The Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC) is a cross-cultural research and educational project of Algoma University and the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA), which includes former students of the Residential schools, staff, descendants, family, and friends. Algoma University is located on the site (and uses some of the buildings) of the former Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian Residential Schools in Sault Ste. Marie. Governance for the SRSC runs through a joint AU/CSAA Heritage Committee, which shares responsibility for the Centre evenly between the two partners.
The partners work together with the Survivor groups, church entities, educators, First Nations and others to research, collect, preserve, and display the history of the residential and day schools across Canada. They also develop and deliver projects of sharing, healing, learning, and individual and community cultural restoration in relation to the impact of the schools.
Shortly after the closure of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School in 1970, and in the early years of Algoma University College’s relocation to the present site, residential school Survivors of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School, their families, communities, and allies, became catalysts in the growing Healing Movement, culminating in the introduction of the original Shingwauk Project in 1979 and the 1981 Shingwauk Reunion. From these watershed events began the decades-long work of collecting, organizing, and displaying photographs and other residential school materials, conducting research, and educating the public that led to the establishment of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and the Shingwauk Project, now known as the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, respectively.
As a vast collection of documents chronicling the experiences of residential school Survivors, the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre is one of the important ways we honour the history of our campus. Our staff, faculty, and students are actively involved in the process of collecting and digitizing one of the largest archives of residential school life in all of Canada, thus preserving the heritage of our location.
