Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Adele Perry

An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City

Structures of Indifference

1919 is often recalled as the year of the Winnipeg General Strike, but it was also the year that water from Shoal Lake first flowed in Winnipeg taps. For the Anishinaabe community of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, construction of the aqueduct led to a chain of difficult circumstances that culminated in their isolation on a man-made island where, for almost two decades, they have lacked access to clean drinking water. In Aqueduct: Colonialism, Resources, and the Histories We Remember, Adele Perry analyses the development of Winnipeg's municipal water supply as an example of the history of settler colonialism. What were the cultural, social, political, and legal mechanisms that allowed the rapidly growing city of Winnipeg to obtain its water supply by dispossessing an Indigenous people of their land, and ultimately depriving them of the very commodity--clean drinking water--that the city secured for itself? Incorporating archival images that document the expensive and ambitious construction process and celebrate the aqueduct as a marvel of engineering and a beacon of publicly-minded social policy, Perry questions whose histories are recalled and whose are elided or actively erased, while at the same time addressing these issues within the larger context of Canadian colonialism.

Colonialism, Resources, and the Histories We Remember

Aqueduct

Esyllt Wynne Jones

Leah Morton

Place and Replace is a collection of recent interdisciplinary research into Western Canada that calls attention to the multiple political, social, and cultural labours performed by the concept of "place." The book continues a long-standing tradition of situating questions of place at the centre of analyses of Western Canada's cultures, pasts, and politics, while making clear that place is never stable, universal, or static. The essays here confirm the interests and priorities of Western Canadian scholarship that have emerged over the past forty years and remind us of the importance of Indigenous peoples, dispossession, and colonialism; of migration, race and ethnicity; of gender and women's experiences; of the impact of the natural and built environment; and the impact of politics and the state.

Essays on Western Canada

Place and Replace

Constance Backhouse

Margaret Kovach

Cynthia E. Milton

The Royal Society of Canada’s mandate is to elect to its membership leading scholars in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences, lending its seal of excellence to those who advance artistic and intellectual knowledge in Canada. Duncan Campbell Scott, one of the architects of the Indian residential school system in Canada, served as the society’s president and dominated its activities; many other members – historically overwhelmingly white men – helped shape knowledge systems rooted in colonialism that have proven catastrophic for Indigenous communities. Written primarily by current Royal Society of Canada members, these essays explore the historical contribution of the RSC and of Canadian scholars to the production of ideas and policies that shored up white settler privilege, underpinning the disastrous interaction between Indigenous peoples and white settlers. Historical essays focus on the period from the RSC’s founding in 1882 to the mid-twentieth century; later chapters bring the discussion to the present, documenting the first steps taken to change damaging patterns and challenging the society and Canadian scholars to make substantial strides toward a better future. The highly educated in Canadian society were not just bystanders: they deployed their knowledge and skills to abet colonialism. This volume dives deep into the RSC’s history to learn why academia has more often been an aid to colonialism than a force against it. Royally Wronged poses difficult questions about what is required – for individual academics, fields of study, and the RSC – to move meaningfully toward reconciliation.

The Royal Society of Canada and Indigenous Peoples

Royally Wronged

A new perspective on the nineteenth-century imperial world through one family's history across North America, the Caribbean and United Kingdom. Revealing how these figures demonstrate complicated historical trajectories of empire and nation, Adele Perry illustrates how gender, intimacy, and family were key to making and remaking imperial politics.

Colonial Relations

Perry examines the efforts of a loosely connected group of reformers to transform a colonial environment into one that more closely adhered to the practices of respectable, middle-class European society.

Gender, Race, and the Making of British Columbia, 1849-1871

On the Edge of Empire

Karen Dubinsky

Henry Yu

In some ways, Canadian history has always been international, comparative, and wide-ranging. However, in recent years the importance of the ties between Canadian and transnational history have become increasingly clear. Within and Without the Nation brings scholars from a range of disciplines together to examine Canada’s past in new ways through the lens of transnational scholarship. Moving beyond well-known comparisons with Britain and the United States, the fifteen essays in this collection connect Canada with Latin America, the Caribbean, and the wider Pacific world, as well as with other parts of the British Empire. Examining themes such as the dispossession of indigenous peoples, the influence of nationalism and national identity, and the impact of global migration, Within and Without the Nation is a text which will help readers rethink what constitutes Canadian history.

Adele Perry

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