Canadian History Roundup – Week of January 14, 2018

“Nepachee stretching a seal skin on a frame.” C. 1961. Cape Dorset, N.W.T. [Cape Dorset (Kingnait), Nunavut]. Rosemary Gilliat. Library and Archives Canada, e010799803. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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

• This week NiCHE launched a new series on “Canada’s Anthropocene.”
  • First there was a blog post from Alan MacEachern, who talked about understanding our own complicity in creating the Anthropocene. And this was based on his Beyond 150 presentation!
  • Next, Pamela Bating wrote about the speed of change, the fallacy of constant progress, and how denial will shape our future.
  • Finally, Ashlee Cunsolo discussed ecological grief and loss as a necessity in life and a motivation for change.
• Laurent Carbonneau argues that Quebec’s current emphasis on secularism actually has religious roots, and is based largely on French attitudes to religion and culture, all wrapped up in nationalist myths.
• Last week, museum curators proved why nobody messes with them.
• It’s not really history, but check out this wonderful new initiative from Chelsea Vowel in creating solidarity through scholarship awards for students in Indigenous studies.
• Canada’s History has published a piece about Beyond 150, and reprinted five presentations from the conference!
• The UofA Faculty of Law Faculty Blog took on the theme of Indigenous governance this week.
  • They started with a two-part blog post this week, featuring an interview with legal scholar Matthew Wildcat (Nehiyaw), and his guest essay, “Reflections on a Shared Future Between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Peoples.”
  • Next was a blog post on Indigenous governance, particularly with respect to the Indian Act, as well as the reclaiming of Indigenous governance.
  • Third, they explained the matter of federal/provincial jurisdiction with respect to Indigenous peoples and the Canadian constitution.
  • On Thursday, the blog explained how the lack of “Indian status” has given the Métis and Inuit the opportunity to self-govern.
  • And finally, they took a look at the Squamish government system, and why there have been recent calls for change over issues of representation.
• The most frequently used words in #envhist from the last week, according to Jessica DeWitt were: “University,” “Science,” and “Panel.” And my blog post from last week is on the list!
• Steph Halmhofer talks about the many problems with CBC’s Ice Bridge documentary, and why it was irresponsible for CBC to air the program.
  • Katie Biittner also has a blog post on the same subject, calling on CBC to do better and providing links to blog posts and Twitter essays that explain why the documentary was so problematic.
  • And so does ArchyFantasies.
• The Archive of Lesbian Oral Testimony is holding a free online oral history webinar on Facebook on February 24^th! You can access their Facebook here.
• We forget that modern borders are often less than 100 years old. Which is an issue for the Decolonial Atlas.
• LAC has a new Flickr album, with images of boxing. See the pictures themselves here.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, Stephanie Pettigrew provides some important tips and tricks for anyone working with early modern documents from New France or Acadia.
• Follow along as Jessica DeWitt and Sean Kheraj talk about the best articles in #envhist from the last month!
• The CHA has written a formal letter to Scott Brison outlining their concerns with Bill C-66, which would expunge historically unjust convictions regarding same-sex relationships and/or encounters.
• Darryl Leroux reports back with his findings regarding the genealogies of the second-largest, self-identified “métis” organization in Quebec. Seriously, read this thread. The results are astounding, though not surprising.
• My high school history teacher takes on the 1901 sensational murder of Valerie Lefebre, by a census enumerator.
• Find out about the Archives Unleased Project from their 2017 Progress Report, featuring the latest work by Ian Milligan and upcoming datathons.
• This week, the Acadiensis blog posted an excerpt from Janis Thiessen’s book, Snacks: A Canadian Food History. This excerpt focuses on Moirs Chocolates.
• Daniel Joseph Samson announced that for the next several years, his students will be working on transcribing the fully digitized James Barry diary.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia just published new entries on George Muriel Flowerdew and Sandra Lovelace Nicholas (Welastekwewiyik).
• In the latest episode of the Historical Reminiscents podcast, Krista McCracken picks up on last week’s blog post by Colleen Burgess and Thomas Peace to talk about the myth that cataloguing is neutral.
• Veldon Coburn explains the damage that IRS-deniers cause, and how they deny the inherent worth of Indigenous lives.
• Andrew Nurse’s latest blog post on Active History considers Stephen Harper’s fascination with history and, as he puts it, “Harper’s historiography.” Note to self: stay on Andrew Nurse’s good side.
• This week also saw several Twitter essays from Joanne Hammond, including:
  • This one on how museums are hording, displaying, and losing the remains of Indigenous peoples and their ancestors.
  • This one on the role of felted beaver top hats in Canadian history (in many ways, no hats, no country of Canada).
  • And this one commenting on the initiative to rename Trutch Street in Victoria.
    • Though as someone pointed out on Twitter, the use of scare quotes around the term racist in the news article is problematic.
  • And this look at the slightly terrifying Pageant of the Pacific Map from 1940. Believe it or not, it’s worse than you can imagine.
