Canadian History Roundup – Week of November 25, 2018

Young woman wearing a red sweater holding bear paw snowshoes. Shilly Shally Lodge, Gatineau Park. N.D. Rosemary Easton Gillat. 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 common-used words in #envhist last week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: “People,” “Also,” and “Environmental.”
• One of the new entries from The Canadian Encyclopedia this week was for wild nuts in Canada. I do think it’s important to note that many foods that are now called “wild” were, in fact, cultivated by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years.
• This week on NiCHE, Laura Walker published a new piece on how climate change is threatening the Canadian tradition of outdoor hockey rinks.
• Jessica DeWitt also published several new posts featuring her comps notes, including:
  • One about environmental history textbooks
  • One on environmental science
  • And Great Plains part 1
• Retroactive published a two-part series on The Lure of Gold in Alberta’s History, focusing specifically on the Alberta Gold Rush in the 1860s. Part one focused on the early years of the gold rush, while part two focused on the end and aftermath of the gold rush.
• Some lucky students at UVic got to check out whale bones at the Royal BC Museum as part of Jason Colby’s course on the relationship between people and whales.
• Apparently someone decided it was gold rush week and didn’t tell me. Also in the Vancouver Sun this week is a look at some cool ephemera related to the BC Gold Rush.

Military History

• The St. Catharines Museum posted the sixth (and final) part of their “We Did Our Bit” series. This piece, by Kathleen Powell, focused on the stories found within ordinary objects.
• This week marked the anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Currie. McGill Library honoured his memory by sharing some of their holdings pertaining to his life and career.
• A German family is trying to find the family members of an Alberta airman, Sergeant John Peter Heinig, who was shot down in WW2.

Archaeology

• Russell Potter reported on the Death in the Ice exhibit’s recent move to the Mystic Seaport Museum, and which items are unique to this particular iteration of the exhibition.
• Robyn Lacy is publishing a book on her work! Yay!
• The latest talk in the Shannon Lecture series, by Katherine R. Cook on “There is No Net Neutrality in Digital Archaeology,”is now available.
• There is a new report out about the earliest crops that were domesticated in South America, particularly focusing on tobacco. I haven’t read the full article, but the Smithsonian did cover it, and you will be unsurprised to find that they didn’t refer to or include any Indigenous oral tradition in the piece.

History Education

• This was a spicy week for history education. The week kicked off with a sick burnresponse on Histoire Engagée by Marie-Hélène Brunet, Adèle Clapperton-Richard, Widia Larivière, and Philippe Néméh-Nombré to an article featuring a response by Denys Delâge and Gilles Laporte regarding recent edits to Quebec history textbooks regarding the presentation of Indigenous peoples.
• These textbooks have been garnering a lot of negative reviews lately, including a new independent review that argues that the textbooks should be removed from classrooms.
  • Here is the same story, but from La Presse.
  • And then the Quebec government announced that it has no plans to change the curriculum. And their reasons are pure BS.
  • Later in the week, also on Histoire Engagée, Isabelle Picard shared her own critique of the curriculum.
• Also this week, Lindsay Gibson resigned from the Alberta Education Social Studies Curriculum Working Group. Included in his reasons was their refusal to listen to historical experts. He laid this out in detail in a Twitter thread, and the story was then covered in the Edmonton Journal.
• And then, Michael Bock and François-Olivier Dorais reflected and responded to recent debates about a francophone universities in Ontario.
• And then, Gabriel A. Reich responded to Stéphane Lévesque’s series on Active History about historical monuments and pedagogy. I told you it was spicy.
• But we also found out about how educators in Prince Rupert are developing Ts’msyen teaching materials for math classes, relying on cedar weaving, beading, and oral histories (adaawx). Educators Tannis Calder and Tina Demings have been working with Sm’algyax language speakers, Elders, cultural advisors, and educators to develop these tools.

Transnational History

• The latest biography from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for transnational artist, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté.
• Kristine Alexander has written a must-read post for the Beyond Borders blog, reflecting on the logistical and epistemological challenges of doing transnational research as an early-career scholar and how the concept of nation has defined our profession; she concludes with some important questions.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• This week Active History also published a piece that I co-authored with Laura Madokoro, reflecting on the disconnect between words and actions, prompted by the recent MS. St. Louis Apology.
• Also new on The Canadian Encyclopedia this week was an entry on civil rights activist, first Black citizenship judge, and first Black civil servant in Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Stanley Grizzle.
• Find out about the great work being done by David Este on the history of African-American immigrants to Alberta in the early part of the twentieth century.
• While most of us think about BC when discussing Japanese-Canadian internment, Japanese-Canadians in Yukon were also forcibly relocated.

