Indigenous Studies researcher awarded $2M to address Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action – McMaster University

September 25, 2024

A research project examining the experiences of Indigenous residents of the Mohawk Institute Residential School and the Hamilton Mountain Sanatorium has received more than $2 million dollars in funding.

Re-Neighbouring as Reconciliation: Indigenous Stories of Resistance, a multi-year project led by Indigenous Studies and Sociology associate professor Vanessa Watts, will explore how residential schools and the forced displacement of Inuit to tuberculosis sanatoriums were both part of the same colonial process of assimilation.

It will also bring together survivors and community members from both experiences in a process called “re-neighbouring,” with a goal of fostering a sense of community and reversing the isolation they experienced.