Glasstry news

Particularly during the fall book prize season, I like to note history prize winners. Since there were none among the Governor General's Awards winners announced yesterday, I thought I'd just pass them over. But Daniel Francis has a thoughtful response to the awards at his blog, specifically about the Non-Fiction prize: I cannot help noting that each of the five finalists for this year's award is a memoir. I am not sure what that says about non-fiction writing in the country, if anything...  Where were the historians, the biographers, the science writers, I wondered?...   ...Naturally, as a writer of history, I'd prefer to see some history titles in the mix. But I accept that these things go in cycles. Maybe next year. Read the whole thing , particularly for the salute to the winner, Darrel McLeod for Mamaskatch . Meanwhile, another source for prizeworthy history, the Cundill Prize for History, announced its final shortlist of three for this year's prize, the winne...

Nice to see a forthcoming article in Ontario History getting front page coverage in national newspapers.  Toronto map researcher Rick Laprairie identified the words "Lac Torontos" on  a 1678 map by Quebec-based mapmaker Jean-Louis Franquelin John Steckley, the dean of all things Iroquoian in 17th century southern Ontario, seems to have taken note of Franquelin's use of the term fifteen years ago .  But Laprairie, whose article surveys the origins of the name Toronto, apparently makes a pretty good case this is the earliest known use of the root of "Toronto" on a European map.  Map is here; wording not visible at this magnification. The label is on a lake that is pretty clearly today's Lake Simcoe. It's further evidence that the place now called Toronto was then the entrance to the Toronto portage, which led to the 17th century Tkaranto, a site located near today's Orillia. The word is Iroquoian and refers to the fish weirs there: something like ...

I'm not an aficionado of the Toronto International Film Festival much, but the other day we did get to a showing of Edge of the Knife , or Sgaaway K'uuna , the first feature film made entirely in the Haida language. It is co-directed by Gwaii Edenshaw, who is Haida, and Helen Haig-Brown, who is Tsilhquo'tin, and they had the assistance of the film team that made the terrific Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.  There must be a good chance it will be seen this winter in major cities and specialty cinema venues. Edge of the Knife and Atanarjuat are powerful demonstrations why cultural appropriation is a problem.  Oh, says defenders of the practice, a good novelist (or film-maker) will grasp the truth of the culture, because that is what artists do, that is how an artist works. Watch  Edge of the Knife or (even more so) Atanarjuat and you quickly become sure no Euro-Canadian would have made it.  Worth the price for that alone. Edge of the Knife  presents a traditio...

After the Federal Court's decision to stop construction of the TransMountain pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Coast, there is one lesson that ought to be seized upon.  Settling indigenous land and self-government issues is simply the best way to pursue economic growth, infrastructure development, and industrial megaprojects in Canada. Premier Ra chel Notle y expresses a view that seems to be a consensus from the Fraser Institute to 24 Sussex: consultation with First Nations about land and self-government is something to be endured when Canada has a pipeline or other project it wants to build on contested territory, not something to be undertaken in good faith as a moral or legal or historical obligation. Meaningful consultation with parties affected by the pipeline should accommodate their concerns, not give them veto power over the project, she said. �I reject a scenario that has us talking until everybody says �yes.� That�s not how it can work.� Sorry, it's true that the...

The Yellowhead Institute, which declares itself to be the first fully indigenous think tank in Canada, launches today in Toronto. The Institute is a First Nation-led research centre based in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. .... Outside of First Nation political organizations, activists, or academics, there is no national entity bringing an evidence-based, non-partisan, and community-first perspectives to the discussions. This is a glaring absence in First Nations ability to organize and mobilize to protect their rights and jurisdiction. The Yellowhead Institute aims to address this gap. The Institute takes its name from William Yellowhead, an 18th and 19th century Ojibwa leader in what is now Ontario ( DCB biography here ), but it proposes to have national reach. Indeed, one of the talking points of executive director Hayden King is how commentary on indigenous matters in Canada continues to be dominated by non-indigenous experts.  Calling up a think...

Canada's History has announced publication of  Treaties and the Treaty Relationship , a book length exploration of treaties, treaty issues, and the work of reconciliation, edited with Manitoba Treaties Commissioner Loretta Ross. The volume, which includes essays by, among others, Karine Duhamel, William Wicken, Wabi Benais Mistatim Equay (Cynthia Bird), Guuduniia LaBoucan, and Jaime Battiste, is a resource for educators, funded by a grant from the Government of Canada, and delivered to schools and universities across Canada.  It is also available online via the link above.

It's Shakespeare's birthday.  Also World Book and Copyright Day. And speaking of words: Tsilhqot'in or Chilcotin? First Nation or indigenous or Indigenous? Cindy Blackstock recommends the Indigenous Peoples Glossary , Second Edition, for sorting out these issues of respect and accuracy.

PM Trudeau and Tsilhqot'in representatives Writer Terry Glavin, always an interesting -- and unpredictable -- writer on British Columbia and much else, has a recent couple of notable pieces of historical journalism in  Maclean's, where he is a contributor. One is a solid backgrounder on the Chilcotin/Tsilhqot�in war of 1864, which led to the hanging of six First Nations leaders Lhats�as?in, Biyil, Tilaghed, Taqed, Chayses, and Ahan. This was the event for which the government of Canada formally apologized in the Canadian Parliament. The shame and disgrace at the heart of the Chilcotin War�s legacy occurred shortly after 8 a.m. on Aug. 15, 1864, when the war leader Lhats�as?in and several of his comrades agreed to enter the encampment of William Cox, the leader of an expeditionary force of several dozen armed men dispatched by the just-appointed Governor Frederick Seymour, to talk truce. Instead, Lhats�as?in and his warriors were arrested and put in chains. Seeking ...

Go to their site to embiggen this Historian Donald Wright draws our attention to a new map of what we call Canada, one that contains only indigenous place names. As he says, " it changes how one 'sees' and 'reads' Canada." �Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada� was commissioned  by the Canadian-American Center (Stephen Hornsby, director) at the University of Maine, and designed  and created by cartographer Margaret Wickens Pearce, with permissions from First Nations throughout. It is accessible (free to look at, small fee to purchase in hard form) from their site here . As they say: The map does not depict all of the Indigenous place names of Canada, nor are all Indigenous Nations and communities represented. Beyond the map�s names are thousands upon thousands more, an ever growing and expanding atlas of intimate, geographical knowledge and experience. The intention of the map is to create respect for Indigenous homelands and sovereignties, and a fe...