Canadian History Roundup – Week of February 24, 2019

A women seated typing on I.B.M. punch card machine. Montreal, Quebec. 1959. O. Buck. Library and Archives 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 environmental history last week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: “Environmental,” “Americans,” and “African.”
• Jessica was also back this week with her monthly look at the best articles in environmental history, over on NiCHE.
• LAC is continuing with their meander through the animal kingdom with a new Flickr album of images of donkeys and mules. You can see the images themselves here. May I request a second album with images of cats?
• NiCHE and Active History co-published the third post in their series, “Environmental Historians Debate: Can Nuclear Power Solve Climate Change?” this week, by Andrew Watson. In it, Andrew discussed nuclear power, climate change, energy needs, and the economy.
• Over on the White Horse Press blog, Hereward Longley discussed the environmental cost of the Alberta Oil Sands.
• Heather Green published a fascinating new piece on NiCHE about activism and environmental history.
• And speaking of Heather, she also premiered a brand new series on NiCHE and Unwritten Histories called “Unearthed.” The series is a modified version of our popular Historians’ Histories series, focusing on early-career environmental historians! The first post in the series is on Judith Ellen Brunton!

Military History

• The Archival Moments blog looked at the release of the “Trail of the Caribou” stamp set in 1919, a commemorative set honouring the service of Newfoundlanders during WW1.
• And I almost missed their previous blog post on the return of WW1 solders to Holyrood!
• This is a fascinating look from McGill Libraries at Royal Navy ship’s badges that were donated to the university, to be displayed at the swimming pool in the new athletics building, Memorial Hall. Universities are so strange sometimes.
• Check out these paintings by Harold Gillman from the National Gallery’s current exhibition, “Masterpiece in Focus: Halifax Harbour 1918.”

Archaeology

• It’s always exciting when archaeologists discover an unknown underground vault! They also found some other cool stuff during the excavations at Province House in Halifax.
• There is a new archaeological report out about the decline of Cahokia, based on an analysis of fecal matter. For those who aren’t familiar with Cahokia, this was a massive city established by the people of the the Mississippian Culture, located across the river from St. Louis, Missouri, that thrived roughly between 800 CE and 1460 CE. The Mississippian Culture in the name given to the North American Indigenous civilization that dominated the continent between around 800 CE to 1600 CE.
• Robyn Lacy published a fascinating new blog post exploring the question: When is a grave no longer a grave?
• This one comes with a massive content warning. Thousands of Indigenous ancestors and cultural items from around the world have been found by the FBI during a raid on an elderly missionary’s home.The FBI is working with archaeologists, anthropologists, and Native American officials to help return these ancestors and cultural items to their homes. The majority of the ancestors are from North America. No images of the ancestors are displayed, though there are images of some of the cultural items.

History Education

• Claire Campbell published a new piece on NiCHE this week about field trips as a tool for teaching environmental history, part of a new series on the subject!
• Robert Suits shared his syllabus for a spring course on western US cultural and environmental history, “Imagined Frontiers: From the Wild West to Mars.” The syllabus definitely contains information relevant to Canadian historians.
• The Teaching United States History blog has premiered a new series where authors reflect on how educators might use their published work. The first post in the series is by Anne M. Little, on her book, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright.
• The Lost Stories project has finally launched their educational resources! Check them out here.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, we had a special guest post by Jessica Knapp about the new Defining Moments Canada contest on stories on the Spanish Flu Pandemic!

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Ron Fanfair published a fascinating interview with Edward Thomas, looking back at the Queen’s Faculty of Medicine 1918 decision to expel fifteen Black medical students.
• Global News spoke with Hartley Goslin, the first Black man to become a Mountie, about his career, and the history of Black individuals in the RCMP.
• Jamie Bradburn wrote a new piece for TVO on Harriet Tubman’s life in St. Catharines.
• In response to this week’s disappointing Oscars, Bashir Mohamed published a new Twitter thread on the Canadian connection to the actual Green Book (ie, not the movie).
• He also published a new piece for CBC about drawing attention to Canada’s often overlooked Black human rights activists, and why we need to do more to ensure that all Canadians are full cognizant of our country’s anti-Black racist history and legacy.
• Laura Madokoro was on The Agenda this week, talking about refugees and settler colonialism! Go Laura!
• Daniel McNeil wrote a great piece for The Conversation about Rosemary Brown and the pressure on Black Canadian activists to be “quiet.”
• Last week Patrick Lacroix described the Québécois response to expatriate French-Canadians. This week, he focused on a rebuttal from Franco-American, François-Xavier Belleau.
• Robyn Maynard was interviewed about her book, Policing Black Lives, by CTV! Content: white hosts surprised that racism was and is a thing in Canada.
• Andrea Yu spoke with William Ging Wee Dere about the legacy of the head tax for Chinese-Canadians.

