The Outside Circle

The Outside Circle illustrates the profound and lasting impact of settler colonialism on Indigenous communities in Canada. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century initially saw cooperation with Indigenous peoples, who were valued for their knowledge and skills. However, as settlers sought more land and wealth, this cooperation waned. European colonizers killed Indigenous people with weapons such as firearms and endangered them through the introduction of diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza, resulting in a significant decline in the Indigenous population (Matheson, Kimberly, et al. “Canada’s Colonial Genocide of Indigenous Peoples.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 11, 2022, p. 6455).

From the late 18th century, European Canadians openly enforced the assimilation and subjugation of Indigenous peoples through a series of policies. The Indian Act of 1876 introduced systematic Christianization, with sanctions for those who resisted conversion to Christianity. In 1883, Indian Residential Schools (IRSs) were established “with the explicit goal of ‘taking the Indian out of the child’” (Matheson). Children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in IRSs, where they were immersed in Euro-Christian beliefs and subjected to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. This profound trauma was passed down through generations—the last residential school closed only in 1996. In The Outside Circle, LaBoucane-Benson explicitly addresses residential schools and their impact on Indigenous communities. In particular, Elder Violet, in the early days of the program, shares the history of residential schools to help the participants grasp the roots of their trauma.