Canadian History Roundup – Week of March 3, 2019

Theresa Billette, age 15, and her sister, Delia, aged five, stitching beads on moosehide moccasins. [They are from the Buffalo River Dene First Nation at Dillon, Saskatchewan.] March 19, 1955. Rosemary Gilliat Eaton / Library and Archives Canada / e010975232

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: “Environmental,” “Climate,” and “Said.”
• Heather Green is organizing the next NiCHE New Scholars Meeting for March! Find out more here.
• Also on NiCHE this week was a brand new Rhizomes interview, this time with Jay Young.
• Heather Green was also back with part two of her series on Environmental History Now, looking at how historical research is impacted by place.

Military History

• A Dutch historian is looking for information about eight Canadian soldiers who fought in WW2 and died in a Canadian military hospital in Ootmarsum, in the Netherlands.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia has a new entry on the use of poison gas both on and by Canadian soldiers during both WW1 and WW2. Content warning: graphic image of burns caused by gas.
• Find out about the Canadians who were recruited to work in British Munitions factories in WW1.

Archaeology

• The BC government will be passing amendments to the Heritage Conservation Act, providing increased protections of archaeological sites. This will give the government the right to refuse, amend, suspect, and cancel permits. Also, it “may require” that land developers working in areas “where there is little knowledge of its history…may also be required” to obtain and pay for inspections before permits are approved. Another law to be passed in the spring will make it mandatory that the uncovering of archaeological sites or objects of interest be reported to the archaeology branch. If you’ve read last week’s roundup, you know that the timing of this is highly suspicious, to say nothing of the highly problematic language. Hence my use of scare quotes.
• In the latest Dig It column, Todd Paquin explained what an archaeological impact assessment is, and why they are important.

History Education

• Heather Green published the first post in NiCHE’s “Get Outside” series on environmental history education and field trips! Heather spoke about her experiences organizing a field trip to Jasper National Park with Liza Piper for a course on the history of the Rocky Mountains.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Find out about a new exhibit on Harold and Hana Kawasoe, a married couple who were among the 22,000 Japanese-Canadians who were forcibly relocated during WW2. The exhibit explores not only the forced relocation of Japanese-Canadians, but also their reception by people in Toronto.
• Also new from the Canadian Encyclopedia this week is a new piece on William Lore, the first Chinese-Canadian officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and the first officer of Chinese descent to serve in a Royal Navy in the British Commonwealth.
• There is also a new entry for journalist Joe Schlesinger.
• The latest biography from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Jewish-Canadian figure skating champion, Louis Rubenstein. ::I will not make a joke, I will not make a joke::
• There is a new piece from the Nova Scotia Advocate on the only segregated poor house in Nova Scotia, The Poor House (or Country Home) in Bridgetown. Content warning: included is a list of all of the African Nova Scotians who died while incarcerated there.
• You absolutely need to watch this video of Darryl Leroux speaking on the Eastern Métis, and how they have twisted historical facts to suit their own purposes.
• In honour of Women’s History Month, Patrick Lacroix argued that a truly complete Franco-American history must include the experiences of Franco-American women, despite the methodological challenges. In the post, he also discusses what the existing literature tells us about their experiences.

