Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Structural Pandemic: On Statues, Colonial Violence, and the Importance of History (Part II)

Kristine Alexander and Mary Jane Logan McCallum As we documented in our previous post, looking more closely at the history of Scouting and Guiding reveals that the divide between colonialist violence, fascist discipline, and peaceful pedagogy was not quite as stark as Baden-Powell and his supporters would have us believe. Instead of insisting on the ideological opposition between Scouting and… Read more »

135 Years Since the Last Spike: Colonialism and Resistance on Canada’s Railways

By Thomas Blampied For those following the Canadian railway industry, 2020 was supposed to be a year of celebration. Canadian National Railway (CN), was continuing with its CN100 celebrations to commemorate the 100th anniversary of being bailed out and nationalized by the Canadian government in 1919 (it wasn’t privatized until 1995). The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was to mark the… Read more »

Spooky Sources to Teach, and Challenge, Canadian history

By Samantha Cutrara I like a good theme, and what better theme is there than Halloween? With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, I wanted to use it to have  “spooky” conversations for my Source Saturday video series on YouTube (also available as a podcast). Source Saturday is a new video & podcast series where I talk with historians,… Read more »

History Slam Episode 167: Halloween Costumes Through the 20th Century

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/History-Slam-167.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham This year, Halloween will look very different in communities across the country. Even though Trick or Treating may not be possible, there are still going to be opportunities to dress up in creative and fun costumes. For as much as getting candy made Halloween an exciting event when I was a… Read more »

History Slam Episode 164: Words Have a Past

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https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/History-Slam-164.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham In this episode of the History Slam, I talk with Jane Griffith about the book Words Have a Past: The English Language, Colonialism, and the Newspapers of Indian Boarding Schools. We talk about why schools published newspapers, who the intended audiences were, and the information they did not include. We also discuss… Read more »

History Slam Episode 158: White Appropriations of Black Masculinities in the Civil Rights Era

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/History-Slam-158.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham The years following the Second World War saw major changes to American society, from the rise of suburbs to powerful social movements to shifting international priorities. Within that change, popular culture took on a new significance in American life as television spread across the country and radio stations increasingly shifted to… Read more »

Pity and Destiny: An Indigenous Student at the Manitoba School for the Deaf, 1904-1916

Sandy Barron Historians of deaf communities and disability can no longer take for granted that our field cuts across those of race, class, and gender in consistent ways. Although in recent years scholarship and activism have begun to redraw and trouble these distinctions, deaf and disability histories in Canada have only begun to wrestle with the nation’s colonial past and… Read more »

The Sounds of Solidarity: An Oral History of Rhythm Activism’s Oka and Oka II

Sean Carleton  To mark the 30th anniversary of the siege of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawá:ke, commonly known as the 1990 “Oka Crisis,” I have been interviewing a number of non-Indigenous musicians about the music they made in solidarity with the Mohawk land struggle. I’ve spoken with Chris Hannah from the thrash punk band Propagandhi and hip hop artist Maestro Fresh-Wes about… Read more »

To Put Finish to the War: Armistice in Korea, 27 July 1953

Andrew Burtch This year, 2020, marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. This conflict, classified at the time in North America as a “police action” for political convenience was of course anything but. Though three years of bitter fighting followed, the Korean War has been rightly classified as a “forgotten war”, unfolding as it did against… Read more »