Guests sunbathe on the pier at Wigwassan Lodge, Lake Rosseau, Muskoka, Ontario, July 1951 / Chris Lund. Canada. National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque. Library and Archives Canada, e010955792 / C.C. by 2.0
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
- Must Read: #BlacklivesCDNSyllabus: The syllabus emerged out of the protest by Black Lives Matter Canada at Toronto’s Pride parade this year and is a list of resources about anti-black racism. You can check out the Storify to get the list by going here.
- Active History and Canada Watch continue their series!
- The seventh post, by Dennis Pilon, focuses on the theme of democracy. Surprisingly, the topic of democracy was rarely addressed during the Debates, largely because early Canadian politicians were wary of the implications for the new confederation.
- In his second post for the series and the eight overall, Colin M. Coates considers the theme of agriculture. The BNA Act, and by extension the early Canadian nation, was very much shaped by the reality that the majority of Canadians were farmers.
- In the ninth post, Sean Kheraj looks at the theme of environment. Farming, mining, fishing, animal husbandry, and forestry were foremost in the minds of early Canadian politicians, who envisioned a nation of interlocking webs of natural resources.
- The tenth post, by Craig Heron, considers the Confederation debates from the perspectives of Canada’s workingmen. This post is worth reading for the amazing quotes alone, my favourite being: “”Ah, Confederation. J’men câlice! Who cares? It has nothing to do with us. Let’s head down to the tavern and forget about it.”
- Kathryn McPherson brings us the eleventh post, on the theme of gender. The Confederation debates provide a fascinating portrait into the construction and public performance of Canadian masculinity as well as the masculine nature of political discourse.
- The twelfth post is by Gabrielle Slowey, and discusses the lasting legacy of colonialism for Indigenous peoples brought about by Confederation. As she notes, “Confederation was a colonial project, claiming territory in the name of the Crown and assuming ownership of it. At no point were Indigenous nations or their rights acknowledged. […] Yet, Indigenous people were and are connected to the land in ways in which the Fathers of Confederation did not, and many Canadians still do not, recognize or appreciate.”
- In post number thirteen, Marlene Shore looks at the discourse around history in the Confederation debates. Both sides used allusions to history in order to make their case for or against Confederation.
- Ian Milligan has been appointed the first ever Marshall McLuhan Centenary Fellow in Digital Sustainability. In this blog post, he explains what this will involve and the kind of research he is planning.
- This great article looks at segregation and racism in the Canadian armed forces in WW1. Focusing specifically on the No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canada’s only majority black battalion, author Christine Soucie Madill provides insight into how African-Canadians experienced enlistment, training, and active service.
- Missionaries, urban planners, and misfit tourists, oh my! This week on Unwritten Histories, I talked about my favourite articles on Canadian history published in the last month.
- Kyle Falcon writes about the commemoration of the Great War. We are in the midst of a transition of WW1 from “memory to history.” With no more surviving veterans, public commemorations are finding new and inventive ways of creating a personal connection between the past and the present. My favourite was the living memorial of the Somme performed in the UK, where 1,400 men dressed in historical uniforms represented individual soldiers. Appearing in public at random, they did not speak, but handed out cards with information about the individuals they were representing. According to the project’s website, the performance was “partly inspired by tales of sightings during and after the First World War by people who believed they had seen a dead loved one.”
- Kisha Supernant talks about her experiences as a Métis archaeologist. Most Canadians do not know that archaeology is something that is done in Canada, but it is crucial to restoring the voices of Indigenous peoples to Canadian history. I really wanted to be an archaeologist when I was really little, before being informed by my grandmother that only boys could be archaeologists. Obviously… 😉
- It’s a sad week over at Acadiensis. The two latest blog posts are memorials for late historians James Green and Herbert R. F. Wyile.
- In slightly happier news, Canadiana.org and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) are joining forces in order to provide access to more Canadian history online.
- The latest issue of Folklore, a magazine on Saskatchewan’s history and folklore, is out and deals exclusively with women’s history! You can read editor Jessica DeWitt’s editorial comments here, and subscribe to the magazine here!
- There is a new blog post over at Scots in BC. This one, by student Alex Anderson, looks at Hugh Galbraith, a dominating figure in New Westminster’s history.
- Continuing their series of interviews with presenters from the Question sociale et citoyenneté conference, Histore Engagee presents an interview with Isabelle Perrault. Perrault talks about efforts in the 1970s to enact physician-assisted death legislation. Can you say timely?
- The theme for the BC Studies Conference 2017 has been announced: Unsettling British Columbia. The conference well be held next year in May at Vancouver Island University.
- NiCHE has a new book review posted. Katie Cottreau-Robins reviews Gregory M.W. Kennedy, Something of a Peasant Paradise?: Comparing Rural Societies in Acadie and the Loudunais, 1604-1755.
- There are two new blog posts this week at BC Studies. The first, by Sean Mullan, looks at the October 12, 2012 earthquake, the second largest measured in Canada, at the Pacific-North American Plate Boundary near Haida Gwaii. The second, by Alex Lausanne, is a presentation of recent archaeological findings near Quadra Island.
- My review essay on trauma and oral history from @Sociale_History is now available! Check it out: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/622870
- Tons of new stuff from the Library and Archives Canada Blog.
- First is a post in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force – Women’s Division.
- Lieutenant Thomas Order Lawder, Wilkinson, V.C. is the feature of a blog post as part of LAC’s series honouring Canada’s Victoria Cross recipients
- There is a new album in Flickr Commons, this one about dentists! Because who doesn’t love dentists…
- And finally, there is a post on a recent exhibit, Let Them Howl: 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage
- In Canadian History in the News:
- The Mohawk Institution Residential School in Brantford, Ontario, is about to become an education centre.
- U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay is choosing not to restore the damage done to the collection after a fire in 2013 to symbolize the resilience of the artifacts and the community.
- We all know about the horrors of real estate in Vancouver, but this article talks about the danger the boom is posing to the historical photos and documents of Vancouver’s Chinatown. Tim Wong, with the Wong’s Benevolent Society, is working to solve this problem.
- CBC might not be doing so great with an all-white panel on Black Lives Matter (seriously?), but they did post an article on the subject of activism and pride written by two of the original organizers.
- Also, check out this article on racism and tokenism in the Canadian media.
- Montreal and the 1976 Olympics is the topic of this article by Jack Todd in The Guardian. As a Montrealer born and raised, all I can say is “yep.” Words cannot describe how ugly that damn stadium is either.
- BC has completed The Chinese Canadian Artifacts Project (CCAP), a digital database of over 6,000 artifacts held in museums.
- Canada has announced 13 new National Historic Designations, including a variety of people, places, and events.
Don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for a fun new post on material history!
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