The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre Congratulates Kristin Kozar As Our Executive Director

Stó:lō confirms 158 children’s deaths at four institutions as investigation reveals rampant neglect, abuse

Our hearts are with all those affected by these institutions, and with the First Nations impacted by this news. Read Cara McKenna’s coverage of this announcement for Indiginews.

Professor Johnny Mack appointed as Academic Director at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre 

Professor Johnny Mack has been appointed Academic Director at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC), effective May 1, 2025, for a three-year term. Situated at the intersection of academic inquiry, historical truth-telling, and community engagement, the IRSHDC plays a vital role in advancing UBC’s academic mission by supporting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to truth, justice, and healing. By centering Survivor experiences, stewarding access to Residential School records, and advancing Indigenous-led scholarship, the Centre fosters deeper understanding of colonial histories and their ongoing impacts, while contributing to the decolonization of education and the broader academic landscape. 

Johnny Mack (Heynahmeek) is Nuu-chah-nulth from the Toquaht Nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, where he also serves as a Co-Director of Indigenous Legal Studies. 

Professor Mack’s research explores Indigenous legal traditions, settler law, legal pluralism, and Indigenous–state relations, with particular attention to the epistemic and political structures that shape recognition, resurgence, and law. His work has appeared in law, business, and interdisciplinary journals, and he is the author of Turning Sideways: Intimate Critique and the Regeneration of Tradition (2024), which anchors his current book project. He is also Co-Director of the Balance Co-lab, an Indigenous-led international research collective that supports Indigenous self-determination by co-developing decision-making tools, research, and impact assessment processes grounded in Indigenous values and legal orders. The Co-lab’s work spans Turtle Island, Aotearoa, and Latin America, and is supported by a $2.5M SSHRC Partnership Grant. 

A dedicated educator, Professor Mack has been honoured with both the George Curtis Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence and a UBC Killam Teaching Prize. His PhD studies were supported by a Joseph-Armand Bombardier SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship. He currently serves on the Indigenous Community Leaders Circle with the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia. 

I would also like to thank Dr. Tricia Logan for serving as the interim Academic Director of the Centre since the Fall of 2022. During her time as Academic Director, Dr. Logan oversaw a wide range of publications, events, and relationship-building between the Centre and Survivor communities. She has been an invaluable member of the team, infusing all of her work with wisdom, care, and commitment.  

Dr. Logan would like to welcome Professor Mack to the role: “At the IRSHDC, our community of support, care and of Indigenous knowledge holders has grown over the years, and it is so exciting to welcome Professor Mack into his new role and into this community. I’m honoured to be a continuing part of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre’s community and excited for the staff and all those affiliated with the Centre to imagine new work, along with Johnny’s expertise and enthusiasm. Professor Mack and I have talked about the ongoing work with Survivors, intergenerational Survivors and Indigenous community members. I know the knowledge and teachings he carries with him have prepared him well for the responsibilities and opportunities ahead.” 

I welcome Professor Mack to this new role and look forward to working with him and the entire team at the Centre as they continue to uplift, honour and support Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors. Again, the IRSHDC plays a critical role in cultivating academic excellence and impact in a global context—advancing UBC’s commitments to academic community by supporting faculty as educators, researchers, and mentors, while deepening engagement with Indigenous knowledges and communities. This appointment also reflects our ongoing efforts to activate the Indigenous Strategic Plan across the academic ecosystem and to ensure that inclusive, responsive scholarship remains central to UBC’s purpose. 

Gage Averill 
Provost & Vice-President, Academic, UBC Vancouver 

Statement from the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre

The history of the Indian Residential School system in Canada is not a matter of opinion or debate. The documented facts – including Survivor testimonies, government and church records and physical evidence of unmarked burials – are well-established and publicly accessible. These facts have been acknowledged by federal and provincial governments, churches and independent commissions, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Denial of Residential School history is a harmful act that disregards the lived experiences of Survivors and their families. Denying or erasing the facts and histories of Residential School takes an unjust toll on Survivors, their families and their communities. It is often linked to broader efforts to erase historical injustices and undermine accountability, justice and reparations owed to those who faced violence and injustice. Erasing memory and disbelieving truths about violence only perpetuates harm.

