Canadian History Roundup – Week of August 6, 2017

Daughters of two fishermen (The girl on the right has been identified as Susie Etok, here aged 14). Circa 1960. Rosemary Gilliat. Library and Archives Canada, e010835968. CC by 2.0.

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

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

• The lovely image at the top was used this week because LAC tweeted out this amazing photograph of Etok visiting their office!
• This week on the Media Indigena podcast, Rick Harp interviewed Mary Jane McCallum about her work on Indigenous history and health.
• Karihwakeron (@Okwarikowa) shared this heartbreaking INAC form for eyeglasses for First Nations people. The catch is that individuals were not permitted to purchase more expensive frames, even if they had the means to do so.
• McGill-Queen’s University press put together a list of recommended readings for the bizarre holiday known as BC Day!
• This week’s most popular words in #envhist, according to Jessica DeWitt are: “Indigenous,” “Coal,” and “Anthracite.”
• Olivar Asselin writes to his wife about how he’s doing and about Canadian losses on the front lines.
• Check out these cool images from Robert McKay Brebner and his family’s lives as farmers in Spruce Grove, Alberta, from around the year 1900.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, I had the opportunity to interview the lovely Mary-Ellen Kelm about her process for developing a collaborative syllabus with her students!
• Recently, Jessica DeWitt has been publishing her notes from her comprehensive exams on her blog. While she focused particularly on American history, this week’s notes on the frontier will be of interest to many Canadianists.
• Maddie Knickerbocker has another awesome Twitter essay this week, in response to the unveiling of a new plaque in Fort Langley honouring Simon Fraser. As Knickerbocker notes, not only does he already have numerous landmarks named after him, but he did some truly reprehensible things during his lifetime.
• The Graphic History Collective has released the latest poster in their Remember|Resist|Redraw series. This latest poster, by Gord Hill, honours the siege at Ts’Peten (Gustafen Lake) in Secwepemc territory in British Columbia in 1995.
• Mary Rae, of the Toronto Public Library, recounts the history of Little Norway in Muskoka. I did not know that was a thing.
• Myra Tait was interviewed about her work on Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal for the At the Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research podcast!
• Cuteness alert: check out this adorable kitty who kept the ROM free of rodents in the 1960s!
• Crystal Fraser and Sara Komarnisky’s list of #150Acts of Reconciliation has been translated into French and posted on Histoire Engagée!
• Mary Jane Logan McCallum has written a special guest post for the University of Toronto Press Journals Blog, in honour of the 10^th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
• The CHA has added another profile to their “What Can You Do With A History Degree” blog. This latest focuses on Aly Ndiaye, also known as Webster, who is a well-known hip hop artist who also gives lectures on Black history in New France.
• The Instantanés blog is featuring some really gorgeous postcards of Montreal from 1885 to 1922! These postcards can tell us a great deal about the important tourist attractions of the day.
• The latest blog post from the Canadian Museum of Human Rights looks at how the museum has responded to the TRC and what it plans to do in the future. It is also focuses on an upcoming exhibition, called Rites of Passage: Canada at 150, and how the museum privileged Indigenous perspectives.
• Jessica DeWitt is back with yet another monthly roundup of the best articles from the world of #envhist!
• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography this week is for Reginald Walter Brock, geologist and UBC professor.
• In the latest post in LAC’s series on “Who Do We Think We Are,” Andrea Kunard discusses a photograph of the entrance to Blacklead Island, Cumberland, Baffin Island taken in 1903-1904, and an image of the Prairies from 1858.
• In the latest blog post from Acadiensis, Jane Errington reviews Gail G. Campbell’s I Wish to Keep a Record: Nineteenth Century New Brunswick Women Diarists and Their World.
• Éliane Laberge has written a new blog post for the Canadian Museum of History, about the nearly 75,000 artefacts that were unearthed during excavations at Fort Frontenac.
• This Twitter thread explores minimalist Canadian design on food packaging. And the National Post promptly ripped it off.
• The Archives of Montreal have uploaded a new Flickr album featuring images of the men who built Montreal’s infrastructure.
• The South Peace Regional Archives shared “10 Facts You May Not Have Known About World War I.”
• This week’s ROM #TBT is all about humidity. I feel Dorothy K. Burnham’s pain.
• Emily Lonie has a new blog post that is all about teaching using archival documents, including resources for additional information!
