Métis Kinship in Northwestern Ontario: A Tale of Two Families

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Julia Grummitt

Map showing the Hudson's Bay Company's Lac la Pluie district, located in present-day northwestern Ontario and parts of Minnesota.

In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Métis communities emerged across a region of North America known as the historic North-West. These communities were formed by Indigenous descendants of the fur trade – the children of European fur traders and Indigenous women – who over generations of endogamy (intermarriage) developed a distinct identity as Métis with a shared culture, political consciousness, and way of life.

Kinship provided the foundation upon which distinct Métis communities grew. Bonds between parents, children, spouses, godparents and friends were the social and economic structure that facilitated trade, ensured survival, and established a distinctly Métis identity. As Métis travelled throughout their homeland – the lands and waterways of the historic North-West, which stretched well beyond the borders of present-day Manitoba – they lived out kinship on a daily basis. They worked together in the fur trade, raised their families alongside each other, and travelled to hunt, trade, and visit relatives. When Canadian colonization encroached on their lands, Métis families united to defend their rights and their freedom.

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History Will Be Livestreamed

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By Nir Hagigi

In October 2023, as Israeli bombs began to fall on Gaza, something unprecedented unfolded. For the first time in history, the victims of mass atrocity —and only the victims— broadcast their own destruction in real time. Unlike previous conflicts where foreign journalists or outside observers mediated what the world saw, in Gaza the task of witnessing fell almost entirely to Palestinians themselves, because Israel barred international media from entering. Through TikTok livestreams, Instagram stories, and Telegram updates, they documented life under genocide with no outside press on the ground. The crisis in Gaza has been called a “livestreamed genocide” in Amnesty International’s annual report, a label that has been used since the start of the war by pro-Palestinian activists in the West.

While wars and atrocities have always been depicted in the media, the immediacy, intimacy, and sheer volume of testimony coming out of Gaza mark a turning point in the politics of witnessing. To understand what makes Gaza different, it helps to place this moment in historical perspective.

The idea that media changes the way people experience war is not new. In the 19th century, the telegraph allowed near-instant communication from battlefields for the first time, which revolutionized journalism during conflicts like the Crimean War. Yet, even then, reports were filtered through war correspondents and often biased to fit political agendas.

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How the History of the Anti-mask and Anti-vaccination Movements Hang Together

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Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is best known as a vaccination skeptic, but he is also skeptical about using masks for infection control. At the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC in May 2024, Kennedy Jr. recalled being asked during the pandemic whether he was scared of dying of COVID-19 since he wasn’t wearing a mask. His answer at the time was: “There’s a lot worse things than dying,” including “living like a slave”. The audience broke into applause.

Such an opinion is not new. A century earlier, during the influenza pandemic, citizen Frank Bobich told a Sacramento police officer that he would rather “be killed or hanged” than cover his face with a mask. Bobich had a mask in his pocket but refused to comply with the city-wide mask mandate. These blusterous statements reveal that for many people masks mean much more than protection against infectious diseases. They are not about health, but freedom. For this reason, the history of masks – and opposition to mask mandates – offers a unique window into the tense relationships between scientific expertise, medical authority, and state power. 

Book cover of history academic text on the topic of mask. Cover depicts two men, in sits, wearing helmets and gas masks.

Bruno J Strasser & Thomas Schlich’s new book, The Mask, is out now with Yale University Press

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Bridging the Gap: The Legacy of the Soviet “Revisionist Turn” 

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Stan Vassilenko

Historian Sheila Fitzpatrick before the Moskva River during her first visit to Moscow in 1969. Image courtesy of Sheila Fitzpatrick.

Academia continues to face a knowledge gap between scholarship and the public sphere, a fact that is especially prevalent when it comes to how we talk about Russia. In today’s world where headlines and social media tend to be people’s chief information suppliers, the resurgence of Cold War narratives of the Soviet Union as a totalitarian monolith or an autocracy by tradition colour Russia’s identity in public discourse, especially since the invasion of Ukraine. This suggests that changes in disciplinary perspectives occur separately from popular opinion, which calls on the historian to modify their tactics for writing history in the public eye. 

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Women United – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

This week I talk with Peggy Nash, one of the co-authors of Women United: Stories of Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union. We discuss women’s contributions to the union in its early years, how negotiating priorities were shaped, and the Second World War’s influence on the labour movement. We also chat about the impact of the Autopact and free trade on labour, women’s leadership in the modern labour movement, and what it’s like to be in the room negotiating against an employer.

Historical Headline of the Week

René Morisette, “Unionization in Canada, 1981 to 2022,” Stats Canada, November 23, 2022.

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Call For Contributors: Join the Active History Project This Fall!

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As we head into the fall season, we want to invite new contributors to help build the Active History Project! Activehistory.ca invites proposals for standalone blog posts, thematic blog series, and other contributions, all of which explore new research, innovative historical approaches, and history that matters today.