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) at UBC is committed to ensuring that records related to Residential Schools remain accessible, respected and preserved, particularly those in British Columbia. Our work is grounded in supporting Survivors, Intergenerational Survivors and their communities by facilitating access to records and documented truths.

The Centre holds records affiliated with the government of Canada, its provinces, both Catholic and Protestant church records, and Survivor and community records on Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals in Canada and B.C.

The Centre partners with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the Royal B.C. Museum and Archives, Library and Archives Canada, and other institutions to uphold the integrity of these records and share the history and lasting impacts of the Residential School system.

The Centre supports and upholds the findings and recommendations of the Final Report of the Special Interlocutor on Missing Children and Unmarked Burials, including “Fighting Denialism and Rewriting Canadian History”. 

For more information on Residential School history and records, please visit:


Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

RBCM

The Indian Residential School Survivor Society offers 24-7 support to Survivors: 1 (800) 721-0066

Indian Health Regulations: How tuberculosis played into Canada’s settler colonial genocide

March 24 is World TB Day, in recognition of the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the germ that causes tuberculosis (TB).


“Coqualeetza Residential School in Sardis, Chilliwack, BC,” circa 1935-1939. The school was converted into an Indian Hospital in 1941.

In 1952, on the Stony Reserve in Alberta, Bella Two Young Men was taken away from her husband and forcibly kept in a segregated hospital for tuberculosis treatment. Her husband Lot Two Young Men tried time and time again to get his wife back home. He wrote letters and made appeals to the local Medical Superintendent. He refused to give up the hope that he would see his wife again.

In the officials’ eyes, there was never any chance that Lot Two Young Men’s pleas would be heard. In fact, the global battle against tuberculosis was about to escalate the settler colonial genocide against Indigenous communities in Canada.


The Indian Health Regulations recognized two classes of people: “Indians and non-Indians”. The regulations themselves only applied to those considered to be “Indians”. The Canadian government and the Canadian Tuberculosis Association had long viewed the rising rates of TB among Indigenous populations as due to a state of “racial carelessness”1: Indigenous peoples were viewed as ignorant and careless of their health. The state used this viewpoint as an argument for segregating Indigenous peoples presumed to have TB from the general population – Indigenous peoples were positioned as a danger to white families, who had been seeing decreased rates of TB due to advances in medicine and care practices. A limited number of state- and church-run Indigenous TB sanatoria or “Indian hospitals” had been in existence for over a decade already, keeping Indigenous patients separated from their families and communities and often subjected to the same or worse abuses many of them faced in Residential Schools.

The horrific impacts of Canadian government regulations on Indigenous communities were covered up with “false benevolence” – a performance of care and concern that masked a desire for control and assimilation. Justifications for systemic oppression were made over and over again: it was the mandate of the state, and the churches to “ensure” that Indigenous communities were cared for, because they could not care adequately for themselves. When it came to TB, these justifications were even more emphatic. In a 1936 article, David Stewart, Medical Superintendent of the Sanatoria Board of Manitoba, wrote, “We are the guardians of the Indians, we, the people of Canada… The world suffers increasing spasms of conscience about what is done by dominant peoples like ourselves with native races such as the Indians.”2 Forced medical care was presented as a kindness.

The ​Indian Act​ was amended in 1953 to include the Indian Health Regulations. These policies “made it a crime for Indigenous people to refuse to see a doctor, to refuse to go to hospital, and to leave hospital before discharge”. They allowed the RCMP to arrest patients, forcibly hospitalize them, return patients who left against medical advice, and send patients who were “recalcitrant” to jail. Faced with imprisonment no matter what they did, Indigenous patients were forced to stay in Indian hospitals, where abuse and mistreatment were rampant.

When many of these patients died, the state required the patients’ family to bear the cost of their return to their land – often, patients were buried in unmarked graves and their whereabouts were left unknown to their communities.

The regulations took the existing segregated system and made it still more oppressive: now, it would be illegal for an Indigenous person to refuse medical assessment or to be sent to a hospital. In a 1953 letter, Deputy Minister of National Health G.D.W. Cameron wrote, “The lack of a compulsory feature in our treatment scheme has had…disastrous results for whole families”, claiming that allowing Indigenous people autonomy over their health resulted in them infecting their own families and communities. Having lost family members to Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals, Indigenous peoples who were targeted by health officials would sometimes refuse Western care. After the new regulations, anyone who refused to comply could be fined or jailed.

