Canadian History Roundup – Week of June 16, 2019

L-R: Freda Carlofsky, Rose Carlofsky and Anne (Carlofsky) Flesher. Photograph by New Paramount, Ottawa. [192-?] Abe Carlofsky fonds. Ottawa Jewish Archives. OJA 1-674-012

Missed last week’s roundup? Check it out here.

Environmental History

• The most commonly-used words in #envhist last week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: ‘Energy,’ ‘CUB,’ and ‘Said.’
• She also published a new set of comps notes, this time for R. Douglas Francis’s Images of the West: Responses to the Canadian Prairies.
• In three short essays, plus an introduction by Jamie Murton, over on NiCHE, Kenneth Reilly, Michael Feagan, and Matthew Clearly, critically consider photographs as historical sources, rather than as simple illustrations. My inner photo-lab technician was cheering.
• In the latest edition of the “Unearthed” series on NiCHE, Heather Green spoke with Justin Fisher about his work!

Military History

• The Winnipeg General Strike was not the only big event involving Canadians in 1919. 400 WW1 veterans also rioted in the south of London on June 17, 1919, in what became known as the Epsom Riots. These were the result of anxiety, tension, PTSD, and misinformation. One police officer, Sergeant Thomas Green, was killed.
• The latest Soldier Spotlight from the South Peace Regional Archives is on Flight Sergeant Frederick Bruce Albright, who served in WW2.

Archaeology

• This was the last week of the Seymour Valley Archaeology Project!
  • The week began with a team meeting and sharing projects.
  • Nikki Simon’s photographic work was featured. Loved them.
  • The students had fun throwing atlatls with Bob.
  • And then everything wrapped up, and the students shared their final projects.
  • And special bonus, Sepideh Sadeghi made a video about the McKenzie Creek site! I am in awe.
  • Special thanks to all the students for sharing their work with us, and kudos to Bob Muckle for putting together a wonderful course!
• Robyn Lacy was back with a recap of week 4 of conservation work at the Woodland Cemetery.
• And she also discussed how stone weathering happens with respect to gravestones.
• Find out about the latest archaeological investigation at Water Street in St. John’s, including seventy-nine teeth! Which is especially interesting because my mom had dental surgery this week to remove hers! History inception! Don’t worry, she has fancy new implants now.
  • More here.
• This is a really cool look at the Aboriginal Youth Engagement Program, part of the University of Calgary’s Program for Public Archaeology. Organized by Kelsey Pennanen, the program invites students from the Siksika Nation Outreach School to learn about the basics of archaeology at the luny Fortified Village site, near soyohpoiwko the Ridge-Under-Water, or Blackfoot Crossing, on Blackfoot territory.
• A 200-year-old gravestone has been discovered in a London, Ontario cemetery.
• Russell Potter is back with another blog post, this time about the first sighting of the graves at Beechey Island.

History Education

• More on the cool projects by University of Lethbridge students Benjamin Weistra and LaRae Smith that I mentioned last week, on Alberta History for the Galt Museum.

Transnational History

• Over on Histoire Engagée, Myriam Lévesque published a new blog post on the experiences of (largely settler) nurses working in Indigenous communities in both Canada and the US from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• As Stephanie Pettigrew mentioned elsewhere, the timing was not really sensitive, but a new committee was formed in May, and announced this week, to consider whether the Acadian expulsion/deportation should be considered genocide. Chantal Richard spoke with CBC about the committee.
  • And Lisa Todd spoke with CBC Information Morning – Fredericton about the committee as well.
• While not specifically Canadian, I would encourage every to listen to or read Ta-Nehisi Coates response to Mitch McConnell’s remarks on reparations for enslavement. Powerful and moving.
• This is a pretty cool story about Chinese curlers in Saskatchewan in the early part of the 20^th century.

