Category Archives: Indigenous History

A Century of Petroleum Extraction at Norman Wells

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[Editor’s note: We have slightly altered the original text because our website does not yet support Dene orthographies. For a .pdf version of this post in which Dene words and place names are displayed correctly, click here.] Petroleum Histories Project Team Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories is the site of the first oil and gas operation in the Canadian… Read more »

Nova Scotia and the Paradox of the Royal Proclamation

That unceded Mi’kmaw Land was occupied by a chief framer of the 1763 Royal Proclamation must give us pause. Although the Proclamation established a set of principles for good relationships with North American nations, on-the-ground military strategies and the use of Indigenous Land as reward for imperial service made it easy to ignore these principles, even by the framers themselves.

Critical Reflections on Histories of Residential Schools

By Karen Froman, Leah Kuragano, Aileen Friesen, Cathy Mattes, Mary Jane Logan McCallum On Sept 25, 2023, the University of Winnipeg’s History Department Indigenization Committee presented a panel engaging with the Interim Report of the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, entitled Sacred Responsibility: Searching for… Read more »

ActiveHistory.ca repost — Aboriginal History in Ontario’s Cottage Country

ActiveHistory.ca is slowing down our publication schedule this summer, but we’ll be back with more new posts in September. In the meantime, we’re featuring posts from our archive. Thanks as always to our writers and readers! The following post was originally featured on April 3, 2012. This summer, learn whose land you vacation on. Editor’s note: Several outdated links throughout… Read more »

ActiveHistory.ca repost — Decolonizing Cottage Country

Photograph of a calm lake with a brown wooden dock extending away from the viewer. There are red and green leaves on a tree branch in the foreground.

ActiveHistory.ca is slowing down our publication schedule this summer, but we’ll be back with more new posts in September. In the meantime, we’re featuring posts from our archive. Thanks as always to our writers and readers! The following post was originally featured on February 22, 2018. Since then, Drew Hayden Taylor has released Cottagers and Indians in print and directed… Read more »

The Evolution of Game Law Impacting First Nations Hunters in Northwestern Ontario

Painting of two people dragging a moose through the snow.

Jennifer Bate Indigenous peoples have used their deep-rooted understanding of the land and wildlife to feed their families and communities for generations. However, by the end of the 19th century, First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario found their traditional way of life threatened by encroaching settlement and new government-imposed hunting legislation. Although early game laws contained clauses exempting First Nations… Read more »

History and the Atrocity of Silence

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Owen Griffiths “Dear brothers and sisters! I have been waiting to come here and be with you!” With these words, Pope Francis began his long-awaited apology for the Catholic Church’s role in more than a century of abuse and marginalization of Indigenous Canadians, what the Truth and Reconciliation Report called “cultural genocide.” Reactions to the Pope’s July 2022 visit and… Read more »

Pandemic Lockup: Covid-19 and Colonial Histories in a Small Northern Jail

This article is reposted, in slightly edited form and with permission, from the fourth issue of Syndemic Magazine: “The Colours of Covid-19.” Syndemic Magazine is a project of the L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History at McMaster University. Brandon J. Cordeiro In Thunder Bay, Ontario, the city’s prison battled a Covid-19 outbreak through winter 2021. Overpopulated and faced with growing cases, the… Read more »

Not Noted on the Voyage: Judith Desjarlais and John Rae

Panoramic black and white photo of a river.

By Sara Wilmshurst Nearly every time I review archival documents, I bump into a story that I’m desperate to pursue, but it is not relevant to the project at hand. This time I decided to just do it. My Google Alerts tell me it is time; Parks Canada’s underwater archaeology team recently announced they are returning to the Franklin Expedition… Read more »

Remember/Resist/Redraw #31: Justice for Grassy Narrows

In June, for Indigenous History Month, the Graphic History Collective released RRR #31 by Iruwa Da Silva and Judy Da Silva with Natalia Saavedra and Ryan Hayes. The poster celebrates the ongoing struggle of the people of Asubpeeschoseewagong, or Grassy Narrows First Nation. For the past 50 years, women and youth from the community have led a movement to address… Read more »