Canadian History Roundup – Week of April 21, 2019

Women canning sockeye salmon at the Imperial Cannery, Steveston, B.C. 1971-72. National Film Board of Canada. Copyright expired.

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: ‘Earth,’ ‘Environmental,’ and ‘Harrisons.’
• Whistorical posted a recap of a recent talk by Ian Spooner on environmental change in Alta and Lost Lakes.
• It was a busy week on NiCHE, with three new blog posts:
  • First up was an introduction to the latest entry in the Canadian History and Environment series at University of Calgary Press, Jonathan Clapperton and Liza Piper’s Environmental Activism on the Ground: Small Green and Indigenous Organizing.
  • The latest post in the Unearthed series featured Michelle Murphy.
  • And Jessica DeWitt posted her monthly look at the best in environmental history readings!

Military History

• Andrew Burtch put together a great Twitter thread profiling the Canadian soldier who died in the defense of Hill 677 at the Battle of Kapyong in the Korean War.

Archaeology

• Russell Potter posted videos from the recent “Franklin Lost and Found” event at the Mystic Seaport Museum! There are separate videos for each of the panels. Warning: videos may contain images or descriptions of ancestors.
• Robyn Lacy published a new blog post about her explorations of the Old Durham Cemetery in Connecticut.
• Joanne Hammond was back with a new Twitter thread this week, providing some important background about the Bering land bridge theory, and how to respond when the theory is raised (in response to a question from Aadita Chaudhury)
• A man has been charged for attempting to grave-rob the All Saints Cemetery, which dates back to the 1850s, in Newfoundland. 

History Education

• Donica Belisle shared the results of her “unessay” project in a course on Canadian history. I love all of her student’s projects!
• While Krista McCracken shared their experiences from their recent Archival Practicum course. Krista also included information on Twitter about one of the amazing projects their students created, recreating historical recipes from archival sources.
• This week we had a brand new blog post in the Beyond the Lecture series, where Hailey Venn explained her Cards Against Environmental History review exercise!
• Over on the Anabaptist Historians blog, Lucille Marr reflected on her development as a teaching professor, and the scholars who have inspired her.
• As Adele Perry notes, this explains so much...

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Do you know the history of the Japanese Canadian Cenotaph in Stanley Park?
• Thunder Bay’s Finnish Archives posted the newly digitized minutes of the Hoito Restaurant from March 27, 1918 to May 2, 1920. The restaurant served Finnish and Canadian food, and was considered a landmark restaurant.
• Find out what the Landscapes of Injustice Project is up to with their latest newsletter.
• These amazing photographs by Yucho Show showcase Vancouver’s diverse history. 

Indigenous History

• Justice Sean Harrington dismissed a motion for advanced costs filed by lawyers for the day scholar survivors of residential schools. These survivors were excluded from the original Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. Harrington also called out the federal government for their handling of this court case and all others involving residential schools, including their ongoing denial that there was a uniform residential school policy and its attempts to evade paying out compensation by prolonging investigations. Content warning: descriptions of residential schools.
• asinnajaq ᐊᓯᓐᓇᐃᔭᖅ wrote a piece for Canadian Art on the Igloolik Isume Productions (Isuma), which has been creating film for more than thirty years to empower Inuit communities, including a history of how the residents of Inuit Nunangat have taken new media technologies into their own hands.
• @makokaazo (reconnecting Chippewas of the Thames anishinaabe) put together an important Twitter thread about the Gwat’sinuxw nations of Kwakwaka’wakw’s history and relationships with settlers, as well as the ongoing nature of colonial violence. Content warning: descriptions of acts of colonial violence, Indian Agents.
• CBC spoke with Musqueam Elder Gail Sparrow about the Pacific Spirit Park protest, which took place thirty years ago this week.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia published a new entry on the Gustafsen Lake Standoff, a month-long conflict that took place in 1995 between First Nations Sun Dancers and the RCMP in Secwepemc territory. Content warning: descriptions of violence.
• And a new one for Olive Dickason (Métis).
• Jesse Thistle (Métis) put together this great piece on Métis scrip for Unreserved.
• Brenda McDougall (Métis) explained the history of the Métis people.

New France/British North America

• All week long, Borealia has been profiling the brand new Early Modern Maritimes Recipe online searchable database. Omg, this is so awesome.
  • The first post, by Edith Snook, dealt with defining what a “recipe” was.
  • The second post, also by Edith Snook, focused on recipe culture as a component of settler colonialism.
  • And the third post, by Lyn Bennett, focused on the history of one recipe, for mushroom ketchup.
• I am always up for some tea history, even if it’s not really Canadian.
• Over on the Junto this week, Emily Yankowitz reviewed the new edited collection from Rebecca Brannon and Joseph S. Moore, The Consequences of Loyalism: Essays in Honor of Robert M. Calhoon.
• And a couple of days later, they posted a Q&A with the authors as well!

