Crystal Gail Fraser

Crystal Gail Fraser’s By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories is a landmark study in Indigenous and Canadian history. Focusing on the period from the 1950s to the 1980s, Fraser draws attention to the history of residential schooling in the North and challenges conventional narratives charting the decline of the Indian Residential School system in the postwar era. The analysis centres on Grollier and Stringer Halls, two new residential schools established at Inuvik in 1959, eleven years after a joint parliamentary commission recommended that all Canadian residential schools be closed. Grollier Hall continued to operate into the 1990s, undergoing important changes in operations and policy in response to demands from parents, politicians, and communities.

While uncovering a history that included systemic abuse and the deaths of children in the institutions, Fraser consciously avoids “damage-centred” research to instead focus on the agency and resilience of children subjected to carceral conditions. Overcoming silences in the archives and significant barriers to accessing relevant archival records, Fraser has produced a study remarkable in its research depth and intellectual rigour. Drawing on her Dinjii Zhuh (Gwich’in) traditional knowledge and upbringing, Fraser foregrounds the perspectives of Survivors, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers through a thoughtful and sensitive Indigenous oral history practice. Indigenous women’s voices, including in addressing trauma, are particularly well-represented. In its research methods, incorporation of Indigenous languages, and community-centred approach, By Strength, We Are Still Here makes a striking and original contribution to the literature on Indian Residential Schools in Canada.