The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada presents Dale Barbour speaking on “Winnipeg’s Jewish Community and Winnipeg Beach: Drawing Lines in the Sand” on May 30 at 7:00 pm.

The lecture, which will take place at the Asper Jewish Community Campus’ Berney Theatre, will be followed by a reception.

More about Dale Barbour:
Dale Barbour grew up on a farm in Balmoral, Manitoba and made a few trips of his own to Winnipeg Beach as a youth. A former journalist, he is currently completing a PhD in history at the University of Toronto. His first book, Winnipeg Beach, was awarded the Margaret McWilliams Award for Local History, an AMA Manitoba Day Award, and was nominated for two Manitoba Book Awards.

More about Winnipeg Beach:
During the first half of the twentieth century, Winnipeg Beach proudly marketed itself as the Coney Island of the West. Located just north of Manitoba’s bustling capital, it drew 40,000 visitors a day and served as an important intersection point between classes, ethnic communities, and perhaps most importantly, between genders. In Winnipeg Beach, Dale Barbour takes us into the heart of this turn of the century resort area and introduces us to some of the people who worked, played and lived in the resort. Through photographs, interviews, and newspaper clippings he presents a lively history of this resort area and its surprising role in the evolution of local courtship and dating practices, from the commoditization of the courting experience by the CP Railway through their “Moonlight Specials,” through the development of an elaborate amusement area that encouraged public dating, and to its eventual demise amid the moral panic over sexual behavior during the 1950s and ’60s.

Dale Barbour’s Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900-1967, tied with Ron Stevens’ Much Ado About Squat: Squatters and Homesteaders Ravage Riding Mountain Forest in the Local History category.

Winnipeg Beach was also recently awarded a AMA Manitoba Day Award and was shortlisted in two categories at the Manitoba Book Awards, McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award.

In addition, John C. Lehr’s Community and Frontier: A Ukrainian Settlement in the Canadian Parkland received the Margaret McWilliams Award in the Scholarly History category.

Community and Frontier was also shortlisted for the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards.

Congratulations to both Dale and Jock!

The Manitoba Day Award was established by the Association in 2007 to recognize users of archives who have completed an original work of excellence which contributes to the understanding and celebration of Manitoba history.

Thirteen awards will presented this year, including Danny Schur, John K. Sampson, and Sally Ito.

Our thanks to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections for nominating Dale!

About Winnipeg Beach
During the first half of the twentieth century, Winnipeg Beach proudly marketed itself as the Coney Island of the West. Located just north of Manitoba’s bustling capital, it drew 40,000 visitors a day and served as an important intersection point between classes, ethnic communities, and perhaps most importantly, between genders. In Winnipeg Beach, Dale Barbour takes us into the heart of this turn of the century resort area and introduces us to some of the people who worked, played and lived in the resort. Through photographs, interviews, and newspaper clippings he presents a lively history of this resort area and its surprising role in the evolution of local courtship and dating practices, from the commoditization of the courting experience by the CP Railway through their “Moonlight Specials,” through the development of an elaborate amusement area that encouraged public dating, and to its eventual demise amid the moral panic over sexual behavior during the 1950s and ’60s.

UMP would like to congratulate Carmen and Mark on their wins in the First Peoples’ Writing, Scholarly Writing Award, and Regina Book Award categories!

We’d also like to extend our congratulations to all the other nominees and winners.

More about Seeing Red:

Seeing Red is a groundbreaking study of how Canadian English-language newspapers have portrayed Aboriginal peoples from 1869 to the present day. It assesses a wide range of publications on topics that include the sale of Rupert’s Land, the signing of Treaty 3, the North-West Rebellion and Louis Riel, the death of Pauline Johnson, the outing of Grey Owl, the discussions surrounding Bill C-31, the “Bended Elbow” standoff at Kenora, Ontario, and the Oka Crisis.

