Current Volunteer Research Opportunities

This task is a co-initiative led by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, the Community Support Team of the Nordik Institute,  as well as Algoma University.

This project intends to showcase the life stories and successes of Indigenous peoples who survived the Canadian residential school system at the Shingwaulk Institute (Currently Algoma University). Based on information gathered by our volunteers from the internet, open databases, or from family histories, Achiever Stories will highlight those who went on to start families, had successful careers, and perservered against a systemic policy of cultural erasure.

Potential data leads can be accessed through a shared Google spreadsheet containing a list of survivors.

As a volunteer, your task is to analyze this existing data, and infer what information would prove suitable for a potential achiever narrative.

With this relevant information, your next task is to search that indigenous survivor’s name online, and find out more about them. Consider the following questions while researching:

• Did they go on to get married?

• Did they have children or grandchildren?

• Did they recieve a post-secondary school degree?

• Did they start up their own business?

• Did they become a notable member of their community?

• Are they featured in local newspapers?

Q: Where do I search for more information about an Indigenous survivor?

A: Along with our shared Google spreadsheet, information can be found on sites like Ancestory.ca, news sites, blogs, social media.

Q: What is the Google Sheet?

A: Once you become a volunteer, all members will have access to a spreadsheet containing a list of Indigenous survivors who attended residential schools. This sheet contains names, dates of birth, their date of discharge from the residential school, and more.

Q: How do I know who makes a good candidate for an Achiever Story?

A: It is up to the volunteers to collectively decide together on who will be proposed for an achiever narrative. The CSAA will then approve.

Q: What counts as an Achiever Story?

A: Given the broad differences encompassing the lives of survivor’s, someone’s achieverments may not be universally applicable to others. What counts as an achievement is a collective decision decided by volunteers.

The Nisoonag Partnership requires volunteer help transcribing a diary logged by Jesuit Priests who ran the Wiikwemikoong Industrial School in 1904. This diary covers a 15 year period through to 1911, and again in 1913 when a new school for boys was constructed in Spanish, Ontario.

As a volunteer, it is your task to transcribe the handwritten information composed by the Jesuit Priests in their diary. All of these handwritten documents were composed in a very intricate cursive, or in some cases, in French. These documents contain information on Indigenous students who attended these schools—such as their names, date of arrival, date of discharge, and other details.

You will complete this task through the use of an electronic copy of the diary. On another computer tab, you will have a digital spreadsheet shared by all active volunteers. By transcribing the cursive writing contained in the catalogues, your task is to plug in that information into boxes on your digital spreadsheet.

This information includes:

• The names of indigenous children who attended residential schools

• Their date of birth

• Their birth location

• Their date of registration

• Their date of discharge

• Additional notescription

All recorded names are to be RE-RECORDED on a SEPARATE electronic spreadsheet. It must contain the full name, gender, home, parents’ names, siblings, their age of admission, and the date of birth. All recorded names are to be RE-RECORDED on a SEPERATE electronic spreadsheet. It must contain the full name, gender, home, parents’ names, siblings, their age of admission, and the date of birth.

When recording the dates of admission or discharge, do not write months as June or August in full. Please write Jun or Aug as they appear.

Information such as: Place of birth, parent’s deaths, etcetera, are all to be found on ‘additional remarks’ on the far-right side of the original registry. If there are NO additional remarks, the electronic spreadsheet must be left blank