Canadian History Roundup – Week of May 19, 2019

Woman wearing red shirt canoeing. May 1962. Rosemary Gilliat Eaton / Library and Archives Canada, No. R12438

The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.

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: “Said,” “Data,” and “ZooArchNet.”
• Jessica was also back this week with her monthly look at the best articles in #envhist.
• Hector Cowan, a Canadian diplomat, spoke about his experiences as the first western diplomat allowed into Ukraine after Chernobyl.
• Daniel Macfarlane published a piece with Slate this week about the time when the water at Niagara Falls was turned off in June 1969.
  • Ben Cair also wrote about the event for the Smithsonian
• Claire Campbell published the second PICHE article this week, called “Rising with the Tide of History: The Age of Sail as Industrial Alibi.”
• Anna Soper published a piece for Atlas Obscura on 19^th century Ontario botanist, Catherine McGill Crooks, and her specimen collection.

Military History

• Restorers have found a depiction of a battle from the Seven Years’ War (also called the French and Indian War) inside a Connecticut home.
• I know it’s weird, but this video of a random guy testing a 1944 Canadian Army Emergency Ration is bizarrely fascinating.
• The skeletal remains of a Canadian soldier who died at Normandy have just been identified as belonging to Sergeant John Albert Collis.
• RCINET profiled WW1 soldier, Private Frederick Lee, one of the few Chinese-Canadian men who fought in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
• Somebody really messed up with the Kandahar War Memorial dedication ceremony.
• Steven Schwinghamer shared some of his favourite images from WW2 relating to Pier 21.

Archaeology

• Find out what’s going on this week at the Seymour Valley Archaeology Project, including
  • The first day back after the long weekend.
  • Exciting visitors!
  • And lab work.
• The last known slave ship to have arrived in the US, the Clotilda, has been found.
• Prior to new construction in View Royal in Victoria, archaeologists are investigating the Craigflower Manor House, one of the earliest settlements in the city.
• Robyn Lacy published a new blog post about her current work at the Woodland Cemetery as a Monument Conservator.
• Also make sure you check out her blog post on the Woodland Cemetery History blog, on Chinese gravestones in the cemetery.

History Education

• Tanya Talaga (Anishinaabe) published an op-ed in the Toronto Star about the Ford Administration’s recent decision to make courses in Indigenous history optional for high school students.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Darryl Leroux discussed how history is being manipulated by the Eastern Métis in the Lanaudière region of Quebec.
• A historic Black church in Toronto has been repeatedly vandalized this month.
• Natasha Henry has authored the first pamphlet in the new Research and Policy Brief Series from Turner Consulting Group, entitled Anti-Black Racism in Ontario Schools: A Historical Perspective.

Indigenous History

• Angela Sterritt (Gitxsan/Amsiwa/Canadian) found this horrific lunchbox from 1958. Content warning: racist depictions of Indigenous peoples, violence against Indigenous peoples.
• Thirty Elders from the Touchwood Hills area, including Kawacatoose, Gordon First Nation, Muskowekwan and the Day Star First Nation, including Bill Strongarm, Alvin Campeau, and Irving Buffalo, have just published a new book collecting together oral histories from the area.
  • More here.
• Joanne Hammond published a new Twitter thread on the relationship between sand and colonialism. Content warning: death, burials, racism, settler stupidity.
• The Indigenous Signal Tree at Maidstone Woods Conservation Area in Essex has been destroyed.
• Find out about a new exhibit on the history of the former Métis settlement of Ste. Madeleine, along the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border.
  • More here.

Exoneration of Chief Pitikwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker)

(special thanks to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography for compiling many of these in a Twitter thread, which you can see here.)

