Workshop: Religious Encounter and Exchange in Aboriginal Canada

Members of the University Community are invited to be involved as non-presenting participants in a workshop titled "Religious Encounter and Exchange in Aboriginal Canada." It will be held at the University of Saskatchewan, 12-14 May 2011.

Recent public discussions about the history of residential schools in Canada are a stark reminder of religion’s central role in Canadian Aboriginal history. This history was not simple or straightforward, nor is it over. Existing historiography on religion in Aboriginal Canada has examined the history of residential schools and considered Christian missionaries as colonial agents of assimilation and change. However, significantly less has been said about Aboriginal roles and perspectives on religious encounters and the ways in which spiritual, as well as material and political, forces contributed to religious exchange and transformations. This is all the more striking in view of rich literatures in other (post)colonial contexts like Africa, China, and India, where religion has long figured as a central category of analysis. This three-day interdisciplinary workshop, to be held 12-14 May 2011, will, for the
first time, bring together established and emerging scholars from across North America to address this gap. By giving participants a venue to present their original research and share it with other experts, the workshop will establish a baseline of knowledge for a new and vigorous debate about the role of “religious encounter” in scholarship about Aboriginal Canada.

DATES & LOCATION OF WORKSHOP:
May 12th 8:30am-3:45pm:  STM Room 344a
May 13th 9:00am-12:15pm: STM Room 344a
May 14th 9:00am-12:00pm: Graduate Student Commons

For more information and to access workshop papers prior to the event please contact: Tolly Bradford, Department of History (tolly.bradford@usask.ca).