Indigenous History

• CBC spoke with Lou-ann Ika’wega Neel (Kwakwaka’wakw) about her work on repatriation with the Royal BC Museum.
• In the Nunatsiaq News, Kenn Harper published the story how Qaqortingneq (Inku)  told Franklin searcher, Knud Rasumussen, about the location of the remains of some of Franklin’s crew, and of the stories of Inuit meeting crew members decades earlier, from both Qaqortingneq and Iggiaraarjuk, a man from the Netsilik region.
• The Straight did a feature on Cindy Blackstock’s (Gitksan) “Is It Genocide?” series, mentioned in last week’s roundup!
• Check out these wonderful vignettes from the Siksika Consultation Office, featuring stories from Blackfoot Culture, specifically “Chief Mountain” and “First Marriages.”
• A group of archivists who are working with the CBC Indigenous language archives project, were interviewed this week. Archivists like Susie Zettler (from Pangirtung, Nunavut), Lucy Ann Yakela (from Fort Good Hope, N.W.T), and Betty Harnum are working to recover the amazing stories that have been collected by the CBC over six decades, in Gwich’in, Inuvialuktun, Tlicho, North Slavey, South Slavey, Denesuline, Cree and Inuktitut.
• City News featured several Sixties Scoop survivors, like John Ward and Sharon Gladue, who shared their stories as part of the opening of a touring exhibit on the history of the Scoop in Edmonton’s Royal Museum.
• Papaschase First Nation believes it has located a burial site, but they have been blocked from examining it. APTN spoke with Papaschase Chief Calvin Bruneay about the site on the banks of Blackmud Creek. Kisha Supernant (Métis) was one of the researchers who attempted to examine the site with permission from Papaschase First Nation, but the owners of the land are refusing all requests.
• Joanne Hammond explained why she is now refusing to use the term “pre-contact,” when talking about history.
• Five Inuit have filed a lawsuit against the federal government for medical experiments that were performed on them in the 1960s and 1970s. The folks involved have asked to remain anonymous for the most part, though one is former Nunavut premier, Paul Quassa, whose story was featured in a previous roundup. Content warning: descriptions of medical experiments, colonial violence.
• The RCMP is asking for the names of Indigenous folks who have been the victim of coerced sterilization. It’s unclear whether they are looking for recent cases only, since accounts of this happening go back decades.
• Though when they pull crap like this, it’s easy to understand why Indigenous folks don’t trust the RCMP. That, and the whole NWMP was created to police Indigenous folks thing. Sigh.

New France/British North America

• Leah Grandy has a new blog post on the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog on her investigation of the local loyalist history in Kings county, New Brunswick. This is the first in a two part series.

Winnipeg General Strike – Bloody Saturday

• The latest blog post from the Canadian Centre for the Great War examined the role that veterans played in the strike.
• Heritage Winnipeg also covered Bloody Saturday in their blog post.
• As did CBC.
• All this week on Active History, Sean Carleton and Julia Smith edited a special guest series on the 1919 strike wave that rippled from Winnipeg across the country.
  • Check out their introduction here.
  • Gregory Kealey discussed the 1919 Worker’s Revolt, and how it impacted the rest of the country, as well as the Labour/Le Travail symposium on the 75^th anniversary of the strike.
  • The Graphic History Collective and David Lester covered the Winnipeg General Strike itself in its historical context.
  • Nolan Reilly looked at the workers’ revolt in Amherst, Nova Scotia.
  • Tom Mitchell discussed the sympathetic strike in Brandon, Manitoba.
  • Sean Carleton, Kirk Niergarth, and Julia Smith wrote about the sympathy strike in Calgary, Alberta.
  • Tom Langford covered the strike in western coal country, Alberta and southeast BC.
  • Mikhail Bjorge related the history of the strike in Edmonton.
  • Jim Naylor looked at the strike in Toronto.
  • Geoffrey Ewen discussed the strike in Montreal.
  • David Lester and the Graphic History Collective capped the week off with a special film depicting the events of Bloody Saturday.
  • And Sean Carleton and Julia Smith added a final conclusion on the theme week, with a list of additional readings.
  • Can I just say that I think this is a fabulous teaching tool that I think will allow educators to draw on their local history while also talking about it in a national context?
• In honour of the anniversary of Bloody Saturday, Matthew McRae put together a “live-tweeted” thread of the events of the day!
• I would highly recommend reading this wonderful piece by Adele Perry on the relationship between the Strike, Shoal Lake and Indigenous dispossession. 