• This week Justin Trudeau officially exonerated Chief Pitikwahanapiwiyin and apologized for his conviction for treason-felony in 1885.
• The National Post interviewed Blair Stonechild (Cree-Saulteaux member of the Muscowpetung First Nation), Milton Tootoosis (headman at Poundmaker Cree Nation), and Bill Waiser about the Northwest Resistance and Pitikwahanapiwiyin.
• Tootoosis also spoke with CBC on the exoneration.
• Stonechild and Waiser held a Q&A with CBC about Pitikwahanapiwiyin.
  • And they also spoke with the Vancouver Sun
• And activists spoke to the Globe and Mail about recognizing Pitikwahanapiwiyin as a peacemaker.
• Blaine Favel (former chief of Poundmaker Cree Nation) published an op-ed in the Globe and Mail about why the exoneration is so important and explained the true history of Pitikwahanapiwiyin.
• Throughout the week, Paul Seesequasis (Willow Cree) has been publishing a Twitter thread with information on some of the other individuals who participated in the Northwest Resistance who also deserve exoneration, like Wandering Spirit.
• He also discussed Mistatim Awasis (Mistahimaskwa’s son) and William Cameron, who testified in defense of Pitikwahanapiwiyin
• Rob Houle (Nehiyaw) discussed one altercation between the RCMP and members of Big Bear’s Band prior to the Northwest Resistance.
• Kent Monkman (Cree) posted this beautiful tribute.
• Others have also begun calling for the exoneration of the others who were convicted of treason-felony following the Northwest Resistance. Trisha Sutherland, chief of One Arrow First Nation, spoke with CBC about the need to exonerate her community’s namesake, Chief One Arrow.
• Sean Carleton published a Twitter thread about how Canadians need to understand what happened to Pitikwahanapiwiyin and what public apologies really accomplish.

New France/British North America

• Zoe Louise Jackson has written the latest blog post for the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog, on Anthony Casteel’s experiences as a Mi’kmaq hostage and the historical context of Scalping Proclamations. Content warning: descriptions of scalping, violence against Indigenous peoples.
• More here on the Early Modern Maritime Recipes database.

Political History

• Patrick Lacroix put together a great thread on the history and significance of Quebec’s Patriots’ Day.
• Christopher Adams wrote a new guest blog post for the University of Toronto Press Journals Blog on the history of public opinion polling in Canada.

Winnipeg General Strike

• The Sunday Edition looked at the impact of the Winnipeg General Strike on the Canadian labour movement.
• The Graphic History Collective poster on the Winnipeg General Strike is now available in French as well as English.
• The archivists at the Archives of Manitoba spoke with CTV about the history of the strike.
• CBC explained why there are so few public monuments dedicated to the strike.

Social History

• This week on Histoire Engagée, Marie-Laurence Raby explored the history of transnational illegal abortion and radical feminism in Quebec.
• Mark Starowicz published an interesting look at the history of the CBC and how this will impact its movement into the digital age.
• Matthew Hayday published a great Twitter thread about the history of support for second-language learning among English-speakers in Canada.
• BAnQ’s À rayons ouverts magazine has just published an issue looking at the history of hockey in Canada!
• It’s behind a paywall, but the Globe and Mail spoke to archivists at the Memorial University Folklore and Language Archive about identifying the women who provided local traditions and recipes for their collection. Most of the women who wrote them signed as their husband’s wife.
• Do you know the history of nudism in Canada?
• Also on Histoire Engagée this week, Camille G. Jobin explored the history of domestic workers, in Quebec in the 1970s and 1980s, and the international workers’ rights movement.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• Don’t miss Elise Chenier’s latest piece in The Conversation about the LGTBQ
  “equality coin,” the importance of recognizing the radical activism of the LGTBQ movement, and the difference between equity and liberation.

Local History

• Whistorical looked back at the history of Blackcomb Mountain’s newsletter, Blabcomb.
• Check out these images from the Ukrainian Labour Temple, thanks to Heritage Winnipeg.
• This week Instantanés showcased the cultural life in Abitibi-Témiscamingue in the 1960s and 1970s as seen and experienced by François Ruph.
• Stephanie Ann Warner shared part of her recent talk about her grandfather’s experiences as a Vargas Island rancher in Saanich.
• The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto blog shared some of the items from their collection relating to Expo 1967 and the Christian Pavilion.
• Check out this neat look at the history of Winnipeg’s old Fortune and Macdonald Block buildings.
• Emma Renaerts looked back at the history of some of the racist folks whose names are currently on street signs across Vancouver. Content warning: racism, descriptions of residential schools, discrimination against Asian and Black Canadians, descriptions of the Komagata Maru incident, descriptions of violence against Indigenous peoples and Canadians of Asian descent.