Indigenous History

• Ry Moran (Métis) spoke with CBC about the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada.
• All this week the UofA Faculty of Law blog has been profiling influential Indigenous women, including historical figures like
  • Mary Two-Axe Earley (Kanien’kehá:ka)
  • Matriarchs like Mary Louise Kootenay (Alexander First Nation),the great-grandmother of the main blogger.
• Retroactive posted part two of their series by Judy Half (Plains Cree) on Little Hunter, Blue Quills, and Plains Cree experience. This post focuses on her research on Plains Cree culture, cultural resiliency, the continuation of traditional practices, and the Plains Nehiyaw Cree histories.
• This week, Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of the federal government for the federal policy on the tuberculosis epidemics among the Inuit and the mistreatment of Inuit with tuberculosis and their families during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. However, as Marie Speakman (Dene) noted, the Dene also suffered from the same treatment, though they were not included in the apology. Content warning: JT apologies, trauma, abuse, discussion of ancestors.
  • CBC provided some additional background here, including an interview with two affected family members, Inuuk Eva Aariak and Joanasie Akumalik. Content warning: images and discussion of ancestors.
  • Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, responded to Trudeau’s apology, calling for decisive action on the current tuberculosis epidemic.
  • If you’d like to learn more about the epidemics, check out the Qikiqtani Truth Commission reports, which Madeleine Redfern (Inuit) shared here. Content warning.
• Kisha Supernant (Métis) spoke with CBC about her ongoing work at the Muskowekwan Residential School and the search for unmarked graves. Ten to fifteen potential burials have been identified thus far. Content warning: residential schools, trauma, abuse.
• There is a new Canadian Encyclopedia entry for Anahereo (Algonquin/Kanienʼkehá꞉ka), an animal welfare advocate who is perhaps best known for being married to Grey Owl.
• A Blackfoot headdress dating to between 1890 and 1900 was recently found in a Calgary thrift shop, and is bring returned to the Blackfoot Nation.

New France/British North America

• Following up on his podcast interview last week, this week Findings/Trouvailles published a piece by Christopher Moore on the casualty list from an attack by George Washington on a small force of French Canadians in 1754.

Political History

• Brian Stewart reviewed D’Arcy Jenish’s new book, The Making of the October Crisis: Canada’s Long Nightmare of Terrorism at the Hands of the FLQ.
• Over on Histoire Engagée, Amanda Perry recapped the recent commemorative programming for the “Protests and Pedagogy” event at Concordia University, on the Sir George Williams affair.
• This week, Veronica Strong-Boag published a new piece in the Conversation on how the resignation of women cabinet ministers exposes the limits of Canadian liberalism. The piece focuses primarily on Mary Ellen Smith’s resignation in 1921, and how it compares to Jody Wilson-Raybould (descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples, which are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw and also known as the Kwak’wala speaking peoples, and member of the We Wai Kai Nation) and Jane Philpott’s more recent experiences.

Social History

• Did you know that the only British royal wedding dress outside of the UK is in Calgary?
• Two artists, Laura Kenny and Steven Rhude, are trying to complicate the existing narrative of Maud Lewis’ life by examining the murder of her husband, Everett, nine years after her death.
• For International Women’s Day, the Toronto Public Library shared some images of Toronto’s working women.
• While the Dartmouth Heritage Museum celebrated those women whose names have gone unrecorded.
• In his latest video, Christo Aivalis explained why the Winnipeg General Strike still matters.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• The City of Vancouver Archives announced that they have completed digitizing the BC Gay and Lesbian Archive poster collection, and they are now available online!
• The Peel Archives put together another great Twitter moment collecting together tweets from archives on International Women’s Day.

Local History

• The latest piece from Historic Nova Scotia is by the Kings County Museum Archives and Jane Sponagle, on life at the Nova Scotia Sanatorium.
• This week on Crosstalk, Terry Bishop Stirling spoke with callers about the most important historical figures from Newfoundland and Labrador history.
• Whistorical looked back to Whistler’s early days as a skiing resort.
• Heritage Winnipeg posted the second in its series on the anniversary of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. In this post, they looked at the role that the Canadian Pacific Railway Station played in bringing new immigrants to the city.
• This little ad posted by Ben Bradley says so much.
• This week the Vancouver As It Was blog looked back at the Delmonico Café.
• The Toronto Public Library posted historical images of Chaudière Falls.
• The Quebec City Archives recounted the Chaloner-Whittaker Affair of 1869. Content warning: the story does mention the “seduction and dishonouring” of a young woman, which can be a code for sexual assault.
• Eve Lazarus described one instance in the 1930s where Stanley Park was threatened by proposed construction on Deadman’s Island.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog profiled Elements magazine, a local hip-hop magazine that was published between May 1995 and December 1996.
• Find out about some of the conversations that high school students in St. Catharines were having about racism in the 1960s.
• These are some beautiful found images of Expo 67 in Montreal.

