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: “Indians,” “Bison,” and “Plains.”
- Judith Ellen Brunton reported on the NiCHE New Scholars October digital meeting.
- Also on NiCHE this week, four environmental historians (Sean Kheraj, Jennifer Bonnell, Andrew Watson, and Heather Green) all commented on the recent The Anthropocene Project museum exhibitions and accompanying documentary.
- Jessica DeWitt also posted part two of her comps notes relating to the Great Plains.
Military History
- Hurricane Irma washed up wreckage from the February 25, 1958 crash of a Banshee jet fighter, piloted by Royal Canadian Navy Lieutenant William Thomas Barry Troy, including items he was wearing was when he crashed. No body was ever found.
- The last living WW2 Kanien’kehá:ka code talker, ninety-six year old Louis Levi Oakes (from Akwesasne), was honoured by the Assembly of First Nations and the House of Commons.
- The latest blog post from the Canadian Centre for the Great War reflected on remembrance beyond November.
Archaeology
- Find out about the new technology being used to study the Garrison Graveyard in Fort Anne, Nova Scotia. This is one of Canada’s oldest cemeteries, and likely contains around 2,000 individuals.
- More here.
- This week on Retroactive was a guest post by Margaret Patton and Shalcey Dowkes on shell bead making techniques at the archaeological research cite, Cluny Fortified village. This research is supported by the Siksika Nation and the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park.
- Chris Bateman wrote a new piece for the Globe and Mail on what happened to the body of Stella Vanzant, daughter of Loyalist John Vanzant.
- Joanne Hammond was back this week with the latest Dig It column, on early nineteenth century pithomes in Secwépemcúl’ecw.
- Digital scans can ensure that heritage buildings are preserved, even if they end up being demolished.
- This week, the Agenda looked at the issue of repatriation, speaking with Lucy Bell (Haida Nation), Cara Krmpotich, and Gail Lord. Warning: Bell and Krmpotich were fantastic, but the host was extremely ignorant and tried to play devil’s advocate, and Lord claimed Canada (and “Canada’s Indigenous peoples”) were ahead of the rest of the world and that colonialism ended in 1970. Loved the look on Krmpotich’s face when Lord said that. Oy.
- Deciding what to include when it comes to archaeological “discoveries” about Indigenous history is always tricky. There is a new study out showing that contact between the Haudenosaunee and Europeans happened up to 100 years later than previously thought by science. This is based on research at the Mantle site in Ontario. I honestly don’t know enough about archaeology to judge the science behind this kind of research, but I include the article here for the sake of completeness. These kinds of studies always make me uncomfortable, since they tend to prioritize scientific evidence over Indigenous Oral Tradition.
History Education
- Check out this update on the work being done to make Ye’yumnuts village into an outdoor classroom.
- Maddie Knickerbocker shared her experiences using Wikipedia for class assignments this year, including three new entries created by her students.
- Joanne Hammond wrote a great Twitter thread about the problem with having settler kids rewrite Indigenous stories as part of their elementary school curriculum. Who thought this would be a good idea???
- Historica Canada published their latest Think Like a Historian educational guide and video series, on The Last Hundred Days.
- Check out this really cool project that Tina Loo organized for her students in the Museum of the Anthropocene course.
- The CHA has issued a statement on the elimination of the planned Francophone university in Ontario.
- Check out these super cool girl guide badges that Jarett Henderson’s students made, inspired by Kristine Alexander’s book, Guiding Modern Girls.
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History
- Nicole Dalrymple reflected on her experiences working with oral history interviews from the Prague Spring Refugees project through Pier 21.
- This week also marked a bit of a blunder for the Pier 21 Twitter account, when they accidentally tweeted a story about a man who was part of the Austrian Gendarmerie, a paramilitary force that worked with the Nazis, two nights before Chanukah started. They have since apologized.
- Bashir Mohamed discussed Black Panther Fred Hampton’s visit to the University of Alberta, two weeks before he died in 1969 at the hands of the FBI and Chicago police. Included in the essay are the racist response from the Edmonton Journal, and responses by Al Scarth and Allan Stein of The Gateway.
- He followed that up with another thread about the KKK in Alberta, and then Alberta chapter leader, J.J. Maloney’s conflict with The Gateway.
- Duke Ford is raising money and awareness to have his grandparents’ home in Africville designated as a heritage building. This building is one of the few remaining buildings from Africville that are still standing.
- Patrick Lacroix explained the long history of Quebec attempting to establish itself as the true homeland of French Canadians in North America.
- Ottawa has apologized to the Shimizu family in Prince Rupert after cherry trees donated by their ancestor were cut down this spring.
- Stephen Kimber discussed the issue of race in Halifax, particularly in reference to what has, and hasn’t changed, since the Black Family Meeting in 1968.
Indigenous History
- Igloolik rock band, Northern Haze, has released their first album in thirty-three years.
- Russell Potter was in Mystic Seaport for the opening of their Franklin exhibit, and took the opportunity to visit the graves of six Inuit who are buried there. Among the six graves is that of Tookoolito (Hannah), who worked for Franklin searcher Charles Francis Hall. Her two children, a son and a daughter, are buried nearby, and her husband Ebierbing (Joe) returned to the Arctic. Unfortunately, we only know Tookoolito’s name, and the names of two of the other Inuuk who were buried here, Cudlargo and Oosecong. Accompanying Potter were Pam Gross, the mayor of Cambridge Bay and head of the Inuit Heritage Trust, as well as Ed Devereux from Gjoa Haven, Alex Stubbing, head of heritage for Nunavut, and museum officials.
- Senator Murray Sinclair spoke with CBC about the importance and power of truth, and why all Canadians must know what really happened in residential schools.
