Home
Truth Before Reconciliation

Truth Before Reconciliation

Name: Truth Before Reconciliation
Author: Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
ISBN: 9781772841626

Confronting Residential School Denialism

Edited by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair and Sean Carleton

Published by: University of Manitoba Press

Imprint: University of Manitoba Press

282 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm

Paperback
9781772841626
Published: September 2026

£23.99

Pre-Order

Hardcover
9781772841633
Published: September 2026

£56.00

Pre-Order

Description
Contents
Authors

“Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation” –The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

The TRC’s Final Report, released in 2015, is the outcome of many years of research and rigorous scholarship by hundreds of academics across Canada. More than 5 million documents from governments, churches, and schools, hundreds of secondary sources, and the testimonies of over 7,000 residential school Survivors informed the Commission’s work.

Despite six volumes evidencing the genocide that took place within the system, some Canadians choose to deny, downplay, and disparage these findings in a battle for public memory waged in popular media and across social media platforms. Denialists do not refute the existence of the schools or that abuse happened. Rather, they cherry-pick and distort facts to minimize the harms done to Indigenous communities as they seek to turn reconciliation into a partisan issue and preserve national myths of benevolence.

Countering soundbites with substance, Sean Carleton and Niigaan Sinclair, along with a team of expert historians, educators, Survivors, archivists, and archeologists, analyze the genesis, methods, and consequences of denialism; push back on denialist claims; and highlight some of the primary sources and peer-reviewed scholarship that denialists ignore or misrepresent. Importantly, they also document the harms denialists have inflicted on Survivors and communities.

Embedded in the lived experiences of Survivors and supported by the evidentiary record, Truth Before Reconciliation is a valuable tool to help develop the historical and information literacy needed to identify and combat denialism and anti-Indigenous racism as we collectively build a more honourable future for all.

Introduction, by Sean Carleton and Niigaan Sinclair

Chapter 1. What is Residential School Denialism? by the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools

Chapter 2. Why Truth-Telling Matters: A Survivor’s Perspective: An Interview with Phyllis Webstad

Chapter 3. Orange Shirt Day Hangover: Municipalities, Indigenous Historians, and the Long History of Denialism, by Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Chapter 4. Identifying the Techniques of Settler Colonial Genocide Denialism, by Andrew Woolford

Chapter 5. Debunking the “Mass Grave Hoax” Conspiracy Theory, by Reid Gerbrandt and Sean Carleton

Chapter 6. Exposing Residential School Denialism’s Transnational Network, by Sean Carleton, Alan Lester, Adele Perry, Omeasoo Wahpasiw

Chapter 7. Residential School Denialism Should be a Crime, by Michelle Good

Chapter 8. Protecting Survivors from Residential School Denialism: An Interview with Leah Gazan

Chapter 9. What we Choose to Forget: Residential School Denialism and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Archives, by Raymond Frogner

Chapter 10. The Role of Archeology in Residential School Searches, by Andrew Martindale

Chapter 11. Confronting Residential School Denialism in Canadian Classrooms, by Lindsay Gibson and James Miles

Chapter 12. Sites of Remembrance: The Role of Public History and Commemoration in Challenging Denialism: An Interview with Krista McKracken, Jackson Pind, Erin Millions, and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey

Chapter 13. Taking Care of Community: A Conversation with Members of the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials: An Interview with Barb Cameron, Crystal Gail Fraser, and Kisha Supernant

Chapter 14: Fighting Denialism and Standing Up for the Truth: An Interview with Kimberly Murray

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and a professor at the University of Manitoba where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Niigaan is also an award-winning writer, editor, and activist who was named to the “Power List” in 2022 by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada.

Sean Carleton is a settler historian and associate professor in the departments of History and Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba. His award-winning research examines the history and political economy of schooling and settler capitalism in Canada.