• You need to read Bill Waiser’s latest blog post on Will Jackson, who served as Louis Riel’s secretary. The story of his role in the North-West Resistance, his time at an asylum, and how his collection of historical materials ended up being sold as waste paper, is both important and tragic. The picture just kills me.
• The Osler Library at McGill just received a new archival fonds containing a notebook from a student who worked at the Banting Institute in 1930.
• Some human filth posted horrifying flyers on the UNB campus this week. Matthew Sears responds.
• Find out about these upcoming webinars on community history from Canada’s History.
• Also on Unwritten Histories this week is a look at upcoming publications in Canadian history for February 2018!
• The Canadian Centre for the Great War looks at the use of bicycles in combat this week.
• And the Laurier Centre has a new blog post by Sara Karn on music on the Canadian home front in WW1. This is totally bringing back memories of Qualicum 2007. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky.
• The Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog kicked off a mini-series of essays by undergraduate students. The first is by Colin Powell, discussing eighteenth-century medical practices in the British army.
• Also on Active History this week, Samuel Derksen and Eric Story critically examine Senator Beyak’s “Letters of Support,” and how they tie into the history of settler colonialism in Canada.
• The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada WW2 war diaries are now available online!
• Also now available are fifty historical photographs of Owen Sound, digitized by the Toronto Public Library.
• LAC has posted their monthly update on the digitization of WW1 personnel service files. They’ve reached the last name “Staunton.”
• There is also a court case coming up between the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI and the provincial government over property rights to the Mill River Resort.
• This week, Instantanés tells the story of how the Moisie river was connected to the Côte-Nord in 1972, to replenish salmon sport fishing stocks.
• Christopher Moore gives us a summary of the latest issue of Canada’s History.
• The Retroactive blog reflects on the recent completion of rehabilitation and restoration of the exterior of Old St. Stephen’s College.
• Also on Instantanés this week is a look at the rise and destruction of the Magog Hotel.
• Whistorical shared pictures from the week of January 14^th in years past.
• Olivia Wong shares some of her favourite film discoveries in Ryerson’s Archives and Special Collections.
• Faye Lemay shares some of the challenges with preserving electronic materials at LAC in a blog post for Convergence.
• While I am not comfortable with the implicit comparison between Indigenous peoples and the Doukhobors in this blog post, it does contain some interesting information about their history in Canada.
• The Regional Archives for Peel, the Toronto archives, and the York University Archives and Special Collections have been added to the Library of Congress’ list of newspaper photo morgues. This refers to collections of photographs that have been published or had future publication potential. See the list itself here.
• Eve Lazarus has more details on the Postmedia donation of two million photo negatives to the City of Vancouver Archives.
• The Vancouver as it Was blog profiles two Vancouver sisters, Grace and Claire Corbould, and comments on the difficulty of finding information on historical women.
• This week Whistorial explains how Alta Lake came to be part of the larger Whistler community, in preparation for the 1968 Winter Olympics bid.
• Canadian History in the News
  • The Sunday Edition talked about former Supreme Court Justice Gerald Le Dain, and how depression forced him to resign.
  • Do you know the story of the SS Princess Sophia?
  • The National Post profiled David Meren’s recent piece in Histoire Sociale about why some people thought it would be a good idea to import yaks into northern Quebec, and introduce them to the Inuit of Ungava Bay. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
  • There was quite a bit of news this week regarding the St. Anne’s residential school court case, so I’ve grouped the pieces together here.
    • Survivors of St. Anne’s residential school are requesting meditation after the government went to court to prevent the re-opening of IAP cases.
    • And then came down the horrifying ruling from the BC Supreme Court that new evidence of abuse was not sufficient reason to reopen rejected IAP cases. I’m not sure how these people sleep at night.
    • Then Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Prerell accused the lawyer for the St. Anne’s survivors of “slandering the court” by suggesting that it was favouring the Canadian government.
  • The New York Times spoke Cezin Nottawa (Algonquin), George Lenser (Nisga’a Nation), two Indigenous chefs who are using food and cooking to preserve and promote Indigenous culture.
    • And The Guardian also featured Indigenous chefs in this piece, featuring interviews with Johl Whiteduck Ringuette (Anishinaabe), Shawn Adler, and Inez Cook.
  • The Smithsonian has additional details on the new Michigan State project on the slave trade, and how the project will help people trace their enslaved ancestors.
  • Radio-Canada profiled Quebec feminist activist Simonne Monet-Chartrand.
  • Find out about the history of Kivalliq Inuit dollmaking in this interview with artist Helen Iguptak (Inuit).
  • The court case on the Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior treaty annuities is a great opportunity for all Canadians to learn about treaty history, especially since the hearings will be broadcast online!
  • Toronto’s Old City Hall might become a museum and library!
    • So the Toronto Public Library shared some historical photographs of the building.
  • This week LAC explores a seldom-considered group of Loyalists: German mercenaries.
  • In case you needed another reminder that we’re all old people who have done nothing with our lives, check out this op-ed in Teen Vogue by grade 10 student Madyson Arscott, and her work to decolonize Canada’s classrooms.