Digital and Public History

• Are you considering going into historical consulting? Tom Van Dewark, of Know History, provided a glimpse into what this kind of work really involves.
• The Intra-American Slave Trade Database was launched this week, documenting more than 11,500 shipments that forcibly relocated enslaved Africans and African-Americans across the American continents. See it yourself here.
• Tommy Douglas was designated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada as a person of National Historic Significance.
• Parks Canada is looking for feedback on five historical sites in Halifax.
• Check out Joanne Hammond’s latest ReWriteBC plaque!

Doing History

• Christopher Moore discussed some important issues about publications and the rights of authors this week.
• All this week on Active History, Krista McCracken and Carly Ciufo published a special series on Museums! Here are all of the posts from this fantastic project:
  • The introduction, by McCracken and Ciufo.
  • Alex Emery and Kaiti Hannah writing on how items are acquired and processed at the Western Development Museum.
  • John Summers on writing texts for museum exhibits.
  • Erin Cole on what she has learned about history in museums during her career.
  • Meredith Leonard discussed museums and community partnerships at Halton Heritage Services.
  • Laura Peers discussed the Great Box Project at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
  • Nadia Kurd explored the unseen histories and relationships that live on in museums, and how artists and objects represented in museum collections provide evidence of family relationships, particularly with respect to Indigenous artwork.
  • Alexandra Cherry unpacked the “unholy trifecta,” or how visitors, front-line staff and behind-the-scenes workers exist in tension and cooperation.
  • Finally, the Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute explained the importance of Indigenous self-representation in museums, their work in particular as a nation and community-centred cultural institute, and the creation of the Footprints, A Walk Through the Generations project.
• The CHA released its preliminary program for this year’s annual meeting! Of course, all of you are coming to my sessions, right? 😉
• Speaking of which, the 2019 BC Studies Conference has also released their preliminary program!
• Peter Mansbridge has donated his papers to the University of Toronto. Find out more about the donation, and see some of the items included here.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, I put together an introduction to oral history transcripts and transcription, one of the more challenging technical aspects of this kind of work!
• And apparently the Our Digital World blog was on the same wavelength, because they put together a list of their favourite tools and guides for oral history projects, including mine!
• I talked Tina Adcock into publishing a wonderful Twitter thread about what she has found on the relationship between professional and local historians as depicted in the Canadian Historical Review in the 1930s! This seems like a fantastic model for future work!
• The London Free Press has donated their archives to London Public Library.
• And Radio-Canada has donated some of their archives to Musée national de la photographie.
• RIP AMICUS.
• Katherine Crocker put together a wonderful thread on why all academics should include land acknowledgements at the beginning of their talks. 

Podcasts

• Jamie Bradburn spoke to Canadaland about the dark history of The Globe and Mail this week.
• LAC published its latest podcast this week, “The Battlefield Art of Mary Riter Hamilton.”
• This week on the Witness to Yesterday podcast, Patrice Dutil spoke with Max Dagenais and Julien Mauduit on Jacksonian democracy in Canadian politics in the 1830s.
• The Secret Life of Canada podcast posted a special episode for International Women’s Day, a shoutout to grandmothers!

Better Late Than Never

• Absolutely check out this piece by Max Binks-Collier on the MKULTRA experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal during the 1950s and 1960s by Ewen Cameron, and one of his victims, Charles Tanny.

I”m trying to think of something pithy to say, but I got nothing. My husband suggested a quip about lacking my pith helmet, but I think that’s just a little too cheesy, even for me. 😉 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! See you then!

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