The authors uncover overwhelming evidence that the colonial imaginary not only thrives, but dominates depictions of Aboriginal peoples in mainstream newspapers. The colonial constructs ingrained in the news media perpetuate an imagined Native inferiority that contributes significantly to the marginalization of Indigenous people in Canada. That such imagery persists to this day suggests strongly that our country lives in denial, failing to live up to its cultural mosaic boosterism.

Dale Barbour’s debut, Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900-1967, was recently nominated for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award at the Manitoba Book Awards.

Winnipeg Beach was also nominated in the Local History category in the MHS’ Margaret McWilliams Awards.

John C. Lehr’s Community and Frontier: A Ukrainian Settlement in the Canadian Parkland is also a dual citizen when it comes to awards.

Lehr’s social and economic history of one of the oldest Ukrainian settlements in Western Canada was was nominated in the Scholarly History category in the McWilliams Awards and for the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards.

Finally, Howard Pawley’s Keep True: A Life in Politics was nominated in the Popular History category in the McWilliams Awards.

Seeing Red was nominated in the Scholarly Writing Award, First Peoples’ Writing Award, Regina Book Award and Non-Fiction Award categories.

“It was very nice to see the number of First Nations and Métis authors and books being recognized across the board on the shortlist this year. The diversity of the authors, in addition to the tried and true greats, is going to make this year especially interesting,” says Stacy Riggs, Director of the Saskatchewan Book Awards.

Award winners will be announced on Saturday, April 28, 2012 at the Saskatchewan Book Awards Gala at the Conexus Arts Centre.

Broadcast on the NICHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) website, Nature’s Past is a monthly discussion about the environmental history community and research in Canada moderated by Kheraj, a member of the History Department at York University.

Here’s the episode description:

“In the late decades of the nineteenth century, urban North Americans sought refuge from congestion, noise, and pollution. As the environmental problems of industrial cities grew worse, city councils across the continent established urban parks while federal governments in both Canada and the United States developed national parks systems. Parks, as constructed natural spaces, were just one option for city-dwellers seeking relief from polluted urban environments. Many flocked to the shores of oceans, lakes, and rivers where beach side resorts emerged as yet another recreational destination. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Winnipeggers turned to the shores of Lake Winnipeg to the north of the city in the hopes of finding an outlet for their leisure time. There the Canadian Pacific Railway established the beachside resort community of Winnipeg Beach. For more than half a century, Winnipeg Beach was one of the most popular recreational retreats for Manitoba’s urban population. Thousands of people enjoyed the lake views and boardwalk entertainments of Winnipeg Beach for many years until the community went into decline by the end of the 1960s.”

Dale Barbour grew up on a farm in Balmoral, Manitoba and made a few trips of his own to Winnipeg Beach as a youth. A former journalist, he is currently completing a PhD in history at the University of Toronto. Dale’s first book, Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900-1967, has recently been released through the University of Manitoba Press.

A book about the father of Manitoba and his role in the Canadian identity is coming home.

University of Maine professor Jennifer Reid’s book, Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada, was first published in the United States in 2008 and was recently picked up for reprinting by University of Manitoba Press.

The book will be released on Mon., Feb. 20, Louis Riel Day.

“I’m really happy,” said Reid, a Canadian who grew up in Arnprior, Ont.

Reid said she initially wanted to have her book published in Canada, but couldn’t find a publisher and settled for release in the United States.

To have the University of Manitoba Press republish her book brings it full-circle, she said.

“It’s the audience it was intended for,” Reid said.

Glenn Bergen, managing editor of University of Manitoba Press, said it only made sense to reprint Reid’s book.

“It’s our story, it’s a Manitoban story, and it was one that we felt should reach a wider audience in Canada,” he said.

Reid’s book examines the plight of modern countries as they grapple with identity, an age-old issue that is growing as immigration levels continue to climb, she said.

Canada has dealt with its diversity better than most countries, Reid said.

“Riel is important because he’s a symbol of that,” she explained.

Since his execution, Reid said, Riel has been used by almost everyone — historians, politicians, musicians and even the creator of a graphic novel — to represent their own agendas.