• And the Archives of Alberta has just premiered a new scholarly and open access journal, called Fonds d’Archives, and Lonie’s blog post is based on her work in the second journal article in the first issue!
• This really cool blog post from the ROM, written by Viridiana Jimenez, looks at how our understanding of underwater sounds has evolved over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I don’t know about you, but I think whale songs are some of the most beautiful sounds on earth. The story about B105 is particularly touching.
• Chad Cowie has written the latest guest post for the UofA, about his perspectives about Canada150 as a Two-Spirited Anishinaabe-Inini (Anishinaabe man).
• This week the Heritage Winnipeg blog remembers the ancient and more modern history of the road now known as Wellington Crescent.
• The Calgary Gay History project profiles Nio’kskatapi/Jean L’Heureux, a gay explorer who preached in Siksiká (Blackfoot) communities. He also served as the official spokesperson for Siksiká leaders during the negotiations for Treaty 7.
• The ROM has posted a fantastic image of this groovy dress from 1967!
• Check out this schedule of upcoming talks from the Osgoode Society Legal History Workshop.
• The Nova Scotia Archives has posted this amazing tracing of the Mi’kmaq petroglyphs of Kejimkujik.
• Joseph Gagné reminds us that even historians need to look stuff up in the dictionary.
• Canadian History in the News
  • CBC profiled Wanuskewin Heritage Park’s guided walking tours featuring local plants used by Indigenous peoples for medicine.
  • Do you remember the news from last week about the discovery of a first-hand account of the Halifax Explosion in a diary? Well, you can see the relevant pages and find out more about it here.
    • Also, find out about the exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on the 100^th anniversary of the Explosion here.
  • In a story that is both amazing and sad, learn about Tom Sukanen, the Saskatchewan farmer who planned to sail his ship down the Saskatchewan River to Hudson Bay, and then on to his native Finland in the 1930s and 1940s.
  • This week, the hosts of CBC Daybreak spoke with Jacqueline Holler about a new course she is teaching at UNBC on the history of childbirth.
  • There’s an update on the Indigenous and Jesuit Canadian Canoe Pilgrimage journey.
  • There is a new exhibit in Yellowknife about local RCMP special constables, Indigenous men who served as guides and interpreters for RCMP officers who knew nothing about living in the North.
  • Find out about a new archaeological excavation going on along the Ottawa River, and how you can participate!
  • There is also more news about Susannah Weynton’s diary, the first account of BC from the perspective of a white woman. CBC interviewed UBC librarian Melody Burton about the diary.
  • As part of their annual conference, Wikimania, Wikipedia joined up with BAnQ to participate in a “scan-a-thon” of historical images showing Indigenous peoples from Quebec. The hope is that by making these images available to the public, individuals will be able to come forward to provide additional information, à la Project Naming.
    • More coverage here!
  • Find out about heritage designations in Guelph, and ongoing debates about the house that used to belong to a local businessman, Arthur Cutten.
  • Crystal Fraser and Sara Komarnisky were interviewed by CBC Radio Active about their list of #150Acts of Reconciliation!
  • The Edmonton Museum has just acquired the only remaining steam locomotive from the Northern Alberta Railway.
  • William Francis Ganong, a New Brunswick cartographer and historian, is being honoured with a new statue. His maps in particular have had long-term repercussions on Mi’kmaq, Malisset, and Passamaquoddy communities living along the Little Southwest Miramichi River.
  • The Vancouver Sun profiled the first municipal staff archaeologist in Canada, Dan Fumano, and his work with Indigenous communities in and around Vancouver.
  • Moé Yang, who is sixteen years old, has just made a short film about the history of the early HIV/AIDS epidemic in Vancouver. The film focuses on John Dub, who was diagnosed with HIV in this period. This film is part of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, and a project that paired 10 individuals over 55 from the LGTB community with young filmmakers. Feel old yet?
  • Two news stories where scientists “confirm” what Indigenous peoples have been saying for centuries… Warning, the framing on these two is extremely problematic.
    • There is “evidence” to suggest that Indigenous stories about plants being able to hear is actually true.
    • Slightly better is this article from Science about the increasing amount of archaeological evidence showing that the ancestors of Indigenous peoples in North America came to this continent via boat.
  • Some good news: the archaeology lab in Dartmouth will be staying open! This was the lab in Atlantic Canada was that going to close, and send all of its materials to Gatineau, mentioned in several previous roundups.
  • Justin Trudeau has announced plans to apologize for residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. But as with all of these previous announcements, he hasn’t said when he plans to do this.
