Paper Talk: A History of Libraries, Print Culture, and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada Before 1960The pre-1960 history of print culture and libraries, as they relate to the First Peoples of Canada, has gone largely untold. Paper Talk explores the relationship between the introduction of western print culture to Aboriginal peoples by missionaries, the development of libraries in the Indian schools in the nineteenth century, and the establishment of community-accessible collections in the twentieth century. While missionaries and the Department of Indian Affairs envisioned books and libraries as assimilative and "civilizing" tools, Edwards shows that some Aboriginal peoples articulated western ideas of print culture, literacy, books, and libraries as tools to assist their own cultural, social, and political aspirations. This text also serves to illustrate that the contemporary struggle of Aboriginal peoples in Canada to establish libraries in communities has a historical basis and that many of the obstacles faced today are remarkably similar to those encountered by earlier generations. |
Common terms and phrases
Aamjiwnaang Aboriginal children Aboriginal communities Aboriginal languages Aboriginal populations Ahenakew alphabetic American Anfield Anglican Angus McGill Mowat Annual report articulated assimilation Barnley Birch bark scrolls books and libraries British Columbia Canadian Library Christian Church Missionary Society civilizing collection colonial Cooke Cooke's Cree Cree syllabics day school libraries Department of Indian Duncan Campbell Scott early efforts English File Indian Affairs department Indian Homemakers Indian schools Industrial School institutions interests James Evans Jaxon John knowledge Lady Wood Library Lake LeClercq Lennox Island Letter library development Maillard Methodist Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic missions Mohawk Moose Factory NAC RG nineteenth century non-Aboriginal Ojibwe Ontario oral Oronhyatekha Osgood Ottawa Press printed word Protestant provincial public library published reading and writing reading materials Reel region religious Reverend River Roman Catholic Rupert's Land Saskatchewan script settlers Six Nations social stories Sunday schools supplementary reading syllabic teachers traditional translations twentieth century University of Toronto Volume Western literacy