“In Riel, you can find anything you want in terms of Canadian issues,” said Reid, adding she believes it demonstrates the desire of Canadians to make peace with the diverse identities within the country.

“We keep going back to this person who brings together all these dichotomies to make into a hero.”

Meanwhile, she said, other countries are struggling because they feel they need a single identity to define everything.

While Reid’s book has yet to be published in Canada, she said Canadians have been reading it. Despite the fact it’s an academic work, it is reaching a wider audience, she added.

“I’ve had a lot of non-academics tell me they enjoyed it,” she said.

David Carr, U of M Press’ director, contributed this piece about Foote’s photograph entitled Elks at the Promenade of Progress, September 1921:

“It’s almost impossible to pick just one Foote photograph to write about. Foote had an enormous and diverse range and any single photo seems to ignore the many other themes and styles that weave through his fifty years of photo taking.

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Chose one of the great historical images (the North End slum photos for instance) and you seem to forget about the beautifully glossy portraits, such as the young Duke of Windsor standing, looking quite bored, next to a brilliantly polished black locomotive. Chose one of the portraits, and you‘re missing the powerful emotive images of ‘everyday’ family and private life.

I’ve chosen a photo that doesn’t seem to have any of these characteristics. It’s a long, overhead shot of the Elks (Winnipeg Lodge No. 10) marching up Main Street as part of something called “The Promenade of Progress.” “Marching” is perhaps not the right way to describe a group of men dressed in white pants and beanies carrying striped umbrellas at the end of September, although its probably unfair to call it “sashaying” either. It is, nevertheless, one of those strikingly incongruous images that run through Foote’s work.

It is this kind of photo, like the banquet in the sewer or the crew tasting the ice on the Red River, that always makes Foote seem like the artistic grandfather of Guy Maddin. What in the world could these men, dressed for some sort of odd Sunday outing, have to do with anyone’s idea of “progress?”

But the date and place put this strange little parade into another context. The “Promenade” took place September 28, 1921. Just a little more than two years before, only a few hundred feet further north on Main Street, Winnipeg’s working class had tried its hand at a very different and much more serious movement towards progress. No one, of course, would have know this better than Foote himself, who had famously recorded those events of the 1919 General Strike in very nearly the same spot.

Throughout the first part of the last century, this stretch of Main Street between the CNR Station and City Hall was the city’s ceremonial centre, certainly as chronicled by Foote himself. Every type of parade or procession went this route, and it may be adding too much symbolic weight to the crossing paths on Main Street of the strikers and the Elks. Nevertheless, its hard not to think that striped umbrellas and beanies in tight formation are exactly what Winnipeg’s city fathers thought was just what was needed to help erase memories of those nasty events two years before. And L.B. Foote was, as always, there to record it.”

From the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike to Winnipeg Beach in its heyday, from nurses in the North End to construction workers on top of the Fort Garry Hotel, the Newfoundland-born Foote shot it all.

“Many of us have seen Foote photographs, whether or not we are aware of their origins. For at least thirty years, since the creation of the Foote archive at the Manitoba Archives in the early 1970s, these photographs have been used to tell the story of Winnipeg’s past,” says Jones, author of Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg. “They have been used to illustrate everything from academic histories to posters for rock concerts.”

There are approximately 3,000 images at the Manitoba Archives but that’s just a fraction of the photographs Foote took in the more than five decades that he documented Winnipeg and parts of Manitoba outside the perimeter.

University of Manitoba Press is looking for some of the lost Foote photos and is hoping that Winnipeggers are willing to rummage through their attics and photo albums.

“Even though Foote’s most famous work is of princes and processions, his bread and butter was shots of weddings, funerals and Winnipeg’s small businesses,” says David Carr, Director of University of Manitoba Press. “And that’s what we’d like to see and possibly share with a wider audience.”

People with photos to share can contact UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant Ariel Gordon at (204) 474-8408 or gordoajd@cc.umanitoba.ca. (We’ve also launched a blog to document this process: Lost Foote Photos.)