To ensure compulsory care, the Indian Health Regulations conferred special enforcement powers to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Under the new regulations, the RCMP were empowered to forcibly bring patients to Indian hospitals, ensure that nonconsensual examinations were conducted, and oversee the detention of patients who were deemed noncompliant. In some cases, police officers were actually given permission to undertake medical procedures themselves in the absence of a state health official, particularly in Inuit territories.

The regulations stressed that, although Indigenous communities strongly objected to the use of police force and indefinite detention, “…it is necessary to take compulsory action.” Empowering police force under the guise of false benevolence served to further cement the fears of non-Indigenous communities regarding Indigenous people, making them seem dangerous, a threat to public health, and in need of state control.


The 1953 Indian Health Regulations are just one piece of a story that is deeply interconnected with the history and ongoing impacts of the Indian Residential School system. Indian Hospitals and Indian Residential Schools were designed to work together in the Canadian state’s larger mechanism of assimilation at all costs. The ongoing discrimination against Indigenous peoples, and the ongoing disparity in health and healthcare for Indigenous community, is directly linked to this history.

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre is working to tell some of the stories of TB in Canada, Indian Hospitals and their Survivors, and healing from the impacts of systemic harm. Our exhibition on Indian Hospitals, “Mistreated”, will launch in collaboration with Digital Museums Canada in 2026. For more information on “Mistreated”, visit the exhibition page.  

The Indian Residential School Survivor Support Society has established a 24-hour Crisis Line for former students and their families. Call: 1-866-925-4419.

Find additional wellness resources and supports.

  1. Lux, Maureen K. “Care for the “Racially Careless”: Indian Hospitals in the Canadian West, 1920–1950s.” Canadian Historical Review, vol. 91, no. 3, Sept. 2010, pp. 407–434, https://doi.org/10.3138/chr.91.3.407. ↩︎
  2. Stewart, D A. “The Red Man and the White Plague.” Canadian Medical Association journal vol. 35,6 (1936): 674-6. ↩︎

In Memoriam: The Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair

IRSHDC is saddened to hear of the passing of the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair at 73 years old. He was instrumental in leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a tireless advocate for Survivors of the Residential School system and for Indigenous rights.

Sinclair, also known by his spirit name Mazina Giizhik (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky), was a trailblazer. He was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the second in Canada, serving from 1988 to 2009. An Anishinaabe leader and respected Elder whose legacy will continue to lead the generations to come.

According to his family, Sinclair died “peacefully and surrounded by love” at a Winnipeg hospital on Monday, November 4th. A sacred fire has been lit outside the Manitoba Legislative building, and Sinclair’s family is asking for those who wish to pay their respects to not light any additional fires for him out of respect for his journey home to the spirit world.

Our thoughts are with his family and all those who loved and respected him.

IRSHDC X Virago Nation Pt 2: Decolonizing, Indigenizing and Queering Art

Happy Vancouver Pride Weekend!

Check out Pt 2 of our interview with members of Virago Nation – we’re chatting with Ruthe Ordare, RainbowGlitz and Monday Blues about how their queerness intersects with their Indigeneity, and how they’re bringing their cultures and identities to their art.

IRSHDC X Virago Nation Pt 1: Talking Queerness and Indigeneity

Our first video of our interview with members of Virago Nation is live! Hear Ruthe Ordare, RainbowGlitz and Monday Blues share their places and people, how they came to perform with Virago Nation, and what queerness means to them.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our conversation with Ruthe, Rainbow and Monday!

An Introduction to the IRSHDC Self-Guided Tour

Earlier this year, we launched our Self-Guided Tour Manual. This is a tool to help you navigate the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre and learn about our work and collections. You can visit us anytime our gallery is open and take a self-guided tour!

Read on to find out more about what’s on our self-guided tour and how to take a tour on your own.


What’s on the tour?

The tour will introduce you to the building itself as well as the work we do here at IRSHDC. You’ll begin the tour at the front of the building, where you’ll learn about all the elements of design that went into creating our space. Many elements that are important to Coast Salish culture can be found in and around the building, from copper to cedar.

