The What Sorts Network has articulated several large-scale, long-term projects over the past few years. Below is a summary of the most recent of these, a project called Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada which has been in the works for the past 18 months and for which long-term funding is pending. 24 members of the What Sorts Network will work on this 5-year project if it is funded.
The ideas and practices aimed at improving “human breeding” known as eugenics were influential across North America in the first half of the 20th-century. The Western Canadian chapter in the history of eugenics, however, remains under-studied. Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada will create a range of academic and public resources—what we call living archives—for investigating this history. These resources will increase knowledge of past social practices and policies, and will deepen discussions of current issues that were also central to the eugenics movement, such as those concerning reproductive freedom, institutionalization, and the sorts of people there should be in future generations.
The Michener Centre, Red Deer, Alberta |
The province of Alberta occupies a special place in this history. First, it is the province in which the vast majority of eugenic sterilizations in Canada were performed (~90%), with British Columbia being the only other province to pass involuntary sterilization legislation that was explicitly eugenic. Second, whereas in most North American jurisdictions eugenics waned following the Second World War, Alberta’s eugenic sterilization program was vigorously implemented until the repeal of the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta in 1972. Third, it was against the Province of Alberta that Leilani Muir won a landmark legal case in 1996 for wrongful sterilization and confinement, a case that has helped to preserve a rich documentary basis for understanding the history of eugenics in Western Canada. For these reasons, Living Archives will focus on eugenic sterilization and associated institutionalization in Alberta against the backdrop of eugenic ideas and practices across the four Western Canadian provinces. |
Basic facts about this history are known, but many details and their legacy for contemporary society are not understood. The typical grounds for eugenic sterilization were that a person’s undesirable physical or mental conditions were heritable, and that those persons would not make suitable parents. Central amongst those targeted by such eugenic practices were people with a variety of disabilities, especially (but not only) developmental disabilities. Yet many other marginalized groups—single mothers, First Nations and Métis people, eastern Europeans, and poor people—were also disproportionately represented amongst those subject to eugenic ideas and practices, such as sterilization. Precisely why is not known. An understanding of why, and of how eugenics operated as it did in Western Canada, is relevant not only to the 3.6 million Canadians with a disability, but to all Canadians who embrace human diversity and strive to build inclusive communities.
The concept of living archives follows current scholarly work in extending the traditional notion of archives. As well as enhancing archival collections and improving their accessibility to scholars, we will also video-record oral histories and build an interactive digital interface that increases public engagement around eugenics. We will maximize the impact of the project by the use of in-person delivery, curriculum bundling, and public dialogues on relevant contemporary issues. And integral to these particular living archives is working in respectful partnership with community-based organizations and volunteers with valuable, lived experience of eugenic sterilization and institutionalization. Living Archives will (a) create innovative academic resources for scholars across academic fields, including history, sociology, philosophy, medicine, law, and education; (b) develop a long-term strategy for maintaining and expanding these resources; (c) actively involve community organizations and vulnerable individuals whose stories have most often been left out of the Canadian collective memory; and (d) highlight the contemporary significance of a neglected part of Canadian history via curriculum bundling, public dialogues, and barrier-free digital accessibility. |
Portrait of Alberta Sterilization Survivor Leilani Muir by fellow What Sorts Network member Nick Supina III |
As an alliance of research scholars, archivists, sterilization survivors, and 12 community partners, Living Archives directly engages communities in developing accessible historical resources to enhance public understanding of an important part of the history of eugenics in Canada. It also creates a communal space for the exploration of the relationships between that history and current policies and practices at the interface of reproductive choice, disability, human variation, and technology.