Indigenous History

• David Stirrup published a new piece on Beyond the Spectacle on how Indian Ball was brought to the UK, and a visit by the Warriors of AniKituhwa from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to view Cherokee items currently held by the British Museum. Content warning: some problematic language.
• This week LAC also celebrated the ulu, or women’s knife, used exclusively by Inuit women. Just do yourself a favour and don’t read the comments.
• Kent Monkman spoke with the Montreal Gazette about his new exhibition at the McCord museum and how he uses historical narratives in his paintings.
• This week Retroactive published the first of a two-part series on the historical and contemporary experiences of the Plains Cree. The first post is written by Judy Half (Plains Cree), on Plains Cree governance, and the impact of Treaty Six on the Little Hunter’s/Onchiminahos and Blue Quills Bands.
• I think we need to start a new section called “Things Indigenous Folks Have Been Telling Settlers Forever.” This week’s entry brings us the “revelation” that clam garden technology, practiced by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, is thousands of years old. While the article, and news coverage, makes this seem like new information (and of course compares them to the Egyptian pyramids), I do want to emphasize that the archaeologists interviewed for the piece, including Christine Roberts from the Wei Wai Kum First Nation, were careful to point out that this is merely confirming Indigenous Knowledge and putting a concrete date to their first use. If you read the actual (open-access) journal article, it discusses the features, use, and age of the clam gardens in a broader context.
• Another entry is the “discovery” of the Wells Gray Cave, which Shelly Loring, Chief of Simpcw First Nation noted is not news for the Secwepemc.
• This week, the UofA Faculty of Law blog has been looking at the revitalization of Indigenous Traditions. They began the week with a blog post explaining that Indigenous culture is not frozen in time, but innovative and dynamic. During the remainder of the week, they covered topics like:
  • Hand Games
  • Salmon Fishing
  • Hoop Dancing
• If you’ve been paying attention to the news this week, then you know about Jody Wilson-Raybould (Kwakwaka’wakw)’s powerful testimony before the House of Commons Justice Committee. A number of news outlets have published pieces explaining Wilson-Raybould’s background, particularly with respect to Indigenous truth-telling and matriarchs. I definitely feel uncomfortable with these pieces. However, I do include them here because some of them make important points.
  • Corrie Scott explained the long history of powerful Indigenous women across Turtle Island, how Indigenous women actively fought against colonialism, and how colonialism has resulted in gender discrimination in Indigenous communities.
  • David P. Ball, Jenna Moon, Kevin Maimann spoke with Chief Robert Joseph (Kwakiutl), John Borrows (Anishinaabe), Michelle Robinson (Dene), Heather Dorries, and Judith Sayers (Hupacasath First Nation) about Wilson-Raybould’s comments about following the laws and traditions of her Big House, family lineage, Kwakwaka’wakw governance, and the imposition of settler law.
  • Judith Sayers (Kekinusuqs) (Hupacasath First Nation) explained the Indigenous laws and traditions that guided Wilson-Raybould in her decision-making and testimony.
• I was really disappointed to hear that the Beothuk ancestors are being sent to the Canadian Museum of History and then a museum in Newfoundland and Labrador. The museums are not intending to display the ancestors, and plans for repatriation are still in the works. But this is still disappointing.
• The curators of an art exhibit in Alberta are hoping to identify an Indigenous child that was photographed eighty years ago.
• The Canadian Museum of History blog shared an image of a tiny mask dating back 2000 years that was excavated at the Tyara site on Qikirtaq Island in Nunavut.
• As Aylan Couchie (Nipissing First Nation) explained to CBC, the confusion around cuts to Indigenous funding in Ontario are having a devastating impact on projects dedicated to Indigenous history, language, and culture.

New France/British North America

• This week on Borealia, Alban Berson describes a newly rediscovered document copied by surveyor and naval officer Joseph Bouchette.
• In the latest blog post on the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog, Somer Stewart explained William Paine’s instructions for smallpox inoculations.
• I think it’s pretty cool that three researchers have compiled a comprehensive list of Spanish shipwrecks off Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the US Atlantic coast. While there are 681 shipwrecks on the list, fewer than a quarter have been located.
• And speaking of cool maritime history, British nautical maps from 1858 to 1956 are being used to help chart kelp beds along the BC coast. 

Political History

• Peter Ludlow has written a new piece for the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History blog about the legacy of the Antigonish Movement.
• Providing additional context to the SNC Lavalin scandal and Wilson-Raybould’s resignation, Randy Boswell and Jonathan Swainger explained the origins of the conjoined position of minister of justice and attorney general. As in so many other cases, Sir John A. is to blame.
• The Graphic History Collective has just released a new poster with a timeline of strikes in Canadian history! The text is based on a list compiled by by Dale McCartney and Kristin Schachtel for an article written by Mark Leier, is illustrated by Gord Hill, Kara Sievewright, David Lester, Orion Keresztesi, Sean Carleton, and Althea Balmes, and is designed by Kara Sievewright.
• I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda horrified to find out that Duncan Campbell Scott was a published poet. But this fantastic blog post on his work draws important parallels between history and art.