When you are ready, you will travel down to our gallery space, where you’ll be introduced to our collection and how to access and learn about Residential School records and Survivor testimony. You’ll find instructions for how to operate our Interactive Wall, as well as other methods for accessing information within the space.

Where do I find the self-guided tour manuals?

You can access either a print or digital version of our tour manual. If you’d like a print version of the manual, you can find them at the front desk outside of our gallery during open hours – please ask a staff member for help if you need it!

If you’d like to access a digital version of the manual that you can read on your phone, you can find a PDF copy here on our website. There is also a QR code that you can scan at the front desk outside of the gallery. This will bring up the same PDF, which you can then use to guide you on your tour.

What if I have questions during my self-guided tour?

IRSHDC staff are happy to help you with any questions you might have while you are on your tour. During the hours that the gallery is open, we will always have a docent on shift at the front desk. They are on hand to welcome you and to assist you with any questions on further resources or how to operate the various features within the gallery.

What should I do after I take a self-guided tour?

Remember to take time to process the information you’ve learned on your tour. You will be interacting with materials that contain distressing details. If you find yourself experiencing strong emotions, know that this is normal and take the time you need to reflect. IRSHDC has several spaces where you can take a break, whether it be just outside the gallery itself or out in the courtyard where you can have some fresh air. Find further wellness resources on our website.

Once you have processed the initial information you received on the tour, consider what you would like to do with the things you have learned. You may identify a need for further education, in which case you can continue reading through our Collection, sign up for our newsletter, or continue finding resources in whichever way feels best to you. It is important to witness and educate ourselves on the ongoing impacts of the Residential School system on Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors. It is also important that this learning is shared and allowed to grow. Continue on your own learning journey, and think about how you can share what you learned with your own community.

Celebrating queerness & Indigeneity with Virago Nation

June is both Indigenous History Month and Pride Month in so-called Canada. Here at IRSHDC, we recognize the ways in which the ongoing impacts of the Indian Residential School system continue to impact the lives of Indigenous people. We also want to recognize the importance of lifting up Indigenous joy and creativity. Queer Indigenous people exist on multiple intersecting margins – this month and always, we celebrate and support them.

To mark both Pride and Indigenous History Month, IRSHDC had the honour and joy of speaking with members of Virago Nation. Virago Nation are an all-Indigenous burlesque troupe who have been performing since 2016. As their website says, they seek to show their audiences that, “heteronormativity is inherently colonial and that queerness is a gift to be celebrated.” They highlight body and sex positivity, uplifting Indigeneity, femme & feminine empowerment, and joyful queerness.

In 2019, Virago Nation became a non-profit – Virago Nation Indigenous Arts Society – in order to connect with as many Indigenous communities as possible.

We spoke with Virago Nation members Ruthe Ordare, RainbowGlitz, and Monday Blues about queerness, Indigeneity, how their roots inform their art, and how they’ve built and continue to grow in community.

Stay tuned to our social media for highlights from this conversation, and watch the full interview when it launches later this month!

See Virago Nation performing on June 21 at Evergreen Cultural Centre for Indigenous Peoples Day, and headlining Vancouver Pride on July 26.

Executive Director Kristin Kozar discusses the work of the IRSHDC and its forthcoming Open House

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) is opening its doors to the UBC Vancouver community to highlight its important role on campus. Ahead of the first Open House on April 15, we spoke with Executive Director, Kristin Kozar about how the IRSHDC staff support Residential School Survivors and her plans to expand the centre’s role in supporting teaching and learning at UBC.

What is the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) and what is its role on campus?

The IRSHDC is a shared space that encourages dialogue about the Residential School system and the on-going impacts of colonialism in Canada. 

The IRSHDC supports Residential School Survivors, intergenerational Survivors and their families in accessing and researching Residential School records. It also facilitates research within communities on these issues.

The centre supports teaching and learning for the wider UBC community by hosting various film screenings and exhibitions about Canada’s colonial history and the ongoing impacts of the Indian Residential School system. For example, in fall of this year, the IRSHDC will host an exhibition called: Our Future, Our Children: The Indian Child Caravan 40 years later. This exhibition will educate visitors about the march and demonstration in Vancouver on Thanksgiving weekend 1980 in opposition to the disproportionate number of Indigenous children being apprehended from the Splatsin community. It charts the story of the Splatsin community which were the first to implement a band by-law regarding child welfare.

