic and linguistic contexts, and by the conflicting relations between Quebec nationalism and Indigenous nationalisms. Among Francophones in minority settings, Côté (2019) explains that "the Other remains the Anglophone majority. Francophones do not seem to realize that they are the Other of the Indigenous People" (p. 34). Regardless of the Francophone context (minority or majority), knowledge about the issues and challenges of reconciliation are emerging. Moreover, the research that has been undertaken and the initiatives that have emerged in some settings are still poorly documented (Bousquet, 2016; Boutouchent, Phipps, Armstrong, & Vachon-Savary, 2019; Côté, 2019; Dufour, 2021; Joncas & Larivière, 2017; Kermoal & Gareau, 2019; Lévesque, 2019). The paucity of work on indigenization, reconciliation, decolonization (Battiste, 2013; Tuck and Yang, 2012), and issues of settler colonialism in Canadian Francophone contexts motivated this special issue. We are interested in the possibilities and limitations of addressing the TRC (2015) Calls to Action in Francophone contexts, issues of indigenization, reconciliation and decolonization, identity including the dual one of colonized and non-indigenous, issues of educational and curricular policies (explicit, implicit-hidden, null), among others, in order to better understand the particular position of Francophone communities in the project of settlement colonialism in Canada. We welcome interdisciplinary proposals rooted in a variety of theoretical, disciplinary, methodological and conceptual approaches (narrative, poetic, empirical, artistic, critical, narrative-based inquiry, etc.), including an intersectional perspective, and are open to multimodal formats.

 

Please submit a contribution proposal including a preliminary title and a 200-word abstract, clearly indicating how you are responding to the call by September 26, 2021. Please also include a short biography (50 words). Please submit directly on the JCACS website (https://jcacs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jcacs) into your author “folder”, and under the section called “TRC, Calls to Action”. Acceptance of proposals does not presume acceptance of the full manuscript, which will be subject to the journal's standard peer review process. Full manuscripts (in English or French, with a maximum 5000 words, not including references or abstracts) must be submitted by February 6, 2022. The journal accepts only original and unpublished papers that are not under review by another journal. Although JCACS has its own publication standards, please submit your proposal following APA 7 conventions for citations and references. Please use 12-point sans serif font and double-spacing.

 

Important dates:

1. Deadline for receipt of proposals: September 26, 2021

2. Responses to authors: October 15, 2021

3. Deadline for receipt of complete manuscripts: March 4, 2022

4. Early publication date: September 2022

 

References

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Bousquet, M.-P. (2016). La constitution de la mémoire des pensionnats indiens au Québec : drame collectif ou histoire commune? Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec, 46(2-3), 165-199.

Boutouchent, F., Phipps, H., Armstrong, C., & Vachon-Savary, M.-È. (2019). Intégrer les perspectives autochtones : regards réflexifs sur le curriculum de la Saskatchewan et sur quelques pratiques en formation des maîtres en éducation française. Cahiers franco-canadiens de l'Ouest, 31(1), 127-153. https://doi.org/10.7202/1059129ar

Côté, I. (2019). Les défis et les réussites de l’intégration des perspectives autochtones en éducation : synthèse des connaissances dans les recherches menées au Canada. Revue de langage, d’identité, de diversité et d’appartenance, 3(1), 28-45. http://bild-lida.ca/journal/volume-31-2019/les-defis-et-les-reussites-de-lintegration-des-perspectives-autochtones-en-education-synthese-des-connaissances-dans-les-recherches-menees-au-canada/

Côté, I. (2019). Théorie postcoloniale, décolonisation et colonialisme de peuplement : quelques repères pour la recherche en français au Canada. Cahiers franco-canadiens de l'Ouest, 31(1), 25-42. https://doi.org/10.7202/1059124ar

Dufour, E. (2021). C'est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays ! : Carnet de rencontres, d'Ani Kuni à Kiuna. Écosociété.

Joncas, J., & Larivière, T. (2017). Miichiwap ou la construction d’espaces de recherche plus ouverts à l’université. Cahiers du CIÉRA, 15 (décembre), 64-87. Kermoal, N., & Gareau, P. (2019). Réflexions sur l’autochtonisation des universités, un cours à la fois. Cahiers franco-canadiens de l'Ouest, 31(1), 71-88.

Lévesque, C. (2019). L'éducation scolaire chez les Premières Nations et les Inuit du Québec : refaire nos devoirs, construire la réconciliation. Communication présentée à la Conférence de consensus : la mixité sociale et scolaire, mixité ethnoculturelle, Québec, Québec.

Lefevre-Radelli, L., & Dufour, E. (2016). Entre revendications nationales et expériences locales : la reconnaissance des Premières Nations dans les universités de Montréal (Québec). Cahiers de la recherche sur l’éducation et les savoirs, 15, 169-192.

Pilote, A., & Joncas, J. (2020). Survol de la situation concernant la reconnaissance des Premiers peuples dans la formation à l’enseignement au Canada. Note d’information destinée au ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur. Université Laval.

Salée, D. (1995). « Identities in conflict: the Aboriginal question and the politics of recognition in Québec » , Ethnic and Racial Studies, 18(2), 277-314. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.1995.9993864

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Available at http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf

Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonizing is not a metaphor. Decolonizing: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40.

Tupper, J. (2014). The Possibilities for Reconciliation through Difficult Dialogues: Treaty Education as Peacebuilding, Curriculum Inquiry, 44(4), 469-488.

Vaudrin-Charrette, J., & Fleuret, C. (2016). Quelles avenues vers une pédagogie postcoloniale et multimodale en contexte plurilingue? La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 72(4), 550-571.