Digital and Public History

• I just think this is funny, and the poem is haunting.
• The citizenship guide is still in progress, despite some significant problems with its representation of Canadian history, the history and rights of Indigenous peoples, and the experiences Indigenous peoples at residential schools.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog announced the newly digitized Association of University and College Employee fonds, and showcased some of the items from the collection.
• Anthony Wilson-Smith took us behind the scenes of the making of the upcoming D-Day heritage minute.
• The South Peace Regional Archives is still searching for help in identifying some of the Indigenous people who appear in photographs in their collection.
• The Virtual Museum of Canada announced the launch of a new Community Stories exhibit by the Maryboro Lodge/Fenelon Museum, entitled “RetroSpectacle: From Anne Langton Sketches to Digital Photography.”
• Check out this super cool project created by Amanda Almond, an augmented-reality app that lets users learn about Cree history and teachings across the University of Alberta downtown campus. The first marker contains videos featuring Knowledge Keeper Diana Steinhauer, from Saddle Lake Cree Nation.

Doing History

• The Royal BC Museum has announced a new policy to no longer collect or study ancestors. As part of this new policy, they are seeking to return ancestors to their home communities. The Museum is also committed to repatriating any items acquired from Indigenous peoples during the anti-potlatch years (1885-1951) since they were obtained under duress. This is fantastic news!
• LAC celebrated its 15^th birthday!
• Active History posted the second post in a series featuring paper and panel descriptions from the upcoming CHA Annual Meeting. The latest panel featured is “Treaty Talks: Engaging Non-Indigenous Canadians with the Past and Present of Treaties.”
• The Two Spirit Archives has just launched at the University of Winnipeg!
• Registration is now open for the Sixth Annual Meeting and Workshop of the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History, to be held at Congress this year.
• The City of Vancouver Archives blog explained the challenge of using archival storage space efficiently.
• LAC also shared images of some of the most interesting items in their collection.
• NiCHE published a new interview as part of their Unearthed series, all about Caitlynn Beckett.
• And this week on Unwritten Histories, I shared my top and most popular picks of panels from the upcoming CHA Annual Meeting!

Miscellaneous

• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for New Brunswick lumber business owner, Archibald Fraser.
• Leonard Cohen’s letters to Marianne Ihlen are going up for auction.

Podcasts

• The latest episode of the Witness to Yesterday podcast featured a conversation between Patrice Dutil and Tom Mitchell on the Winnipeg General Strike.
• Shannon Stettner was interviewed by CBC’s Front Burner about the history of legal abortion in Canada! Content warning: subject of abortion.
• This week on the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Liz Covart spoke with Joseph Adelman about the history of post and travel in early North America and the Atlantic World.
• In the latest episode of Nature’s Past, Sean Kheraj spoke with Claire Campbell about her new PICHE paper, mentioned above!
• There was also a brand new History Slam episode this week, where Sean Graham spoke with Raymond Blake about his new book with Melvin Baker, Where They Once Stood: Newfoundland’s Rocky Road Towards Confederation.
• Sean Carleton spoke with the hosts of the From Embers podcast about the new Graphic History Collective book, 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike.
• This week on the Face2Face podcast, Ashley Brook and Adam Bunch spoke about the new web tv series on Canadian history, Canadiana, including a discussion about myths surrounding the life of D’Arcy McGee.
• Eve Lazarus posted episode six of the Blood, Sweat, and Fear podcast, all about the death of Sidney Colbourne. Content warning: descriptions of violence, violence against women.
• In the latest episode of the History at Work podcast, Know History spoke with Candice McCavitt about her experience working with Heritage Toronto.
• This week the Living Heritage Podcast looked at the history of goats in New Perlican. Yes, you read that correctly.
• The latest episode of the Juno Beach and Beyond podcast shared how seven men experienced the Battle of Normandy.

Is it just me or has there been a podcast explosion lately? 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 very special event, CHA Reads 2019! See you then!

Liked this post? Please take a second to support Unwritten Histories on Patreon!