  • And there were also two news stories about Iroquian-speakers in the north-east of North America.
    • There is a new article that used the decorations on 16^th century Iroquoian pottery to study interactions between Haudenosaunee and Wendat communities in upstate New York and southern Ontario.
    • And the search for a lost Hochelaga village that is ongoing in Outremont has changed location! (go here for more info on the project.)
  • There are new findings out about how maize developed into a staple crop, based on evidence from the El Gigante rock shelter in Honduras.
  • The Kelowna Museum and Sncəwips Heritage Museum have collaborated to produce a series of films all about the experiences of Indigenous peoples in the Okanagan, as well as Indigenous knowledge and culture.
  • There is a mystery on a beach near Alberton, PEI that needs solving.
  • The latest Dig It column has been released! This latest column, by Ramsay McKee, focuses on the subject of stratigraphy (understanding the past through an examination of layers in the soil).
  • RCMP officer Abe Snidanko, who became well known for his undercover work busting hippies smoking pot, has just died. He was the inspiration for the Cheech and Chong character of Sgt. Stadanko. Also, does anyone else think he looked like Stephen Harper?
  • Some horrible individuals stole animal bones from an archaeological site in Edmonton.
  • Researchers have still not decided upon a plan for exploring the site of the HMS Erebus, due to unforeseen circumstances. Most of the problems seem to be logistical, involving access to working machinery.
  • CBC remembers the 1987 synchronized meditation event that took place in Vancouver thirty years ago this week. The event was known as “Harmonic Convergence,” and was intended to mark the beginning of a new era of peace. Sounds like we need another one.
  • There is some more news about that cemetery in Montreal, the St. Lawrence Burial Ground, that I mentioned a few roundups ago.
  • David Wencer has a new piece for the Historicist this week, about a competition at the 1927 CNE, which included two famous marathon swimmers, Ernst Vierkoetter and George Young.
  • Find out about the area in Lewiston, Maine that used to be called “Little Canada,” populated primarily by French-Canadian immigrants in the late 19^th century.
  • Work is ongoing to preserve Yuquot, a village on Vancouver Island that was home to the Mowachaht people, before it disappears.
  • Is this a hunk of rock or a remnant of the Great Fire of Saint John?
  • More idiots are building inukshuks in Gros Morne National Park, usually in environmentally sensitive areas.
  • Find out about the establishment of BAnQ!
  • Check out the amazing technology that is being used to digitally preserve the McDougall Memorial United Church, near Morley, Alberta. This project was initiated after the church was burned earlier this year.
  • This week, the 400-year-old relationship between the Mi’kmaq and the Acadians will be honoured at Grand-Pré 2017.
  • In the wake of the horrors at Charlottesville, Zoe Todd reminds us that Canada also has a long history of racism and violence.
  • Marian Scott remembers the Irish of Montreal and the more than 6,000 victims of typhus who died and were buried there in 1847 at Black Rock.
  • Check out this adorable father-son project on WW2 veterans!
  • The historical society of Bellechasse regional county is creating a virtual archive to preserve memories of the area.
  • This week, my husband sent me this article, about the history of Nanaimo bars, for the roundup!
  • The Quebec government has finally approved their new high school history course, with only minor changes.
  • The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada has just unveiled a new plaque, commemorating the diverse neighbourhood of Whitney Pier, in Cape Breton.
  • The daughters of Genevieve MacDonald are continuing their mother’s research on Helen MacDonald, the sister of the captain who brought Scottish settlers to PEI in the 18th century.
  • Charlottetown has just installed a new public history series, featuring historical images in storefront windows.
  • The Globe and Mail takes a look back at some of the many museum exhibits on Expo 67.
• Better Late than Never
  • There is also new research out about the domestication of maize in the Americas, particularly in areas at high elevations.
  • This really cool mouth harp (aka a Jew’s harp), just discovered in Ontario, was selected as the August 4^th Artifact of the Day by the American Artifacts Blog.
• Calls for Papers
  • King’s College, London is seeking paper proposals for a new conference on marginalized histories of WW2. Proposals are due November 30.

My course is over! Expect a reflection on my experiences soon. That’s it for this week’s roundup! I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider sharing this post on the social media platform of your choice! And don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for our regular series, Best New Articles. See you then!

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