We welcome submissions from historians and scholars in related disciplines who engage with historical questions and would like to connect with the wider historical community in an accessible and easily digestible format. Whether you’re a graduate student, early-career scholar, or someone working outside of traditional academia, we encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and community-engaged research.

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The Continuing Relevance of Museums in Canada

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Cara Tremain

Group of young university students handle archeological materials in classroom setting.
SFU archaeology students handling materials from the department’s diverse teaching collections. Photograph by Cara Tremain.

This summer, the Government of Canada helped to promote visits to museums through the Canada Strong pass. While initially focused on seven of the country’s nine national museums, other provinces and territories also opted to offer reduced and free admission. Ultimately, 87 museums across the country were part of the initiative, and early data indicates that it helped to boost attendance. While the removal of admission fees increases accessibility, and – in turn – public enjoyment and appreciation of museums, the reality is that museums across the country are suffering from a lack of resources. To be effective stewards of the cultural heritage that they care for, museums need adequate financial support. However, as outlined in the 2023 report concerning renewal of the national museum policy, the majority of the country’s museums (~1500) do not receive funding from the federal government even though there is public support for them to do so.

While it remains to be seen whether a new museum policy will bring improved financial backing, the government are financially stepping up to contribute $50 million to the forthcoming Nunavut Inuit Heritage Center. This support emphasizes the government’s responsibility to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which includes several articles outlining rights to cultural heritage and associated cultural expressions. While Canada continues to lack a national repatriation policy, the country’s museums have been facilitating access to – and return of – Indigenous belongings for some time. At the Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology (MAE) at Simon Fraser University, for example, repatriation has been an important element of its practice and teachings for decades.

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When Protest Becomes News: The 1970 Abortion Caravan and the Politics of Media Coverage

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By Hailey Baldock

With a black coffin strapped to the top of their van and a fiery determination to scrap Canada’s abortion laws, the women of the 1970 Abortion Caravan knew they had to make a scene. And they did.

Abortion Caravan, Toronto. (York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, Toronto Telegram fonds, ASC04612.)

Over the course of two weeks, the Caravan moved across the country from Vancouver to Ottawa, rallying supporters and drawing crowds, all while carrying the memory of women who died from unsafe abortions along with them.

Although the Caravan has since been recognized as a landmark in Canadian feminist and reproductive history, the media coverage at the time tells a very different story–one that reveals as much about Canadian newspapers as it does about the women involved in the protest.

When I began this research for my Master’s degree, eager to build on the work of media historians such as Barbara Freeman, I expected to encounter some unsavoury headlines and articles condemning the protest. And I did. What I didn’t anticipate, however, were the numerous, often explicitly gendered, criticisms directed against the women involved. The value of blending feminist history with media studies became quite clear to me, as the Abortion Caravan’s legacy is as much about how it was reported as about what it achieved.

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Military Experimentation – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

This week, I talk with Matthew S. Wiseman, historian of science and medicine in modern Canada. We discuss why militaries engage in scientific research, the civilian benefits of that research, and how scientists navigated their research during the Cold War. We also chat about research consent within a military environment, the challenges of researching the Cold War era, and the legacy of scientific research in the mid-20th cenetury,

Matthew will be the delivering the second session of the Shannon Lecture series on Monday October 6 entitled ‘Cold War Consent? Military Experimentation and Research Ethics in Mid-Century Canada.’

Historical Headline of the Week

Matthew S. Wiseman, “Canada Created a Cold War Isolation Laboratory. It Ended in Scandal,” The Walrus, July 31, 2025.

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On the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

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Ten years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) issued its final report on the history of residential schools in Canada. Mandated to “inform all Canadians about what happened in residential schools”, the “TRC documented the truth of Survivors, their families, communities and anyone personally affected by the residential school experience.” It found that residential schools were part of a broader policy of elimination that was “best described as cultural genocide.” 

In 2021, the Canadian Historical Association affirmed the TRC’s findings. The association declared: “…historians, in the past, have often been reticent to acknowledge this history as genocide. As a profession, historians have therefore contributed in lasting and tangible ways to the Canadian refusal to come to grips with this country’s history of colonization and dispossession.” The Canadian Historical Association statement concluded with the following call, “Our inability, as a society, to recognize this history for what it is, and the ways that it lives on into the present, has served to perpetuate the violence. It is time for us to break this historical cycle.”

The findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the self-reflection that followed in many quarters, including amongst the membership of the Canadian Historical Association, highlighted the need for “education for reconciliation”. According to the Commission, “Educating Canadians for reconciliation involves not only schools and post-secondary institutions, but also dialogue forums and public history institutions such as museums and archives. Education must remedy the gaps in historical knowledge that perpetuate ignorance and racism.” Crucially, the Commission noted that “education for reconciliation must do even more.” As the Commission explained, “Survivors told us that Canadians must learn about the history and legacy of residential schools in ways that change both minds and hearts.” (Calls to Action 62, 63, 64).

On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which the federal government created to honour “the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities”, members of the Active History editorial collective offer suggestions on scholarship and resources they have found helpful in their own work and learning journeys. 

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