Social History

• Measles survivor Brenda Shaw explained why you should vaccinate your children!
• Speaking of which, Heather MacDougall explained the history of the anti-vaccine movement in BC.
• This week Instantanés profiled educator Georges-Henri Lévesque, founder of the École des sciences sociales, politiques et économiques at the l’Université Laval.
• The latest entry from The Canadian Encyclopedia is for blueberry grunt! I did not know that was a thing.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• Both Camille Robert and Louise Bienvenue have published pieces on À Bâbord. Roberts looked at the invisible labour of women and Bienvenue profiled Marie-Claire Daveluy.
• Adèle Clapperton-Richard has written a fantastic blog post, (edited by Magda Fahrni), for the Canadian Committee on Women’s History, about why feminism and the history of women and gender must be inclusive.
• In Kathleen Durocher’s latest piece on Histoire Engagée, she takes a look how the renaming of a local street is shedding some light on the largely forgotten history of female match makers in Gatineau. Those would be the kind of match you use to make a fire, not for setting up dates. And anyone singing “Matchmaker Matchmaker, Make Me a Match” will suffer the consequences. That includes my husband.

Local History

• This week Whistorical shared images of chilly days at Alta Lake!
• The latest post from Historic Nova Scotia is by the Lake Charlotte Area Heritage Society and the Eastern Shore Archives, on the Hosking General Store in Oyster Pond.
• Heritage Winnipeg profiled the Scott Fruit Company Warehouse, and their innovative approach to heritage.
• Anyone up for some Winnipeg whiskey history?
• BAnQ also profiled some charming pictoral maps from Canadian and Quebecois history!
• Eve Lazarus reflected on her recent visit to a new exhibit at the Nanaimo Museum on safecracker George Hannay vs. Inspector Vance.

Digital and Public History

• This week Active History honoured some of the notable submissions to the recent Active History awards!
• The Yarmouth County Museum and Archives are in the process of digitizing their collection of local newspapers dating back to 1829.
• Our Digital World has published a guide to resources for teaching multicultural history in Ontario, with a particular focus on videos, images, and lesson plans.
• The Archives of Manitoba and the HBC have announced that they will be digitizing their collection of pre-1870 trading post records. Wow!
• LAC has announced that the 1926 Prairie Province census is now available online.
• Find out about some of the new Ontario digital history collections.
• There is an absolutely amazing new augmented-reality app from the NFB, written and narrated by Joy Kogawa, on Japanese-Canadian internment. You can download the app in the App Store, or by going to this link.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog explained the process of digitizing microfilm. And thank god for that, because I don’t know anyone who enjoys reading microfilm, except maybe my husband.
• I can’t find the link, but if any of you are watching the Jeopardy All-Stars game this week, you saw that on February 27th, not a single contestant knew the answer to the date of Canada’s dominion. ::sad face::

Doing History

• BC Studies has just launched a brand new website!
• Zoe Todd (Métis) has written another fabulous Twitter thread on the problems with how we train anthropology students which I think definitely applies to how we train historians.
• This week the Canadian Museum of History was closed for cleaning. On the blog, some of the interns from the RBC Indigenous Internship Program reflected on their experiences during the annual maintenance week.
• Find out about the challenges that archivists at Memorial University are facing as they process Joey Smallwood’s collection.
• The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan is moving to a new building.
• Over on the Centre d’histoire des regulations sociales blog, Véronika Brandl-Mouton spoke with two recent winners of the Vanier Scholarship, Louise Lainesse and Camille Robert, about their research.
• Here on Unwritten Histories, Stephanie Pettigrew was back with her monthly look at upcoming publications in Canadian history!

Podcasts

• Yukon College has premiered a new podcast called “Walking Our Path Together,” focusing on how Yukoners are experiencing reconciliation at the college with respect to deepening relationships with the fourteen Yukon First Nations as well as integrating Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Doing in all aspects of the school. The first episode, which examined the meaning of reconciliation, is already available here.
• This is a fascinating example of digital storytelling, as Mary Flynn of Shearstown, Newfoundland recounts the story of her cousin, who was taken by the fairies as a child.
• The latest episode of the Museum Chats Live podcast focused on the history of the B.M.E Church in St. Catharines and interviewed Rochelle Bush about the Black history of the area.
• In the latest episode of the Witness to Yesterday podcast, Patrice Dutil spoke with Christopher Moore about the Massacre of May 1754.
• Anthony Wilson-Smith spoke to the host of the Quality Content video about the making of Heritage Minutes!

This has been a surprisingly busy week in Canadian history! Also, for those of you who read my blog post on my great-aunt’s headstone this week, we have new information from my dad and uncle that deepens the mystery. Apparently Rita was actually named Rachel. Both girls were originally buried in graves near the front gate of the Jewish cemetery. However, their remains were moved because the Catholic cemetery nearby was expanded. So they ended up in their current location, likely with new headstones. I’m guessing the Rita/Rachel thing was due to a translation error, since the headstones are in Hebrew. But it’s still a mystery why Rachel is mentioned on Esther’s headstone, and why Esther is not mentioned in Rachel’s. Hmm… 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 blog post! See you then!

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