  • Jenna Tickell is working on an MA examining the history of relationships between Chinese men and First Nations women, the result of Canada’s racist immigration policies and gender discrimination in the Indian Act. She is searching for people in Saskatchewan who might be willing to share their stories about this mixed-heritage.
  • Mary-Ellen Kelm spoke with CBC Radio One about the new exhibit, “Mad City: Legacies of Mental Patients Association.”
  • Is it me, or does The National Post seem a little smug about CBC’s blunder with Ice Bridge?
  • CBC looks back on the history of Early’s Farm and Garden Centre in Saskatoon.
  • While this article focuses on Saskatchewan, it was possible to order your house by catalogue all over the country, once upon a time.
  • The Christie Pits ice rink is being renamed after hockey player Sid Smith.
  • Check out this great interview with Katherena Vermette, who produces graphic novels that tell history from a Métis perspective.
  • Check out some of the artwork in this new exhibition featuring work by Sixties Scoop survivors.
  • Chantal Braganza cites Catherine Carstairs in this op-ed about how corporations play on Canadian identity and history to sell products.
  • Once upon a time, when you still paid tolls in cash, toll collectors lived in nearby cottages. Check out the oldest one that remains in Toronto. They’d probably make a killing if they rented that place out. 😉
  • The Canadian government has asked Catholic groups involved in the ranking of residential schools to provide survivors permission to have their court documents stored at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. And as survivor Angela Shisheesh notes in the article, it’s a bit ridiculous that this kind of permission is required.
    • The Star’s editorial board also wrote an editorial calling on these Catholic groups to give permission immediately, “if they have any sense of shame or any concern for the project of reconciliation.”
  • Mikisew First Nation will be at the Supreme Court this coming week for an appeals case that may allow Indigenous communities a say in laws relating to treaty rights.
  • Lara Wilson has a new piece in American Libraries on the Transgender Archives at UVic.
    • And CBC showcased some of the images from their new exhibition.
  • Find out what we learned during a restoration and renovation on two of the oldest buildings in Winnipeg.
  • The Hamilton Spectator profiled the Native Indian/Inuit Photographer’s Association, which was established by Brenda Mitten, Greg Staats, and Yvonne Maracle back in 1985, and the work they did to bring attention to Indigenous photography.
  • Have you heard of the secret society, the Order of Jacques-Cartier, also known as La Patente?
    • And here’s the same article in English.
  • People from across the country have sent WW2 artifacts to Riley Clarke, an eleven-year-old PEI boy. He started his collection after learning that his grandfather had served in the war.
  • Remember that American shed that drifted into New Brunswick? Well, some nice Canadians have torn it to pieces. Eh?
  • A movie about Montreal history, done in connection with an anthropologist, Indigenous language activists, an Algonquin hereditary chief, and with Indigenous actors? I think my brain just exploded.
  • How about some cool Steveston history?
  • The City of Vancouver is searching for ways to revitalize Chinatown.
  • Tessa Erickson is creating an app to help revive the Dakelh language.
• Better Late than Never
  • Poundmaker Cree Nation Headman Milton Tootoosis spoke with CBC about why the portrayal of Chief Poundmaker in the new Civilizations game is so problematic. Poundmaker Cree Nation is consulting with elders prior to contacting the company.
  • The New York Times discovered butter tarts.
  • Find out about the use of wampum as currency in North America.
  • APTN News uncovered the fact that the Nova Scotia government appears to have meddled with the wording of the territorial acknowledgement used by the Halifax regional School Board, which leaves out the word “unceded.”
  • CIM magazine looked at the history of the graphite mine under Black Donald Lake in Ontario.
  • Thia James shares her most memorable story from 2017: speaking with the families of WW1 veterans.
  • Raftmen, who drove those giant log rafts down rivers, might be the real national histories of the Outaouais.
  • Somehow one of NiCHE’s posts got left out of the roundup! I’m so sorry! Will you and Tina Loo forgive me? The post in question is Tina Loo’s really wonderful look at the Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project, and the family and personal history of bears.
• Calls for Papers
  • Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française has issued a CFP for submissions to its Chronique d’archives section, about the latest archival acquisitions, for the Spring 2018 issue. Proposals are due March 12, 2018.
  • The Canadian Committee on Labour History has issued a CFP for an upcoming symposium on the study and teaching and Canadian labour and working-class history. Proposals are due February 28, 2018.
  • The Canadian Catholic Historical Association has issued a CFP for their annual meeting at Congress. Proposals are due February 1, 2018.
  • The Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies has issued a CFP for their annual meeting at Congress. They are particularly seeking papers, panels, roundtables, and workshops on the theme of diversity and in/equity in the workplace, labour/social movements, and Labour Studies. Proposals are due January 31, 2018.
  • Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies has issued a CFP for their 2018 Graduate Conference. This year’s theme is “Canada on the Edge.” Proposals are due February 26, 2018.

This week’s roundup seems like a wee little baby roundup compared to last week. I hope you enjoyed reading it! 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!

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