RT Article
T1 Settler witnessing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
JF Human rights review
VO 21
IS 3
SP 219
OP 241
A1 Nagy, Rosemary
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1738265897
AB This article offers an account of settler witnessing of residential school survivor testimony that avoids the politics of recognition and the pitfalls of colonial empathy. It knits together the concepts of bearing witness, Indigenous storytelling, and affective reckoning. Following the work of Kelly Oliver, it argues that witnessing involves a reaching beyond ourselves and responsiveness to the agency and self-determination of the other. Given the cultural genocide of residential schools, responsiveness to the other require openness to and nurturing of Indigenous ways of knowing and being. In order to illustrate the complexities and challenges of settler witnessing, the author reflects on her experiences in attending six of the TRC’s national events and, in particular, what she has learned from Frederick “Fredda” Paul, Passamaquoddy Elder, healer, storyteller, and residential school survivor. The article analyzes (1) aesthetics and emotions in the staging of TRC events and (2) making meaning over time and the temporality of transitional justice.
K1 Temporality
K1 Transitional Justice
K1 Settler Colonialism
K1 Affective reckoning
K1 Testimony
K1 Indigenous storytelling
K1 Bearing witness
K1 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
DO 10.1007/s12142-020-00595-w