Guides: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, &amp; Accessibility: Databases & Books

Databases

American Colonist's Library This link opens in a new window
A massive collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the colonists' lives in America.
Archives Canada This link opens in a new window
Links to virtual exhibits and photo databases residing on the web sites of individual archives or Provincial/Territorial Councils.
Canadian Confederation This link opens in a new window
Records of Canadian confederation (including acts such as the British North American Act of 1867 and various newspaper articles) and information covering individual provinces joining Canada.
Canadian Human Rights Commission This link opens in a new window
This is where you can find general information about human rights, discrimination, and how human rights are protected in Canada.
Champlain Society Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
Eighty-three volumes relating to exploration and discovery over a span of three centuries of Canadian history.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of Canadian persons who died between the years 1000 and 1930 or whose last known date of activity falls within these years.
Digital Library of Canada: Exploration and Settlement This link opens in a new window
Library and Archives Canada: online collection of exhitions around the theme of exploration and settlement.
Frontier Life This link opens in a new window
This digital collection of primary source documents helps us to understand existence on the edges of the anglophone world from 1650-1920. Discover the various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia through documents that reveal the lives of settlers and indigenous peoples in these areas.
Indigenous Peoples: North America (Gale) This link opens in a new window
This archive of primary sources includes monograph, manuscript, newspaper, periodical and photograph collections.
Indigenous Studies Portal (iportal) This link opens in a new window
Created and maintained by the University of Saskatchewan Libraries.
Library and Archives Canada: Aboriginal Heritage This link opens in a new window
A compilation of Canadian Aboriginal primary sources found in the holdings of Library and Archives Canada (LAC).
Maclean's Magazine Archive [1905 - 2015] (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Maclean’s is a Canadian current affairs magazine, providing investigative reporting and stories in the fields of international affairs, social issues, national politics, business, and culture. The archive provides coverage from 1911 to 2015 and includes front covers, advertisements, photographs and the full text of the magazine's contents. Between 1905-1911 it was known as The Business Magazine, then The Busy Man’s Magazine, and changed to the current title, Maclean’s, in 1911.
MemoryNS This link opens in a new window
MemoryNS is a descriptive database of archival records held by various archival institutions across Nova Scotia. Created by the Council of Nova Scotia Archives, MemoryNS comprises thousands of descriptions of textual, photographic, and audio-video primary sources. The database also serves as the main catalogue of holdings for Nova Scotia Archives.
To discover holdings for Mount Saint Vincent University Archives, please see archives.msvu.ca
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Archive This link opens in a new window
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) is a place of learning and dialogue where the truths of Residential School Survivors, families and communities are honoured and kept safe for future generations. The NCTR educates Canadians on the profound injustices inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation by the forced removal of children to attend residential schools and the widespread abuse suffered in those schools.
North American Indian Thought and Culture (CRKN - Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources by and about the native peoples of North America - autobiography, speeches, diaries, letters. Formerly called North American Indian Biographical Database.
Nova Scotia Archives This link opens in a new window
NSA acquires, preserves and makes available the province's documentary heritage – recorded information of provincial significance created or accumulated by government and the private sector over the last 300 years.
Our Roots: Canadian local histories This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of Canadian local histories
UNESCO Archives Portal This link opens in a new window
"An international gateway to information for archivists and archives users." This resource provides links to archives around the world and includes links to internet resources for primary sources online.
Virtual Museum of Canada - Images Gallery This link opens in a new window
TheVirtual Museum of Canada's Image Gallery contains thousands of images including historic photos, paintings, and artefacts.Copyright information accompanies each image.

Using Keywords

The selection of databases provided in this section are directly relevant to this area of study, but that does not mean that they are the only databases you can use for research in this area. There are many other databases available for you to use at MSVU for research on Decolonization in conjunction with relevant keywords. Some keywords that could be used to find relevant information in databases are:

Decolonization
Colonies
Reconciliation
Sovereignty
Post-colonialism
Eurocentrism
Imperialism

And many more!

Books

Unsettled Expectations by Eva Mackey
Publication Date: 2016
"In Unsettled Expectations, Eva Mackey draws on ethnographic case studies about land rights conflicts in Canada and the U.S. to argue that critical analysis of present-day disputes over land, belonging and sovereignty will help us understand how colonization is reproduced today and how to challenge it."
Indigenous Women's Theatre in Canada by Sarah MacKenzie
Publication Date: 2021
"In Indigenous Women's Theatre in Canada, Sarah MacKenzie addresses this critical gap by focusing on plays by Indigenous women written and produced in the socio-cultural milieux of twentieth and twenty-first century Canada."
Living in Indigenous Sovereignty by Elizabeth Carlson-Manathara & Gladys Rowe
Publication Date: 2021
"Living in Indigenous Sovereignty lifts up the wisdom of Indigenous scholars, activists and knowledge keepers who speak pointedly to what they are asking of non-Indigenous people."
Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision by Marie Battiste
Publication Date: 2000
"The essays in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision spring from an International Summer Institute held in 1996 on the cultural restoration of oppressed Indigenous peoples. The contributors, primarily Indigenous, unravel the processes of colonization that enfolded modern society and resulted in the oppression of Indigenous peoples."
Prarie Rising by Jaskiran K. Dhillon
Publication Date: 2017
" Prairie Rising provides a series of critical reflections about the changing face of settler colonialism in Canada through an ethnographic investigation of Indigenous-state relations in the city of Saskatoon."
Indivisible by Joyce Green
ISBN: 9781552666838
Publication Date: 2014
"Drawing on a wealth of experience and blending critical theoretical frameworks and a close knowledge of domestic and international law on human rights, the authors in this collection show that settler states such as Canada persist in violating and failing to acknowledge Indigenous human rights."
True Reconciliation by Jody Wilson-Raybould
Publication Date: 2022
"There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other- What can I do to help advance reconciliation? It is clear that people from all over the country want to take concrete and tan-gible action that will make real change. We just need to know how to get started. This book provides that next step."
Canadian Indigenous Literature and Art by Carol A. Mullen
Publication Date: 2020
"Indigenous Literature and Art sheds light on Indigenous justice perspectives in Indigenous literature and art. Decolonizing education, culture, and society is the revolutionary pulse of this book aimed at educational reform and comprehensive change."
Decolonizing Equity by Billie Allan & Rhonda Hackett
Publication Date: 2022
"Institutions everywhere seem to be increasingly aware of their roles in settler colonialism and anti-Black racism. As such, many racialized workers find themselves tasked with developing equity plans for their departments, associations or faculties. This collection acknowledges this work as both survival and burden for Black, Indigenous and racialized peoples."
Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal by Julia V. Emberley
Publication Date: 2017
"In Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal, Julia V. Emberley examines the historical production of aboriginality in colonial cultural practices and its impact on the everyday lives of indigenous women, youth, and children."
Ghost Dancing with Colonialism by Grace Li Xiu Woo
Publication Date: 2011
"The binary analysis applied in Ghost Dancing with Colonialism casts explanatory light on ongoing tensions between Canada and Indigenous peoples, suggesting new ways to bridge the cultural divide and arrive at a truly postcolonial justice system."