Click here to view the embedded video.

The linking of the past to present  for inspirational purposes is a strategy that was very successful during Barrack Obama’s presidential campaign and it is not surprising that an advertiser is now adopting a similar approach. While there have been numerous ideological objections to the campaign, it is terrific to see historical ideas being re-invented for a new generation. That is the only way that history can really matter.

“We don’t need a constitutional convention. We don’t need to contemplate proportional representation, since that will only intensify the power of the party machines and create even more lobby fodder. We want a new breed of MPs who will consistently tell the whips to get stuffed; who will smash the brutal and intellectually enervating system of party discipline that turns Westminster into a kind of Seventies Leyland car factory, apathetically turning out badly assembled laws to plague the people of this country.

We need far fewer laws and far fewer MPs (400 would do fine). My advice to constituency parties is not to hire candidates unless they promise two things: to read every line of every Bill they are called upon to pass; and to vote according to their conscience, and not according to the wishes or orders of the whips.

That may gum up the machinery of law-making, and that would be all to the good. It may make it impossible for Parliament to produce yet another annual Criminal Justice Bill. It may make it more difficult for MPs to produce yet more laws telling teachers, doctors, nurses and other public servants how to manage their vocations.

If we had fewer MPs, and they were forced to concentrate on what they were actually doing, we would have much less legislation, and I can’t think of a better way of saving us all time, trouble and money.

We need a Parliament of rebels, and we need it now.”

Museum of Natural History in 1956 - Saskatchewan Archives Board picture

On this Mothers Day, it seems appropriate to report on the story of the inclusion of a woman on the frieze of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum that pays tribute to the Pioneers.

Early in the process of planning for the 1955 Saskatchewan Golden Jubilee, the provincial government decided to make its major Jubilee capital project a new home for what was then called the Provincial Museum, which had started in 1906, and which had been housed in a variety of locations. The new building would be called the Museum of Natural History and was to be built on the corner of College and Albert adjacent to what is now called the “old” campus of the University of Regina.  As the theme of the Golden Jubilee was to honour Saskatchewan’s pioneers, Herbert Garnier, a Winnipeg sculptor was contracted to develop the frieze and dedication.   

Garnier originally proposed a design that featured only a single male figure swinging a scythe.  The Museum’s advisory committee, which included a number of individuals who would play major roles in Saskatchewan’s cultural history in the next several decades, such as Jubilee Executive Director Fred McGuinness, Provincial Archivist Lewis Thomas and Legislative Librarian John Archer, disagreed with Garnier and argued that a female figure had to be included.  In a letter to the minister responsible for the Museum they demanded that a woman be included: “It would be an appropriate tribute to the pioneer women of Saskatchewan and we believe that the omission of a pioneer woman from this design would be widely criticized.” Garnier resisted and contended that the design should be left to his discretion. He claimed that the addition of a female figure would ruin the “verticality” of the design, and “…there were many difficulties in selecting an appropriate dress for the [female] figure.” The committee was unimpressed with Garnier’s position. “Mr. McGuinness,” according to the minutes of the committee meeting, “stated that the committee were [sic] concerned with developing a memorial legend, which would be acceptable to some 900,000 residents of the province and not artistic license.”  The dedication ultimately included both a woman figure and a female child figure. These additions represented women’s roles as both mothers and wives and acknowledged women’s specific contributions, just as the scythe by the man’s feet, symbolized men’s contributions. The fact all three figures stood on the wheat sheaves suggested the economic contributions of pioneers were owed to the entire family not just to the men.  While some might dismiss the frieze as a symbol of patriarchy, I would argue that the frieze does show an appreciation for the value of women’s contributions and although within the confines of gender roles common during the era, it was still a sincere tribute to the women of Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan is replete with names drawn from the map of Europe.  It was settled by a rich mix of ethnic and religious groups set down in a fertile land, but with a harsh climate and next to none of the means of transportation and communications that are now thought to be essential for human  settlement.  These people came and they prospered, but with many hardships.  Then in the 1930s, Saskatchewan was hit harder than any other place in Canada by the double disasters of worldwide economic depression and a drought lasting almost a decade . . . These settlers from many cultures and backgrounds were driven to cooperate. They worked together or they perished. (p. 25-26)

Cooperation, ethnic diversity and overcoming hardship are the three key elements of any pioneer narrative and they all figure prominently in Blakeney’s vision of Saskatchewan. Throughout the book he describes the various programs as pioneering and individuals as pioneers. It is clear he saw his own work and that of his government as part of the larger pioneer narrative of Saskatchewan history.  Not surprisingly, he links the pioneer narrative with his own political philosophy that supports a larger role for government than individuals with other political persuasions might readily accept.  There are, however, other versions of the pioneer narrative that link the same elements found in Blakeney’s pioneer narratives to rugged individualism and free enterprise.  