Indigenous History

• A collection of Inuit carvings collected by a federal employee in the 1940s and 1950s is being returned to Inuvik.
• CBC spoke with Jenny Spyglass, a survivor of the Thunderchild Indian Residential School, and historian and headman of Poundmaker First Nation, Milton Tootoosis, about the night in 1948 when the building burned.
• A 100-year-old caribou hide lodge went on view in Yellowknife. Visitors, including Elders from Behchoko, were given gloves to be able to touch the hide. Among those viewing the lodge was Peter Husky, whose family had originally sewn the lodge. The Husky family is now able to visit the lodge anytime they want.
  • The same institution also received a beautiful sealskin parka created in 1978.
• As Adele Perry pointed out, real history is stranger than fiction, in relation to an image posted by Paul Seesequasis (Willow Cree) of a Styrofoam igloo. No, you did not read that wrong.
• The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation will be stopping at seven locations across the country to speak with residential school survivors. This tour is part of their ongoing review of the settlement agreement.
• This piece, by Selena Mills and Sara Roque, with illustrations by Chief Lady Bird, is a beautiful and critical look at land acknowledgements and the oral history of Tkaronto (Toronto).
• Joanne Hammond put together another short Twitter thread on how settlers and the BC government have stonewalled descendent communities’ rights to their archaeological heritage, with a focus on existing regulatory heritage management policies.
  • Later in the week, she also commented on an article about the history of McArthur Island.
• Writing in response to news breaking about the continued coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in hospitals around the country, Jaipreet Virdi looked back on the history of eugenics in Canada, and how the colonial state used coercive sterilization to exert control over Indigenous women. CW: sterilization, harmful stereotypes about Indigenous women, eugenics, racism, medical abuse, violence against women.
• The Cree community of Waskaganish is celebrating 350 years of history this year. CBC spoke with one of the organizers, Charles J. Hester, about the celebration, and why the HBC is such an important part of the history of Waskaganish.
• Check out these awesome pictures of a 1978 powwow in Fort Williams First Nation.
• This week, Doug Cuthand looked back at the largest public hanging in Canadian history, at Battleford following the 1885 Resistance. CW: violence against Indigenous peoples.

New France/British North America

• In part nine of Borealia’s series on Cartography and Empire, Amanda Murphyao looks at debates about John Cabot’s voyage to North America, and how Canada almost came to be called “Cabotia.”
  • This blog post resulted in a fascinating discussion on Twitter about John Cabot, involving Douglas Hunter, Jack Bouchard, and Amanda Murphyao. Definitely click through all the replies to see the entire conversation.
• The title is kinda strange, but this blog post from LAC highlighted four drawings by Robert Hood.These images were drawn while Hood was on the Coopermine Expedition, which was led by John Franklin and ended up almost as badly.

Political History

• Another must-read this week is Christo Aivalis’ blog post on Active History about the right to strike and bargain collectively under Pierre Trudeau, and how, when it comes to Justin Trudeau, it’s just more of the same.
• Christo Aivalis also discussed how academics and members of the public reacted differently to his book, complicating existing narratives about Pierre Trudeau. He raises some important points about how far apart these two worlds are.
• There is a new blog post in Findings this week. Steven Bright looked at two letters relating to the history and politics of the Bank of Upper Canada. Fun fact: my dad worked for the Bank of Montreal for thirty-five years.

Social History

• Jamie Bradburn wrote a new piece for TVO on the history of General Motors in Oshawa.
• I think Ben Bradley won Canadian history Twitter this week with this ad.
  • Though Donica Belisle probably tied him. Omg.
• Fashion history nerd alert! The latest Flickr album from LAC featured images of sweaters, jackets, and coats.You know what that means! Knitting!! See the images themselves here.
• Also on LAC this week was a look at their holdings related to the Spanish Flu epidemic.
• And they did they same for their holdings relating to writer Alistair MacLeod.
• Isabelle Bourgeault-Tassé wrote a lovely piece about family recipes and cultural heritage as a Franco-Ontarian. There is much here, no matter your cultural heritage.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• LAC has recently located new files about the story of Angelina Napolitano, one of the first Canadian criminal cases that used the “battered woman” defence. This is super cool, though they don’t mention that we know about this story in large part due to the work of Franca Iacovetta and Karen Dubinsky.
• Check out part two of Cory Verbauwhede’s talk with Lucie Dagenais about the 1964 strike by the Alliance des infirmières de Montréal.
• Blake Brown wrote a fascinating Twitter thread on the history of women and firearms in Canada.
• Check out these cool images from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life and work!
• Anne Marie Lane Jonah wrote a new piece for the CCWH blog about the unveiling of a new statue (The Volunteers), honouring the women who volunteered during WW2. In it she discussed some of the Haligonian and Nova Scotian women who volunteered as well as the work of the Halifax Women’s History Society.

