This post by Melanie Ng[1] is part of the “(In)Security in the Time of COVID-19” series. Read the rest of the series here. Vancouver: On a cold February night in 1887, an anti-Chinese lynch mob of white men razed a Chinese work camp. Lanterns in hand and singing the U.S. Union army marching song “John Brown’s Body,” the mob set Chinese… Read more »
By Samantha Cutrara Trigger Warning: This article discusses the residential school system. The National Residential School Crisis Line is 1-866-925-4419. When the news came out about the mass grave at Kamloops Indian Residential School located on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation – or the news from this past weekend which identified 104 ‘potential graves’ as part of the Brandon… Read more »
By Catherine Larochelle Trigger Warning: This article discusses the residential school system and the Roman Catholic Church. The National Residential School Crisis Line is 1-866-925-4419. With the Quiet Revolution, identity in Quebec shifted from an association with French Canada to one more tightly bound by the province’s political borders. Quebec’s so-called national history similarly refocused to emphasize histories of Quebec… Read more »
By Omeasoo Wahpasiw, Adele Perry and Sean Carleton Timing is everything, and context and connections matter. A week after the US Capitol riot on January 6 sparked a reckoning with the growing threat of white supremacy and far-right extremism in North America, an open letter appeared as a full-page ad in the National Post celebrating the “remarkable” legacy of John… Read more »
Meredith Terretta (for the uOttawa Antiracist History Group) Too often, a consideration of students has gone missing in conversations about race unfolding on university campuses across Canada this year. It is as if one skill professors have yet to learn is how to actively listen to their students. All of them. Including racialized students for whom our institution, perhaps like… Read more »
By Andrew Nurse Do midterms have any point? Do tests? Quizzes? Finals? These questions outline the scope of a discussion that recently drew considerable discussion among historians on Twitter.[1] The conversation was both apt and timely. It is apt because it goes to the heart of teaching and learning; it is timely because Covid-19 — and a range of other… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/History-Slam-179.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Every May, the City of Ottawa hosts the annual Tulip Festival to celebrate the relationships built between Canada and the Netherlands during the Second World War. Following the war, the Dutch Royal Family gifted tulips to Canada as a symbol of friendship, in part to commemorates the birth of Princess Margriet… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/History-Slam-177.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Being in Ottawa, there are unique opportunities for engaging with Canada’s past. One of my favourite is to head to Parliament Hill to explore how the federal government has decided to commemorate Canada’s history. The monuments that surround the parliament buildings offer a pretty clear sign of what those in the… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/History-Slam-175.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham In the 9 years we’ve being doing the History Slam, I’ve constantly been amazed by the variety of ways in which public historians tell the stories of the past. There are so many unique and powerful storytelling techniques that make great use of historical research. One such example is the new… Read more »
Kristine Alexander and Mary Jane Logan McCallum While – as shown in our previous post – Guiding and Scouting were inextricably linked to British imperialism and settler colonialism, some Indigenous students in Canadian Indian residential schools also found that these organizations provided a refuge in an alien environment and a short break from labour and strict routine. It was an… Read more »
