Thorpe’s research examines how historical narratives and power relationships influence the present, focusing on the origins and heritage of, and obstacles to, colonial rule in the Canadian context. Thorpe shows that the legacy of residential schools is also shaped by gender. Indigenous feminist scholars like Thorpe use evidence from the residential school system to support residential studies, such as the effort to groom Indigenous youngsters into “farmers and farmers’ wives.”
In the residential schools, women did a lot of the everyday work of the empire. Indeed, they allowed for the continued operation of a system whose goal was to transform Indigenous society for the least amount of money possible. In the residential school system history, gender played more than a minor role.