University of Tennessee doctoral candidate, Jaymelee Kim, under the supervision of Dr. Tricia Redeker Hepner, will conduct an ethnographic analysis of the use of transitional justice method and theory. The researcher hypothesizes that there is a relationship between perceived efficacy of transitional justice mechanisms and current indigenous rights-related issues. Methods include semi-structured and informal interviews as well as participation observation.
Research sites include Vancouver, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Toronto, Ontario; and Red Deer, Alberta. From 1874-1996, indigenous people of Canada reported suffering from forced assimilation, sexual abuse, and physical abuse in government and church administrated boarding schools; the Canadian government began to actively address these concerns in 2006 with the negotiation of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. The agreement outlines transitional justice mechanisms typically employed in countries undergoing political changes in which historically disadvantaged groups gain degrees of political autonomy. Using transitional justice theory and based on data gathered from Vancouver, British Columbia and the lower mainland, the research presented here focuses on the similarities and differences in goals, perceptions of transitional justice efficacy, and the relationship between past and current human rights grievances of indigenous people. The findings of this project will contribute to critical anthropological discussions about the meaning of justice and reconciliation, specifically in a non-transitioning society that struggles with a legacy of institutionalized discrimination. The research will illuminate how human rights discourse is interpreted by government officials, indigenous peoples, and transitional justice facilitators. Such contextual analyses of transitional justice processes are especially critical due to their increasing use in North American contexts (i.e. the Maine Tribal-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission). This research also funds the education of a female doctoral student in the sciences.