Political History

• The latest entry from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for New Brunswick judge and politician, James Paul Byrne.
• This week on Aujourd’hui Histoire, Véronique O’Leary, cofounder of the Centre des femmes, founder of the Théâtre des Cuisines, and member of the Front de liberation des femmes (FLF) spoke about her experiences in the Women’s Movement in the 1970s.
• Jordan House published a new piece on Active History this week about the 1934 BC Penitentiary Strike and the issue of prisoners’ wages in Canada more generally.
• David Camfield reminded us of the lessons that remain to be learned from the Winnipeg General Strike.

Social History

• OK, who else thinks it’s creepy that the latest LAC Flickr album is of dolls? See the images yourself here.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• I mentioned last week that there was a new coin from the Royal Canadian Mint honouring LGTBQ+ folks and the 1969 Omnibus bill.
  • Tom Hooper published an op-ed with CBC on the problem with the coin commemorating a myth.
  • Breakfast Television spoke with Tom Hooper and Elise Chenier about the limits of the Omnibus Bill, as well as the importance of ongoing conversations about history.

Local History

• Find out about the history of the man for whom Dawson City is named.
• If you live in Vancouver, you need to read this piece about the history of Squamish Nation land. This is especially the case for the clueless Kitsilano residents who complained about not being consulted as part of the development of new Squamish Nation-led housing development. And yes, you read that right.
• I’m not sure if this counts has history, but I certainly find it funny.
• The latest blog post from the City of Vancouver Archives blog is all about their acquisition of Henry Mole’s diaries. Mole was a settler in what is currently known as Kerrisdale, who kept a diary from 1872 to 1914. Content warning: some minor problematic language.
• Apparently there were two Thirteen Clubs in Toronto?

Digital and Public History

• Researchers from Toronto’s Ward Museum are going out into the community to gather stories about immigration and settlement in parts of the city, part of the Block by Block initiative.
• This is a really neat mural project about Regina’s Ukrainian history.
• The Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place at Memorial is looking for folks to help identify individuals in historical photographs.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog celebrated World Book and Copyright Day by featuring images from their collection of people reading.
• Peel Art Gallery, Museum, and Archives put together another Twitter moment collecting together Canadian archive accounts’ posts related to World Book Day.
• In their latest mystery month post, Our Digital World is asking for folks to help the Whitby Public Library identify people in photographs from Remembrance Day ceremonies over the years.
• Of course the big news this week was the release of the new Canada Post stamp, featuring the Vancouver Asahi Baseball Team!
  • Here is the Straight’s coverage of the unveiling
  • And here is CTV’s.
• Find out about a new initiative from LAC, who will be collaborating with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) to create a new website, La France aux Amériques, containing archival documents showcasing the relationship between France and the Americas.
• New (old) issues of the Kamloops Daily Sentinel going back to 1909 are now digitized and available online.
• Have you heard about the Upper Canada Slavery Database? It’s still a work in progress.

Doing History

• Find out how Sian Jones found out about her family history by looking through their documents from Canadian Pacific Steamships.
• David Siebert explained the Royal Society of Canada as an imperial scientific project.
• There is a new website from the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Calgary documenting the history of the campus. See the website itself here.
• In this week’s edition of Historians’s Histories, we spoke with Erin Millions!
• Steven Palmer made a short video about the history of the History Department at the University of Windsor.

Podcasts

• Thanks to Jessica Knapp for letting me know that the Know History podcast episode in February featured a interview with the organizers of the We Are The Roots project, Deborah Dobbins and Jenny Bailey. And don’t miss their latest episode, featuring an interview with Grant Rivard about history education. And of course all the interviews in between.
• Check out this interview with the creators of Mukurtu, an open-access platform designed for creating Indigenous digital archives, Kirsten Thorpe (Worimi) and Richard Neville. Content warning: the accompanying article contains images of ancestors who have died.
• The latest episode of The Secret Life of Canada is all about the Medicine Line.
• My ears are burning because Krista McCracken said waaay too many nice things about me in their latest podcast episode on the work we did creating the Beyond the Lecture ebook! But for real, because I cannot say it often enough, Krista is amazing and I love collaborating with them. I always learn so much, and have fun at the same time!
• Eve Lazarus has released episode four of the Blood, Sweat, and Fear podcast, on threatening letters to Inspector Vance. Content warning: violence language, descriptions of violence.

Better Late Than Never

Calls for Papers

• Cindy Hanson and Allyson Stevenson (Métis) have issued a CFP for an upcoming conference, “Whose Settlement Agreement,” on the Sixties Scoop and Indian Residential School compensations. Proposals are due May 15.
• The organizers of “The (re)Making of a Movement: New Perspectives on the 1960s Counterculture,” to be held at Humber College in October, have issued a CRP for papers and panels exploring how the countercultures have evolved over the last fifty years. Proposals are due May 30.

That’s all for this week! And you’re welcome for not using a creepy doll picture for this week’s roundup. 😉 I hope you enjoyed the latest 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 look at the best new scholarly articles in Canadian history! See you then!

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