In fairness to LAC, I recognize that their problems are rooted in chronic underfunding. That and a succession of governments measuring their success with inappropriate metrics. While wishing that management had made different choices under the pressure of inadequate financing, I also wish they were not forced to choose between outreach and basic archival services.
What is interesting is that community members seem to have responded to the friendlier, more open-ended construction of Stanley in kind. I see the statue as I stroll across town to pick up mail or groceries and started to wonder what this was all about. What did the clothing of the Stanley sculpting say about how at least some community members related to the past? The sculpting is prominently positioned. The hats and masks added anonymously to it are meant to be seen.
It is as if LAC had shoveled its digitized material out into a virtual dumpster and invited researchers to dive in. There are indeed treasures to be found here, but systematic research is out of the question.
Daniel R. Meister In a recent op-ed, Stephen Marche claims “the foundation of Canadian multiculturalism rests on a basic piece of common sense: Leave your shoes at the door.” Picking up on this thread, Jack Granatstein countered that multiculturalism as a policy actually consists of encouraging immigrants to leave those shoes on—and march right into a polling booth. Multiculturalism is… Read more »
This is the final instalment in a three-part series on the use of content warnings in classrooms, archives, and museums. You can read the first instalment here and the second instalment here. Melissa J. Nelson & Natasha Henry-Dixon Melissa J. Nelson : Making Description Remediation Visible The Archives of Ontario is the largest provincial archive in Canada. However, many… Read more »
The problem I have with these claims is that they often ignore the good work of historians who have taken a different perspective.
By Nina Reid-Maroney An August, 1925 article in the Dawn of Tomorrow (“Advent of League in Chatham, Windsor, Dresden Enthusiastic”) details James Jenkins’ experience at a founding meeting for a new branch of the Canadian League for the Advancement of Colored People (CLACP). Jenkins, founding editor and publisher of the Dawn of Tomorrow and co-founder and Executive Secretary of the… Read more »
By Zahra McDoom Ball is never just ball, it tells the story of anti-black racism, defiance and community. The photograph above is significant. This 1920s image is the only known picture of a Black women’s softball team in Ontario.[1] Showing London’s Elite team, several of these women, played important roles in shaping Ontario’s Black histories over the course of the… Read more »
It was only after winning the prize that I fully grasped that I had pushed The Dawn out of the shadows of history, and into the forefront of discussions about Black Canadian newspapers, Black contributions to Canadian history, and Canada’s media history. I had awoken an entire field that I didn’t even know existed.
This is the second of a two-part series to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. The first part appeared on this site previously. Jennifer Tunnicliffe On December 10, Canada will take part in celebrations of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). On its website, the federal… Read more »
