Thank you for joining us on Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (PST), for “The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada.” In this Indigenous Speakers Series session, we had a conversation with Dr. Roland D. Chrisjohn – Kanakalut, Onyota’a:ka of the Haudenausuanee. He is the author of “The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada” and “Dying to Please You: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada.” In this important conversation, we explored preconceived sensibilities about Indigenous peoples, and how we could begin to heal the very systems in which the work of truth and reconciliation is being done.
Join us virtually on Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (PST), for “The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada.” This virtual event is presented by the Indigenous Speakers Series.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Roland D. Chrisjohn – Kanakalut, Onyota’a:ka of the Haudenausuanee;
Associate Professor of Native Studies – St. Thomas University;
Author – The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada;
Author – Dying to Please You: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada
Dr. Roland David Chrisjohn – Kanakalut was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1948, and is a member of the Turtle Clan, League of the Haudenausaunee, Onyota’a:ka Nation (Oneida of the Thames, southern Ontario). As one of the eight founding members of A.I.M. in Canada in 1972, he holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Psychology and English Literature from Central Michigan University (1970). Furthering his education, he earned an MA in Psychology with a focus on Personality, Measurement, and Individual Differences from the University of Western Ontario in 1977, followed by a Ph.D. in the same field in 1981.
Certified as a Clinical Psychologist in 1984, Dr. Chrisjohn completed his internship at Toronto East General Hospital, specializing in Crisis Intervention. Throughout his career, he has held academic positions at the University of Western Ontario, University of Guelph, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, and St. Thomas University (Fredericton). His expertise spans research methodology, psychometric theory, multivariate analysis, clinical psychology, crisis intervention counseling, abnormal psychology, personality psychology, analytic philosophy, historical materialism, genocide, population genetics, and Native/Canadian relations.
Specializing in research methodology, psychometric theory, multivariate analysis, clinical psychology, crisis intervention counseling, abnormal psychology, personality psychology, analytic philosophy, historical materialism, genocide, population genetics, and Native/Canadian relations.
In his clinical work, Dr. Chrisjohn has worked for Toronto East General Hospital in the Native Crisis Team unit, and consulted with the Native Women’s Centre in Toronto, Child & Family Services at Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, and Binojinuk Endahjik in Owen Sound, Ontario. Engaging in community work, he has been involved in health care initiatives at Oneida of the Thames, Ontario; education research & planning at Kainai Nation, Alberta; addressing residential schooling at Cariboo Tribal Council, British Columbia; contributing to health care research with the National Longitudinal Health Survey, Panel 1, Alberta; addressing alcohol/drug use at Six Nations Reserve, Ontario; and participating in health care initiatives with Native People with Disabilities in British Columbia and Native Children and Special Needs at AFN, Ottawa, Ontario.
A prolific author, Dr. Chrisjohn has penned groundbreaking works including The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada (1994/1997) and Dying to Please You: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada (2014/2017). He is currently working on the forthcoming book, ” . . . and Indians, too!”: Native Peoples and the Canadian Form of Racism, excerpts of which are available on academia.edu, along with many of the other papers he has authored or co-authored.
Married for 46 years with no children, Dr. Chrisjohn resides in Lower Jemseg, New Brunswick, with his wife and cats. His hobbies include organic gardening, jogging, chess, and assisting his wife in running the local community book cooperative.
Moderator
Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement
Description
Written by Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup
It wasn’t long after the release of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Final Report (1996) when I first read The Circle Game, and I remember I was thunderstruck in a way that was equally profound and life-changing. I was struck by two things: (1) at the beginning of the book a question was proposed – What if the Holocaust had never stopped? And (2) for the first time I began to question, really question, how sick were, and are, the people who created the institutions called Indian Residential Schools, and what are they doing about their sickness?
What if the Holocaust had never stopped? Then, you would have Canada’s treatment of the North American Aboriginal population in general, and the Indian Residential School Experience in particular.
I was around when the Aboriginal Healing Foundation was first created, and there was an overwhelming acceptance amongst Indigenous and non-Indigenous circles that we were the problem, that we are the problem, that we are an affliction of all things defined by a set of symptoms that degraded us to a set of prescriptive healing initiatives called the Indian Residential School Syndrome. I was hypnotized into a dizzying array of self-healing programs without ever questioning – So, if I’m First Nations, if I’m a child of a survivor of the Indian Residential School experience in Canada, if I’m an Indian, then yes, there’s definitely something wrong with me and I need to heal myself. For the first time I questioned, if I’m an Indian and I’m sick and I need to heal myself, yes, sure, but, this begs an equal question – How sick were, and are, the people that set up the places called Indian Residential Schools, and what are they doing about their sickness?
This important and timely conversation with Dr. Chrisjohn will consider how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go, in being accountable for our individual and collective part in coming to terms with the historic past, working out the complexities of telling the truth and reconciling for the present, and creating a proper redress for the future for all Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit, Métis – peoples in Canada. This dialogue is essential, necessary and urgent for all of us to consider not only how sick are the attitudes we hold onto about Indigenous peoples, but how we can begin to come to terms with ourselves and our preconceived sensibilities about Indigenous peoples, and how we begin to heal the very systems in which the work of truth and reconciliation is being done.
Topic: The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada
Date: Wednesday, January 17th, 2024
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm (PST)
What Will I Learn?
You will learn about a unique Indigenous perspective of ideology about the context of the Indian Residential School experience in Canada.
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