Tricia Logan is the Head of Research and Engagement at the Centre. She has 20 years of experience doing research on residential schools, creating community programming, and working directly with Survivors, often with a focus on Métis experiences. Her background has developed through roles at places like the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. She also has a Master of Arts in Native Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a PhD in History at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Tricia notes that though it may not be obvious, research and archival work are inherent to activism. She constantly works to maintain Indigenous histories because they are contemporary issues which need to be viewed accordingly. Every story is part of the bigger picture, and many social and political issues today are related to the effects of residential schools.
“Even today people still deny the occurrence of residential schools and colonialism… but when they do, we have the materials and research to show them,” Tricia explains.
A fundamental goal of Tricia’s has always been to bring Survivor’s voices to the forefront, sometimes in the most actual sense of the phrase. Recording oral histories from survivors of residential schools through statements and interviews is a part of her work she is passionate about. Tricia hopes to do this by creating a space at the Centre to work with Survivors to record their stories on their own terms, whether their accounts will be kept by their families or shared with a wider community. By doing this Tricia hopes to “support Survivors and make sure their voices are heard. It’s a history that no one talked about for so long, but [Survivors] want people to know what happened.”