In fact, he has three events in three days!

Krotz will be reading from The Uncertain Business of Doing Good: Outsiders in Africa and speaking about his upcoming UMP book, Piecing the Puzzle: The Genesis of AIDS Research in Africa (due in spring 2012) at events on December 3 and 5th.

In between the readings, he’s leading a non-fiction masterclass December 4.

Here are the details:

Larry Krotz: Speaking & Signing
McNally Robinson Booksellers: Grant Park in the Atrium
Saturday December 3, 2:00 pm

A Non-Fiction Masterclass with Larry Krotz
Manitoba Writers’ Guild: 218-100 Arthur St.
Sunday, December 4, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm

In Dialogue: The MWG Reading Series
Larry Krotz & Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press News Cafe: 237 McDermot Ave.
Monday, December 5, 7:30 pm

Tucked away in a small office in St. John’s College, it is easy to miss the University of Manitoba Press. It is, in fact, one of the country’s leading publishers of books on aboriginal studies and Canadian history.

Founded in 1967, U of M Press’s publishing program has been ongoing since 1977. It has produced numerous books on variety of topics, such as aboriginal studies, architecture, ethnic studies and Icelandic studies. Books published by U of M Press have won numerous awards in recent years.

David Carr, director of the University of Manitoba Press, explained that the Press’s primary responsibility is to be a part of the communication and scholarly research.

“We publish books for both scholarly and general audiences coming out of the research, some of which is done at U of M and much of which is also done at other universities,” said Carr.

Read more here.

She is in Winnipeg as part of the Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers Festival. She’ll be speaking September 20 and 21 about her book Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine.

In this Q and A posted to CBC’s Manitoba Scene website Kim Anderson explains how traditional knowledge can be applied toward rebuilding healthy Indigenous communities today.

What do you want people to know about Life Stages and Native Women?
This book is based on medicines that I have dug up through listening to the oral histories of Michif (Métis), Nēhiyawak (Cree), and Anishinaabek (Ojibway and Saulteaux) elders. My intent is to offer these medicines as a contribution to the healing process we call decolonization.

Why did you write this book?
Knowing our history is an integral part of recovery for us as Indigenous peoples and for our communities in general, and it is in keeping with the adage that one often hears in “Indian country”: “You have to know where you are coming from to know where you are going.” We know that the more we understand about Indigenous experiences in the past, the better we will be able to shape our future; the more we understand about colonization, the better we will be at decolonizing ourselves and our communities. It also means learning about the brilliance of our traditional cultures; the systems that can inspire us today as we reconstruct.

Why are you so passionate about this topic?
I was moved to do this research because of my role as a parent. As a new mother in the mid-1990s, I was overcome with a desire to learn about Indigenous customs related to pregnancy, childbirth, infant care, and ceremonies that honour children’s life passages. Now, as a mother of teenagers, it has been helpful to explore teachings and stories about adolescence from an Indigenous perspective as I continue to work at knowing and honouring my children. As a middle-aged woman, life cycle teachings offer me reminders on how to respect and care for myself in the work that I do. And as I grow into an old lady, I will take inspiration from the stories about the power of age!

Some Indigenous people have more immediate access to this knowledge through teachers or lived experience, but this was not my experience as a young woman.

What was your goal for this project?
Anthropologist Keith Basso documented how stories “work like arrows” among the Apache. My hope is that as I launch this book into “Indian country” and the world beyond, it will work like an arrow, piercing the injustices of our past and slicing open more avenues for change. I encourage each reader to dig out the medicines that suit his or her particular needs, and continue to dig, as there is so much more to learn.

What’s next for you? What are you working on now?
After 20 years of researching and working with aboriginal women and children, I was recently awarded a three-year grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to study the issues of masculinity among indigenous men.

The research will be done in partnership with the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres (OFIFC), who’ve built a burgeoning grassroots social movement of men who are eager to explore masculinities, identities and roles that are not based in Euro-western patriarchy.

For more information on any of these events, check U of M Press’ fan page on Facebook.

