Shelly Johnson
In October 2011, Shelly Johnson successfully defended a PhD dissertation titled I Screamed Internally for a Long Time, an Indigenist study focusing on the contested space that is the unique educational site of traumatized Urban Indigenous children in Canadian child protection systems.
This study identifies the historic, political, socio-legal, legislative, financial and jurisdictional wrangling and impediments to their academic and traditional Indigenous educational success. Specifically, it explores the intersectionality of educational and child protection issues identified in the literature and personal experiences of twenty-nine Urban Indigenous children in Canada’s child protection system and representatives of two Urban Indigenous child protection agencies.