HERITAGE FORUM SPEAKER EMPHASIZES HISTORY ON THE WEB
Posted on February 26th, 2009
Ian Wilson
Ian Wilson, the Archivist and Librarian of Canada, was the headline speaker at the recent Heritage Forum in Regina on February 21, 2009. Wilson provided a very entertaining and inspiring speech to the over 140 delegates gathered from a wide cross section of Saskatchewan heritage organizations. Wilson’s opening keynote address focused the audience on the task they would face later in the day. After Wilson spoke the delegates heard from Ken Alexce, a consultant hired by SaskCulture to make recommendations on how to create a new Saskatchewan heritage organization that would serve the interests of all aspects of Saskatchewan’s current heritage community and whose members would be the various heritage institutions and organizations that already exist. By drawing on his experiences as Saskatchewan’s provincial archivist in the 1970s and 80s and from a wealth of experience elsewhere, Wilson generated excitement for the potential of a new heritage organization.
Wilson also spent some time discussing one of the great challenges that will face the new organization. As mentioned in the past on this Blog, bringing history to the web, is essential to making history accessible to younger generations and making it relevant in the information age. Wilson explored the same theme in his presentation and provided an assortment of examples that demonstrated the need to get history on the web and the opportunities that the web will provide historians, archivists and other heritage specialists.
Anyone in Regina who missed the Heritage Forum can still hear Wilson’s insightful lecture. Access Communications (Channel 7) is broadcasting portions of the Heritage Forum including Wilson’s speech at 10:00 pm on Saturday, February 28, 2009. You can also access a test of Wilson’s remarks on the SaskCulture website.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
A relative told me about a speaker and show depicting the Anderson years in Lemburg, Saskatchewan and, in particular, the role of the provincial Ku Klux Klan. This is a topic of great interest to me. While my beliefs and attitudes do not reflect those of my Irish Orange Presbyterian forebears, I happen to know the family’s lore on the subject. My Grandmother and several uncles were instrumental in organizing the Klan in Regina. Who can I contact for more information? Is there an archives, especially of the Anderson-Klan debates?
March 12th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
If you check under the “What We have Done Recently” Section of the website (refer to the menu on the left) You will see an event called James Gardiner Vs the KKK, which is the debate re-enactment in Lemberg you refer to. If you are referring to J.T.M. Anderson, who was Premier after Gardiner, he at no time debated anyone in the KKK. The most extensive archival information on the KKK is in the James Gardiner files of the Saskatchewan Archives. U of R History Professor James Pitsula is working on a book about the KKK in Saskatchewan. Two videos featuring a lecture about the KKK in Saskatchewan by Pitsula are included on the James Gardiner Vs the KKK section.