September 14: Launch, 5:00-8:00 pm
Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health
Ottawa, ON

Sept. 15: Poetry Reading & Book Launch w/Joanne Arnott, 3:00-5:00 pm
Four Directions Aboriginal Students’ Centre, Queens University
Kingston, ON

Sept. 18: Reading with Olive Senior & Alex Andrew (Nikashant Antane), 12:30-1:30 pm
Eden Mills Writers’ Festival
Eden Mills, ON

Sept. 20: Big Ideas Lecture, 4:30-5:30 pm, Millennium Library
Winnipeg International Writers Festival
Winnipeg, MB

Sept. 21: Campus Reading, 11:30-12:20, University of Manitoba’s St. John’s College
Winnipeg International Writers Festival
Winnipeg, MB

Sept. 22: Launch, 1:00- 2:15 pm, Luther College Auditorium
Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre, University of Regina
Regina, SK

Sept. 23: Reading, 12:00-3:00 pm, SUNTEP 3rd floor main lounge area
Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program, University of Saskatchewan
Prince Albert, SK.

Sept. 27: Launch, 7:30 pm
McNally Robinson Booksellers
Saskatoon, SK

Sept. 28, Lecture, 7:00-9:00 pm, Room 103 Physics Bldg
Department of Native Studies, University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, SK

October 4, Launch, 7:30 pm
Northern Women’s Bookstore
Thunder Bay, ON

Oct. 18: Launch, 6:00-7:30 pm
Aboriginal Resource Centre, University of Guelph
Guelph, ON

Oct. 20: Launch, 6:30 pm
Toronto Women’s Bookstore
Toronto, ON

The Distinguished Alumni Award is an honour presented annually to a graduate who demonstrates outstanding professional achievement and community service, and who also maintains links with the University of Manitoba. It is traditionally awarded at the fall convocation.

An interview with Howard appears in the August issue of the U of M alumni magazine, On Manitoba.

The award recognizes users of archives who have completed an original work of excellence which contributes to the understanding and celebration of Manitoba history.

The fourth annual awards were presented at a ceremony at the City of Winnipeg Archives on William Ave.

Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age also received the 2010 Margaret McWilliams Popular History Award.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

If you had to sum up what your book was about in a few sentences, how would you describe it?
My book is about the damage that the poorly conceived policies of the Canadian government have inflicted on Indigenous people through making white privilege and attitudes of superiority a cultural norm that Canadians do not question. It is also about the ways that Indigenous literature can heal both writers and readers.

What did you learn from writing this book? What sticks with you?
I think that I also understood intuitively the healing power of literature. I’ve been a life-long book worm. What sticks with me is what I learned about how this healing power actually operates, and I am committed to studying further how to transfer my skills in literary analysis to my work in health research.

You discuss literature as a form of healing. How do stories, health, and policy connect?
Canadian government policies have injured Indigenous people individually and collectively. They are responsible for the education deficit, chronic disease, poverty, and violence in our communities to name but a few. Without access to the discourse of public policy, Indigenous people had to turn to the only discourse available to critique Canadian government policies, and that was their stories. When I’ve experienced trauma, my mind is like a hamster on a treadmill, but by writing it down the feelings move from the inside to the outside where they can be examined and better understood. Telling our stories is an act of agency, of empowerment, and that can be incredibly healing. When my mind is like a hamster on a treadmill, it is healing to read the story of someone who has suffered a similar experience. Sometimes her story helps me shape my story, which is also healing. Read the rest here.

Shelagh Rogers interviews Jo-Ann from fellow interviewee Amy Jo Ehman’s library.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (Episkenew’s interview starts at 33:20.)

“I’m seven years into an obsession with Russian literature, particularly the writings of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In a world where libraries and second-hand book stores are filled with great translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, it seems outrageous to me that anyone could suffer from a lack of inspiration or fail to recognize our enormous potential as human beings. The stack of books on my night stand includes several Dostoevsky novels, Tolstoy’s War and Peace and the exceptional University of Manitoba Press compilation of essays on Winnipeg social history, Prairie Metropolis.”

