Crystal Gail Fraser wins 2025 Governor General’s History Award

January 19, 2026 - Associate Professor Crystal Gail Fraser was announced as the English-language winner of the 2025 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research. The award will be presented at a ceremony in Ottawa on January 27th by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada. The award honours authors of the academic work published in the previous year that has made the greatest contribution to understanding of Canada’s past.

By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories has already received many awards since its publication in 2024, including the Best Book in Canadian Studies Prize (Canadian Studies Network); Best First Book (Native American and Indigenous Studies Association); CLIO History Prize - North (Canadian Historical Association); and Best Scholarly (English-Language) Book in Canadian History Prize (Canadian Historical Association).

It has also been shortlisted for the Indigenous History Book Prize (Canadian Historical Association), the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize and the Robert Kroetsch - City of Edmonton Book Prize.

The book presents real-life accounts from residential school survivors to examine the federal government’s policy of assimilation of Northern Indigenous peoples from the 1950s to the 1980s, when the government of the Northwest Territories overhauled their education system. The analysis centres on the Grollier and Stringer Halls, two new residential schools established at Inuvik in 1959, eleven years after a joint parliamentary commission recommended that all Canadian residential schools be closed. Grollier Hall continued to operate into the 1990s, undergoing important changes in operations and policy in response to demands from parents, politicians, and communities.

Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser is Gwichyà Gwich’in, originally from Inuvik and Dachan Choo Gèhnjik (Tree River) in the Northwest Territories. She is a historian and Associate Professor in the Department of History, Classics, & Religion and the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Her research, teaching, and community work focus on histories of residential and day schooling in the North, Indigenous childhoods, and relationships between colonialism, education, genocide, and human rights in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Fraser noted that early in her academic career, “it became pretty clear that historians go to archives … however, I was pretty committed to community, to the revival of our storytelling practices, and to working with folks who can share so much more about these histories than I could ever find at the archive.”

In its research methods, incorporation of Indigenous languages, and community-centred approach, By Strength, We Are Still Here makes a striking and original contribution to the literature on Indian Residential Schools in Canada.

For more information on this year’s award-winners, please visit www.canadashistory.ca/explore/awards/2025-governor-general-s-history-award-recipients

About the Governor General’s History Awards
The Governor General’s History Awards recognize excellence in five categories: Teaching, Museums, Scholarly Research, Community Programming, and Popular Media. Each award category has its own jury, selection process, and prize structure. The Governor General’s History Awards are administered by Canada’s National History Society, in partnership with the Canadian Museums Association and the Canadian Historical Association, and with the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Power Corporation of Canada.

About Canada’s History Society
Canada’s History Society is a national charitable organization based in Winnipeg that works to connect Canadians through history. Canada’s History Society aims to strengthen understanding of the complex and diverse histories of our country and their part in shaping contemporary Canada. It publishes the magazines Canada’s History and Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids (available digitally at canadashistory.ca), and oversees education and award programs, including the Governor General’s History Awards and Heritage Fairs.