The centre also hosts a range of programming such as the annual Intergenerational March to commemorate Orange Shirt day on September 30.

The general public are also welcome at the centre, where they can view records on the Residential School system and learn about truth and reconciliation. Our gallery space, has an interactive touchscreen wall that provides information on different Residential Schools throughout BC, plus events and documents related to the Residential School system. We also have an intergenerational corner where families of all ages can learn about Residential Schools and other colonial policies through age appropriate books.

How does the IRSHDC contribute to making UBC a leading university globally in the implementation of Indigenous peoples’ human rights? 

Indigenous rights remain central to the work of the IRSHDC and we embody the work of the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan.

The advocacy and activism of Residential School Survivors resulted in the 2015 Truth and Reconcilliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action. The role of the IRSHDC, in this post-TRC era is to host research, education, programming and space for dialogue on what reconciliation means. Through our services, we explore how changes to government policies related to many segments of Canadian society are inherently connected to the truths of Residential School Survivors and how broad reaching the intergenerational effects have become.

Our work directly contributes to a number of goals stated in UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan.

In alignment with goal 2, we actively advocate for the truth by helping Survivors access their records. We also facilitate open dialogue through events, exhibits and our library and archive collections. Goal 3 – moving research forward – is reflected in our Oral Testimony Program which centres Indigenous communities and is led by their goals, initiatives and protocols.

Indigenizing the curriculum (goal 4) is part of our remit. I teach Information Practice and Protocol in Support of Indigenous Initiatives in the School of Information. My colleague Tricia Logan teaches two courses in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies curriculum, examining access to records in the Indigenous communities, and Structures of Settler Colonialism. Our aim is to help students question the neutrality of existing data and the importance of Indigenous ways of data collection and sharing.

In keeping with goal 5 – enriching our spaces –  the IRSHDC was designed by the first Indigenous graduate of UBC’s architecture program. Featuring several symbolic architectural elements, it reflects the diversity of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada and provides a thought-provoking space for events on the Vancouver campus.

We are actively working to recruit more Indigenous staff (as stipulated by goal 6) and, at all times, we endeavor to create a holistic system of support for Indigenous faculty, staff, students and wider community (goal 8).

In conversations with your staff, what have they highlighted as some of the IRSHDC’s most impactful achievements?

Our staff value the work they do in helping support community research, outreach and Survivor requests for records and information. They are particularly proud of the development of the Oral Testimony Program at the Centre which has supported both recordings of testimonies as well as important dialogues on consent, access and the ethics of respectful engagement.

A lot of work has gone into building trust and safe spaces for dialogue. It has been gradual and our staff recognize that it’s of great importance to all the work the Centre does. We have worked hard at building partnerships and working alongside communities that are conducting their own research for Residential School Survivors regarding missing children.  

How does the IRSHDC support Indigenous students, faculty and staff at UBC?

Research support is available for a wide range of topics, including recording oral testimonies. We work in partnership with the Indian Residential School Survivor Society to provide health and cultural support and are looking into other offerings. We are also expanding how we provide talks and educational support. You can find out more about this at our Open House event on April 15.

What is your personal vision for the IRSHDC during your tenure as Executive Director?

I want to lead the centre according to the Indigenous ways of knowing protocol which is founded on the ancestral relationship Indigenous Peoples have with their surroundings.

I want to be in service to and for Indigenous communities. I want to bring more awareness when we are talking about Indigenous Data Sovereignty which is about the inherent rights of putting Residential School records back into the community to help find the missing children who did not make it home.

I also want to collaborate with Indigenous communities, including here at UBC. I will build and solidify relationships with the other Indigenous units on campus by nurturing, building and collaborating so we can grow from there and walk shoulder to shoulder moving forward.

How can faculty and staff learn more about the IRSHDC?

Faculty and Staff can visit our Open House on April 15, 2pm-5pm to meet me and our dedicated staff to learn about the centre, our exhibitions and our ongoing research. Our latest research is examining Indian Hospitals and the impacts that the facilities had on Indigenous people. The research will be presented in a future exhibition chronicloing the history of these hospitals and the ongoing impacts, while centering the experinces of Survivors. We would be more than happy to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

We encourage Indigenous groups, units, departments, and organizations to book guided tours of the Centre.