The space between the steps: reckoning in an era of reconciliation

Abstract

For over 100 years the government of Canada operated residential schools for Aboriginal children that required children be taken out of their homes and educated away from their families. These schools became sites of widespread abuse, the legacy of which continues to influence the lives of those who attended and the generations that followed. As Canada moves through a reconciliation process that includes reparation payments, official apologies, and Truth Commissions, this article considers other modalities that happen in the space between the expected flow from apology to reconciliation and resolution. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, this article considers the ways in which a community crime prevention workshop is transformed into a different type of work space as participants engage in problem solving by discussing the role of residential schools in daily life. They do so in meetings with police officers who represent one of the branches of government associated to the enforcement of this colonial policy. By considering these situated practices, this chapter will consider alternate modalities that must reckon with the legacy of residential schools.