Canada was forever changed by the world wars. More than 1.7 million Canadians served and over 100,000 were killed. Income tax, enfranchisement for women, veteran’s medical care, and increased government intervention into the lives of Canadians were just some of the long-lasting effects of the wars.

During the course of the Great War Canada moved from colony to nation, and after the Second World War the country emerged as a respected middle power. But this focus is at the national level. Historians and writers also highlight individuals, trying to find poignant stories and experiences to explain the wars’ impact on ordinary Canadians. The space between the two levels of analysis — regarding communities — is under-represented by historians. Two recent books go a long way toward illustrating how communities engaged with the world wars, and how those wars in turn imprinted them-selves on Winnipeg and St. John’s.

Jim Blanchard’s Winnipeg’s Great War examines how Winnipeg’s 160,000 people faced the war from 1914 to 1918. An award-winning author of a previous book on Winnipeg and a librarian at the University of Manitoba, he knows where many of the city’s skeletons are buried. Blanchard writes in an engaging style as he explores why Winnipeggers enlisted and went overseas, and how those at home coped with their absence.

The feisty Nellie McClung features prominently in her fight for enfranchisement, but also for her moral dilemma of being against war but having a son serving overseas. The role of women on the home front carrying out unpaid labour — such as selling patriotic sheet music or knitting socks for overseas soldiers — offers insight into how the war could not be avoided, even for Canadians far from the firing line.

The grief experienced by hundreds of families features prominently. When the first mass casualties were reported in the press after the April 1915 Second Battle of Ypres, one newspaper observed grimly that “the war had struck home.”

Blanchard has read much of the literature on the Great War and has combed through many newspaper sources, but unfortunately he does not appear to have delved deeply into the City of Winnipeg Archives. Nonetheless, this is a strong offering that shows how tens of thousands were deeply affected by the war.

However, his story ends rather abruptly at the end of the war, and would surely have been strengthened by examining the Winnipeg General Strike, which saw veterans pitted against veterans, or by looking at how the thousands of veterans reintegrated into Winnipeg life.

While Winnipeg saw thousands of its young men leave for the front during World War I, in the Second World War St. John’s, Newfoundland, was inundated with sailors, airmen, and soldiers from Canada, Britain, and the United States. Occupied St. John’s offers a view into a strategically placed city that became one of the most important Allied bases of World War II.

Newfyjohn, as most sailors called St. John’s, consisted of about forty thousand souls in 1939, but within a few years there were about thirteen thousand additional Allied service personnel in the city at any given time. Critical convoys of food and munitions left almost daily from the protected harbour, escorted by warships and planes.

The influx of service personnel into the capital radically changed St. John’s and its surrounding region. New pubs, theatres, dance halls, and housing had to be built to accommodate the tastes of young men. Soldiers with strange accents tore up the roads in their military vehicles and over two hundred properties were requisitioned to make room for new buildings, airfields, and bases. St. John’s was never the same after the “occupying” forces.

Editor Stephen High, the Canada Research Chair in Public History at Concordia University, has assembled a number of leading historians to explore aspects of the city’s wartime experience. The encounters between service personnel and St. John’s residents are revealing, as are the studies of patriotic work, wartime culture, and children.

The case studies are supported by the official records and by more than fifty interviews with Newfoundlanders who lived through the period. Occasionally, academic jargon creeps into the text — such as calling the higher rate of accidents for children a new “geography of danger” — but generally the prose is clear, penetrating, and infused with powerful stories.

McGill-Queen’s University Press must be praised for scouring archives and private sources to put together a stunningly attractive book. It is illustrated with more than one hundred images, many published for the first time, and the best of these offer a powerful glimpse into the lives of Newfoundlanders and their occupiers.

Occupied St. John’s and Winnipeg’s Great War offer new perspectives into how the world wars were understood and experienced locally. These books also reveal how the world wars continue to have a presence in Canadian cities.