Transcending trauma and embracing survivance in testimonies from survivors of the Beauval Indian Residential School of Canada

Clinical understandings of resilience to trauma have long been critiqued for their individualistic approach and lack of applicability to the experiences of Indigenous populations. Attempts have been made to Indigenize the concept of resilience or add concepts of resistance and “survivance;” however, few studies have examined these differing theoretical concepts empirically. This study adopts thematic analysis to explore concepts of resilience and resistance in 40 testimonies from 2007 to 2015 by survivors of the Beauval Indian Residential School in Canada, and to compare them with the emerging concept of “survivance.” The theme of resilience included the following subthemes: a) cultural continuity, b) improving Indigenous futures, and c) individual resilience. The theme of resistance included the following subthemes: a) resistance by children at IRS, and b) resistance by family and community. Indigenous people actively resisted the actions taken by the school system, as well as its intergenerational effects. The examples best fit with a concept of Indigenous survivance, which highlights how Indigenous communities actively resist colonial imposition, rather than with the concepts of individual or Indigenous resilience.