Most scholars who have researched on missionaries in British Columbia have not
taken gender into account. This dissertation narrates and analyzes the biographies of
the two founding generations of the Sisters of Saint Ann and the Oblates of Mary
Immaculate. It compares their origins in Quebec and Europe, their life histories, their
experiences teaching school, and their formation of the next generation of their religious
communities in British Columbia. The role of gender in shaping these individuals' lives
and identities can be seen in each aspect of the comparison.
Both the Oblates and the Sisters experienced the asymmetry of the female and
male organizations within the larger church. Over time two Roman Catholic
missionary systems evolved in British Columbia: the Sisters' system of educative and
caring institutions for the peoples of the province and the Oblates modified reduction
system for Aboriginal peoples, known in academic literature as the Durieu system.
School teaching, particularly work in residential schools for Aboriginal children, linked
the two systems. The French Oblate leaders aimed to masculinize the missions and
feminize school teaching. The Canadian Sisters of Saint Ann, however, set most of the
educational policies within both their own institutions and those they ran at Oblate
Aboriginal missions. Case studies of Oblate brothers and Sisters of Saint Ann work as
teachers in 1881 show that the nuns, as members of a separate religious congregation,
could negotiate with the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic church, whereas the Oblate
brothers could not. Such factors affected generational continuity. The Canadian
sisterhood reproduced itself in the region as a local family 'dynasty,' whereas the
French Oblate order did not.
Taking gender into account in a study of pioneer missionaries in British
Columbia does not simply reverse the standard history where the Oblates, as men,
appear central, and the Sisters of Saint Ann, as women, appear on the margins. Rather
the evidence of gender widens the range of discussion and increases awareness of the
complexity of the province's social and educational history.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9973 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Gresko, Jacqueline |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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