- The Canadian Encyclopedia posted a couple of new entries this week, including:
- Ottawa has agreed to compensate the survivors of at more than 700 Indian Day Schools, who were left out of the Indian Residential Schools agreement.
- One of Louis Riel’s letters was just rediscovered by the secretary general of the Saint Jean Baptiste Society of Montreal.
- As I noted last week, representatives from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation are touring the country to get feedback from residential school survivors. Survivors from Quebec have told them that more communication about the settlement was needed. CBC spoke with survivors George E. Pachano and his wife Marie Louise Chakapash (from Chisasibi) about their experiences.
- Erika Dyck has written a new piece for The Conversation on the history of how Indigenous women were sterilized under coercive conditions or without their knowledge or consent, as well as how the right to keep children was a central component of Indigenous feminism.
- @starlightgeek has put together an amazing Twitter thread about maps, including a discussion of the linguistic diversity that existed in Turtle Island prior to the arrival of colonizers. But definitely also take a look at the rest of the thread as well.
- Joanne Hammond shared these images of beautiful Secwepemc basal jewelry pieces.
New France/British North America
- Joseph Gagné recently visited the colonial art gallery at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and shared his experiences on his blog.
- Leah Grandy was back with part two of her look at Irish Catholic Loyalists in the military. This post focused on the Irish-based regiment raised in Philadelphia and New York in 1777.
Labour History
- The latest biography from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Longshoremen’s Protective Union leader James “Jim” McGrath.
- Christo Aivalis looked back on the history of Canada’s labour movement in his most recent piece for The Globe and Mail.
Social History
- Another new entry from The Canadian Encyclopedia this week is for Paul Henderson.
- The latest Flickr album from LAC contains images of cartes-de-visite. Think business cards, but for personal networks. And there are puppies!! See the images themselves here.
- An epic Christmas present, opened forty-seven years late, turned out to be a…. well, I guess you’ll just have to click the link to see.
- Do you know the Canadian connections to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? The best part is that this counted as Can Con under the CRTC!
The History of Gender and Sexuality
- Find out about the important work being done by Kevin Allen to preserve Calgary’s queer history.
- Blake Brown put together a Twitter essay using historical newspapers to show how the press responded to the Ecole Polytechnique massacre and changing attitudes towards guns.
Local History
- Once upon a time, Ottawa was a video gaming centre. No, really! That’s not a joke, I swear!
- The Vancouver As It Was blog posted a follow-up to their recent look at UBC’s missing 20-foot painting by Fred Sunday.
- This week, Instantanés shared the story of Omer Dutat, a Deaf man who published a call for correspondents with disabilities in La Patrie in 1926.
- Find out about the new video wall at the City of Vancouver Archives, on the theme of goods and services.
- This week Eve Lazarus has a new blog post that relates to her recent book, Murder by Milkshake, on Vancouver radio in 1965-66.
- Snow is not necessarily a good thing in Whistler.
The 101stAnniversary Of The Halifax Explosion
- Nova Scotia announced that it would fund the restoration of the CSS Acadia, the last ship that survived the Halifax Explosion that is still afloat.
- The Nova Scotia Archives also released a new primary source collection, containing the documents collected by Archibald McKeller MacMechan from the Halifax Disaster Record Office from 1917-1918, and related materials.
- Jacob Remes focused attention on the aftermath of the explosion in this Twitter thread.
- The explosion is now passing into memory, and it’s unclear how many survivors remain alive.
Digital and Public History
- Lucy Maud Montgomery is getting her own life-sized statue in Cavendish Heritage Park. I’m not sure if that’s cool or terrifying. Or both.
- Do you know what digital storytelling is?
- Our very own Stephanie Pettigrew’s post on digital history techniques and the Hugenots of New France was reposted on Borealia!
Doing History
- Krista McCracken shared a list of pieces they read over the past year that have inspired their work as an archivist and public historian.
- This week on Histoire Engagée, Vincent Houle discussed the intimate relationship between historians and their research materials.
- Krista and I are also collaborating on a new project, inspired by Steph Halmhofer, to celebrate the accomplishments of women and non-binary historians! We’re calling on all women and non-binary historians to let us know about their accomplishments, personal or professional, in 2018.The entries will appear in a special blog post on Unwritten Histories in January. So if you’re a woman or non-binary historian, make sure to add your info to the list!
- Bill Waiser published an op-ed with CBC about the shuttering of the Saskatoon location of the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
- The Saskatoon Star Phoenix also spoke with Charles Smith about the closure.
- This week on Unwritten Histories, I published a list of my favourite articles in Canadian history that were published in October 2018.
- And Stephanie published a list of December’s upcoming publications in Canadian history.
Podcasts
- The latest History Chats episode is a recording of Madelaine Morrison’s talk, “The Sweetest Sounds: Musical Life in Ontario, 1880-1920.”
- The latest Secret Life of Canada episode is a live recording on the history of Toronto.
- In the latest episode of the On War and Society podcast, Eric Story spoke with Tim Cook about what it is like to be a writer.
- Suzanne Morton’s students put together some really cool podcasts on the history of Bishop Mountain Hall on McGill campus, and Colin Rier posted them together on Youtube. Check them out here!
Calls for Papers
- Active History has made a number of small grants available for the development of active history projects and to highlight exemplary practices in active history! The deadline to submit is December 31!
- The 25thcolloque étudiant du Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (CIEQ) has issued a CFP for their 2019 meeting. This year’s theme is: “Interpreting Quebec: Sources, Approaches, and Discourse.” Proposals are due February 22.
WordPress has changed the blog post editor, so if any of the formatting looks a little strange, that’s why. I’m still trying to figure out how the new system works. Sigh. In any case, I hope you enjoyed this week’s 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 Historians’ Histories! We love having fresh victims volunteers. See you then!
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