Political History

• Karl Nerenberg looked back at the long list of Commissions on Indigenous folks in Canada, and how successive governments have ignored them.

Social History

• If you love rhubarb, then the Nova Scotia Archives has got you covered.
• Kesia Kvill was back with another historical recipe test, this time on chocolate buckwheat cookies.
• Online shopping started in Pembroke, Ontario??? Well, its precursor anyways.
• Shannon Boklaschuk spoke with Erika Dyck about the important role that women played in LSD research in Saskatchewan. More evidence of the important role that faculty wives have played in research.
• Ok, clearly Sadie Grimm was amazing.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• Active History republished a piece by Shawn W. Brackett and Nancy Janovicek in response to the new Alberta government’s introduction of Bill 8: The Education Amendment Act, which removes previous protections for LGTBQ+ students and Gay Straight Alliances. The piece considers the move in relation to the historical context of discussions around sex education.

Local History

• Check out this neat story from Clarence Snook, on how he became a telegraph operator during WW2, and the women who trained him.
• CTV shared this collection of historical images from the Vancouver Aquarium. I am glad that Canada has finally banned captive whales and dolphins, though animals currently in captivity are excluded. Random Andrea fact: I briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a marine biologist because I love whales so much.
• The title of this one just kills me, though I don’t think it translates well into English. But in any case, Instantanés posted the story of what happened when a corpse became a religious football in Grande-Baie in October 1864.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog posted images of streetcars and interurban trams in BC.
• Whistorical looked back at the history of mountain bike accidents and injuries in Whistler.
• The Toronto Public Library shared photographs from their collections showing summertime in Ontario’s history.
• The South Peace Regional Archives shared digitized versions of their tours exploring rural communities from their area, so you can explore them yourself!
• The Woodland Cemetery has also put together several walking tours to help people learn more about the history of London, Ontario. This year’s guide focuses on the history of immigrants. In a new blog post, Meghan shared the research that went into the tour.
• Robyn Lacy also published the story of the life and death of Robert Cooper, who died in a explosion at the Bilton’s Soda Water and Pop Works in London, Ontario, and the way this was memorialized on his gravestone.
• How have I never heard of horse walks before?

Digital and Public History

• The Western Development Museum has finally put on display the first items in their new LGTBQ2 history collection.
• The Nova Scotia Archives has updated their list of video footage showing Nova Scotia history from 1917 to 1957. See the list yourself here.
• The Graphic History Collective also published a new poster this week, “We Are Still Here: National Parks, Colonial Dispossession, and Indigenous Resilience.” The artwork is by Nancy Kimberley Philips and the essay is by Wacey Little Light (Stommiikiisokkou), who is a member of Siksika Nation.
• The students from Hist 381E at Western University worked with Tom Belton at the Western Archives to create a new Historypin website, called “Spanning the Gap: Commemorating the 75^th Anniversary of the Transition from World War II to Peace in London, Ontario.”
• Election Atlas premiered a new interactive map to see poll results from federal and provincial elections. The polls goes back to 1925 for the feds, with varying dates for the provinces.
• Gillian Leitch has created an interactive map showcasing the history of Scots in Montreal.
• Emory University has announced a significant update to their database of slave ship voyages that were part of the Transatlantic trade in enslaved peoples.
• A new school inThunder Bay is being named after Elsie MacGill!
• Samantha Cutrara shared this bootleg version of her talk as part of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, on the future of commemoration.
• When officials announced that the Davin School in Regina, it kicked off a monument war that continues to this day. Well, the school now has a new name, Crescents School, along with two plaques explaining the history Nicholas Flood Davin and residential schools, in both English and Cree.
• There is a new app for those who want to learn about the history of Alberta!

