By Susan L. Smith On August 20, 1988, over one hundred peace activists, environmentalists, and concerned citizens from Alberta and Saskatchewan gathered at Suffield, a military research facility in southern Alberta. The protest was led by the Alberta Branch of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace.[1] The Voice of Women was an organization of peace activists founded in 1960… Read more »
By Debbie Beaver As a women of color a question that I have been asked numerous times in my life is “Where are you from?” My response is I was born in Barrhead, Alberta and raised on a farm in Tiger Lily, Alberta. Next question is “Where is your family from; “your parents”? “My response is “my father was born… Read more »
By Nettie Wiebe As a prairie farmer, feminist, activist and former women’s president and then president of the National Farmers Union, much of my work rests on that of the generations of agrarian feminists that came before me. My active participation in public life, including leadership positions in farm, political and other organizations, are possible only because of the struggles… Read more »
Introduction by Nanci Langford with Sarah Carter. Theme week edited by Sarah Carter, Erika Dyck and Nanci Langford. “If I didn’t do something, my spirit would die…” Senator Thelma Chalifoux, 2006 This quote forms the title of Corinne George’s study of the history of Indigenous women activists of Alberta that she drew on for her presentation at the October 2016… Read more »
Andrea Eidinger Learning and teaching history is hard work. The physical, mental, and emotional toll can be high, for both educators and learners. This is especially the case when it comes to traumatic histories. For educators, it is difficult to balance the desire to make an emotional impact on your students without inflicting (further) trauma. For learners, it is difficult to… Read more »
Christo Aivalis In mere days, Donald J. Trump will conclude his improbable rise to the highest office in world’s most powerful country. What this means has been explored from numerous perspectives, but one issue growing in coverage is how Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government will relate to this new Republican administration. In fact, many political analysts have suggested that Trudeau’s recent… Read more »
Travis Hay Thunder Bay, Ontario is a city well-known for a particularly explicit form of anti-Indigenous racism.[1] Unlike more southern and urban locales where anti-Indigeneity is predominantly expressed as erasure, the social structures of feeling that exist in Thunder Bay are informed by a close proximity to Fort William First Nation (FWFN) – a community located adjacently to the city…. Read more »
By Andrew Nurse The creation and failure of Chignecto Marine Transport Railway Company (CMTRC) — in effect, a “ship railway” — is usually presented as a unique episode in Maritime and Canadian history. In 2012, the Nova Scotia provincial government moved to commemorate the company (and, perhaps unintendedly, its failure) by purchasing the land on which the project was to… Read more »
Skylee-Storm Hogan and Krista McCracken Indigenization and decolonize are words that seem to be permeating institutional conversations in the heritage world and in the post-secondary field right now. Despite the frequent use of these words there are still many questions about what the terms mean and how they can be moved into practice. Earlier this month Dr. Shuaneen Pete spoke… Read more »
Sonya de Laat & Dominique Marshall The ways in which the former Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has visually represented its projects and people to the general public have greatly informed public perceptions of aid and international affairs. From the end of the 1960s, CIDA’s photographs have been used in the communications products of the Agency and of partners (NGOs,… Read more »