Local History

• Do you know about the Toad Hall posters from Whistler? NSFW: Nudity.
  • And then, later in the week, Whistorical looked at the documentation of the building of Chateau Whistler Resort, and its connection to Toad Hall.
• This week Heritage Winnipeg profiled the Ralph Connor House, home to author Revered Charles Gordon.
• Do you know the origins of the “Croche-des-Maires” section of route 169 au Lac-Saint-Jean? It involved the disappearance of two mayors. CW: crime scene photos
• This just made me laugh. And then cry.
• Last week I talked about the Ogilvie’s Christmas windows in Montreal. But here in Vancouver, Woodward’s had a similar display. Eve Lazarus looked back this week.
• Did you know that people in the Maritimes used to drive on the left? Find out what happened when New Brunswick switched in 1922.

Digital and Public History

• City of Coquitlam Archives has just launched a new digital exhibit on aerial photography and the evolution of the city. For more details on how the exhibit came to be, go here.
• Christopher Moore was back with his look at the latest issue of Canada’s History.
• Check out this amazing new digital archive of political maps for imperial and global historians from Cornell Library’s Digital Collections!
• The Saint John’s Labourer’s Benevolent Association was recognized by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada!
• The Virtual Museum of Canada launched a new online exhibit/community stories this week, on the life and times of Philip Jackman. The exhibit was organized by the Langley Centennial Museum.
• This isn’t really Canadian history news, but I’m glad to see the Government of Canada returning historical artifacts to Jordan.
• Jean-François Nadeau looked back at the history and meaning of heritage in Quebec, and why the government appears so disinterested.

Doing History

• The Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives has a new blog post this week, on using archival records in comic books!
• So, there was a lot of archive closure news this week.
  • First the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan announced that it would be closing their office in Saskatoon, and transferring the records to Regina.
    • More details here.
    • In response to the closure, Active History posted an open letter regarding this closure asking them to reconsider.
  • The Archives of Montreal also announced that they would be closing for three years as part of a move to a new location.
• The Greater Victoria School District archives is still without a permanent home.
• I really loved this piece from The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto on why we don’t always have photographs from before the late 1800s.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, I was back with our annual gift guide for historians and history professionals!

Miscellaneous

• This week on the Acadiensis blog, David Frank paid homage to the late Don MacGillivray.

Podcasts

• Rise Up! is an absolutely amazing digital archive of feminist activism in Canada, and this week the Rabble spoke with one of the organizers, Alana Cattapan, about the project.
• This week’s Secret Life of Canada episode looked at the real cost of the Klondike Gold Rush.
• In the latest episode of Museum Chat Life, Kathleen Powell and Sara Nixon discussed the closure of their “We Did Our Bit” exhibit at the St. Catharines Museum.
• The Dig history podcast looked at cannibalism and the the European exploration of the Arctic, including the Franklin Expedition, this week. Be warned that this podcast focused mostly on the settler perspective.
• The latest issue of History Chats featured Damien-Claude Bélanger’s talk, “Pride and Prejudice: Anti-Americanism Among Canada’s Intellectuals, 1891-1945.”

Better Late Than Never

• Tina Loo let me know about this really great video by Suzanne Morton, on “Colour, Colonialism, and the #Redmen.”
• I also feel terrible for missing this new story about a new book edited by Colleen MacQuarrie, Fiona Bloomer, Claire Pierson, and Shannon Stettner about abortion in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and PEI.

Calls for Papers

• The Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic, and Disarmament Studies has issued a CFP for their 30^th Canadian Military History Colloquium. Proposals are due February 4.
• The Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française has issued a CFP for their 2019 conference, on the theme of “Frontiers.” Proposals are due March 31.

Well, this was certainly an exciting, though rather depressing, week for history education and archives in Canada. Also, how is it December already??? Anyway, 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 our look at the Best New Articles from October 2018! See you then!

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