Doing History

• Speaking personally, these kinds of conversations are the ones that make Canadian history awesome. Be sure to click through all the replies.
• The CHA has released an official statement in response to the destruction of historical files on Pierre Trudeau.
• Our Digital World shared their presentation from the Archivists’ Association of Ontario annual meeting about their work digitizing Ontario’s community newspapers, including live-tweets about the talk.
• Over on the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC blog, the new project archivist, Victoria, shared the process of categorizing documents from their Canadian Jewish Congress collection.
• This is not about Canadian history, but you need to read this statement from Karin Wulf, Lisa Wilson, and the Council of the Omohundro Institute about sexual harassment at the Omohundro Institute.
• The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network has launched a new database interface!
• The City of Montreal has renamed Amherst Street. It will now be called Atateken, which means “brothers and sisters” in the Kanien’kéha language.
• CBC also spoke with the BC Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Lisa Beare, about efforts to modernize the Royal BC Museum to make it more representative of the province’s actual history. Ben Bradley was also interviewed for this piece. Other random Andrea fact of the day: my husband and I had one of our first dates here. Because we are dorks.
• Another year, another national forgetting of the Air India Flight 182 anniversary. Chandrima Chakraborty looked at why this is the case, despite being the largest mass murder in Canadian history.
• Parks Canada has announced a new framework for history and commemoration, with the goal of making its representation of history more diverse and inclusive.
• The Virtual Museum of Canada launched a brand new virtual exhibit from a local-to-me national historic site, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. The new exhibit is called “From Tides to Tins,” and looks at the history of salmon canning in BC.
• Heritage Toronto has launched a new digital tour of the Dundas and Carlaw area.
• Check out this important new website chronicling the lesbian and gay liberation movement in Canada from 1964 to 1981. Check it out yourself here.
• Find out how a historical interpreter saved the Fort St. James National Historic Site from the Shovel Lake wildfire.
• Karen Black shared her experiences visiting the “Toronto Through the Eyes of Women Artists” exhibit at the Market Gallery.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, I interviewed Carly Ciufo for the Historians’ Histories series!
• Leslie Rodriguez, a grade eleven student, wrote a wonderful blog post about their work at the Ottawa Jewish Archives as part of a co-opt program!

Miscellaneous

• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for artist and professor, John Hammond.
• Mike Milloy published a new post for the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History on WW2 veteran and member of the Canadian immigration foreign service, Roger St. Vincent, and his newly digitized autobiography.

Podcasts

• Jenny Ellison was interviewed on an American podcast, Backstory, about the history of aerobics for self-identified fat women. Jenny, now that you’re famous, can we still be friends?
• Ensuring her crown as Roundup Queen, Ellison also spoke with The Jon McComb show about the Canadian history of Trivial Pursuit. If you missed her talk at Congress, you definitely need to check it out! It’s chapter 5.
• Check out this interview with Ornella Nzindukiyimana about the history of Black athletes in Canada, on The Black Athlete podcast!
• The Witness to Yesterday podcast published two new episodes this week!
  • First up, Patrice Dutil spoke with Jennifer Tunnicliffe about her book, Resisting Rights: Canada and the International Bill of Rights, 1947-76.
  • And then he spoke with Christo Aivalis about his book, The Constant Liberal: Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour, and the Canadian Social Democratic Left.
• This week the Living Heritage Podcast provided a summer update on the work of the Intangible Cultural Heritage office, asked for help creating a database of craftspeople around the province, and explored the history of the new Craft Council building.
• This week on the Notice History podcast (which I have been mistakenly calling the History at Work podcast, and thanks to Jessica Knapp for pointing out my mistake), they interviewed LAC archivist, Emily MacDonald.
• Eve Lazarus has released a new episode of the Blood, Sweat, and Fear podcast, on the murder of Olga Hawryluk in English Bay in 1945. Content warning: descriptions of violence, murder, crime.

Did a memo go out about everyone announcing their awesome new digital exhibits this week? Seems like it! In any case, I hope you enjoyed this week’s Canadian history roundup! If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice. And don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for a brand new blog post. We’re unveiling a new project! See you then!

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