While people who expect history to provide “truth” may consider that a weakness and a reason to abandon the narrative,  I would argue the opposite position. Narratives that provide a common story for people with divergent points-of-view can provide a basis for common understanding.  Therefore, you don’t need to agree the particular use of a narrative to appreciate its power, even its beauty.  Focusing on what we share, as opposed to what divides us, is one of the main lessons of every pioneer narrative. From time-to-time, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of that lesson.

John Diefenbaker Addressing Conservative Rally in Quebec City During the 1958 Election

The Life Photo Archive Hosted by Google is an amazing  repository of historical pictures, some going back as far as the 1860s.  Although the Canadian content on the site is not great, there are a large number of photographs of John Diefenbaker including this classic photograph of Dief from the 1958 election.  

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.

The Home Page of the History News Network

If you are wondering what direction the study of history may be going, the History Department at George Mason University is a great place to start looking.  Located in Fairfax, Virginia, the George Mason University is the home of the Center for History and the New Media.  New media is largely the internet, and while some historians still turn up their noses at the internet, at George Mason University historians are using the internet to advance the study of history in new and exciting directions.

Ph.D. candidates in history at George Mason are actually required to take a two semester course that focuses on history and the internet.  These are History 696: Clio Wired: An Introduction to New Media and History 697: Creating History in New Media. In addition, all students are required to demonstrate basic computer competence.  Being able to use the internet to communicate is an essential element to the study of history at George Mason. 

George Mason University also started the History News Network (HNN), which was launched in June 2001. HNN is the only website on the Internet wholly devoted to the task of putting events in the news into historical perspective every day. The site is updated daily in response to breaking news. HNN is funded by George Mason University. This site, which has its own Facebook page, and features Youtube videos of featuring roundtables with historians on such topics as “Election 2008: How Historic Was It?” Podcast interviews with historians and blogs explore issues that relate history to current events. The publisher and Editor-in-Chief of HNN is Rick Shenkman, who has been interviewed by Jon Stewart about his book How Stupid Are We: The Truth About the American Voter.  The HNN is one of the most visited History sites on the web with 1.3 million page views per month and nearly 300,000 unique visitors per month. 

Not surprisingly, the HNN is sometimes criticized for its approach. To its critics, HNN offers the following explanation: 

” . . . the pressure to publish something in a timely manner necessitates foregoing the slow and steady approach common in peer-reviewed journals. By the peer review standard, none of the articles we publish pass muster as none of them are peer-reviewed in advance; the peer reviewing comes after they have already reached the public. But if that standard is the only standard, then historians must retreat from the journalistic fields and leave the harvesting of interesting views and opinions to others.

This does not sound like a reasonable approach to us. In the fast-paced world in which we now live, public attention is focused on issues for ever briefer periods of time. If scholars want their analyses to be taken into consideration–and why shouldn’t they?–they have to jump into the debate early and with forcefulness.”

Basically, the world has changed and if historians want to matter they need to change as well.  

Barack Obama, January 17, 2008 [Video features entire speech]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although many Canadians claim they long for an Obama-like political leader, it is doubtful someone like Obama would get much traction in Canada.   Canadians just don’t have any sense of Canada’s history and without that understanding, an Obama-like speech would appear vacuous.  It is not the “facts” of history that Canadians would have trouble grasping, it is the idea that something that happened in the past could actually mean something positive to people today and for the future.  You have to believe history matters to make such a connection and Canadians in general don’t believe history matters.  If they did, our political leaders would talk about history.  Political leaders don’t talk about history or link themselves to the past because they know large numbers of Canadians believe the past is nothing but the story of injustice. There is nothing inspiring in the past, and as a result there is nothing inspiring right now either. 

Most Americans don’t know any more “facts” about American history than most Canadians know about Canadian history.  This is a question of attitude not information.  Canadians as a whole need to find the kind of positive reasons to tell stories about their past, the way Barack Obama, so, skilfully tells stories about the American past.  As historian Jack Granatstien wrote in Who Killed Canadian History? “Yes, in the past some Canadians have been racist or sexist or have abused government powers.  Some still are and do. But that is not the whole of the Canadian past, or our present.”  While Americans have Lincoln, King and others, there are no shortage of Canadians who were equally inspiring.  As long as we deny ourselves inspiration from the past, we will also deny ourselves inspiration in the present. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Franti himself is an artist worth paying attention to.  You can download the Obama Song free off his web page and while you are there check out his other music as well the various social conscience projects he is involved with.