Grace McNutt
MA, Atlantic Canadian Studies, Saint Mary’s University
Abstract: Oppression in the Shadows is a comprehensive political history that traces the history of Nova Scotia’s Department of Indian Affairs, from its earliest British colonial origins to the Centralization Policies of the 1940s. Revealed by this research is importance of region to the experience of the Mi’kmaq.
Jennifer Brady
Registered Dietitian and Assistant Professor, Mount Saint Vincent University
Lindsey MacCallum
Scholarly Publishing Librarian, Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract: Through their training, education, and work in communities, home economists led women’s earliest efforts to politicize domestic work and social issues that shaped the everyday lives of women and their families, such as public sanitation and education, women’s rights, food security and sustainability, and fair labour practices. Dr. Brady and Ms. MacCallum will discuss the development, experiences, and stereotypes faced by women in post-secondary home economics programs in Nova Scotia through a critical analysis of archival documents and oral history interviews of former students, staff, and faculty of those very programs.
Click here for bios of Lindsey MacCallum and Jennifer Brady
Sawyer Carnegie MA Candidate, Atlantic Canada Studies Program, Saint Mary’s University
Abstract: Nova Scotia has a Black Press tradition that dates back to 1915. Sawyer Carnegie will provide an overview of this tradition, while exploring connections between the Black Press and Black activism throughout the 20th century. She highlights The Clarion and publications by the Black United Front.
Click here for a bio of Sawyer Carnegie
Colonel (Ret’d) John L. Orr CD
Volunteer Researcher, Shearwater Aviation Museum
Abstract: Shearwater, located on the eastern shore of Halifax harbour, has made a major, although largely unrecognized, contribution to aviation in Canada. Since its inception in 1918, the air station has served under a variety of commands and services – hence the ‘Seven Flags’ in the title.
Click here for a bio of Col, (Ret’d) John L. Orr
Heather McBriarty
Abstract: In 1914, James W. Johnstone, privileged son of a prominent Nova Scotia family, jumped to enlist in the fledgling Canadian Expeditionary Force. Over 17 months, from Valcartier to Belgium, he wrote nearly 70 letters to his sweetheart in Halifax. Her granddaughter is Heather McBriarty. In her lecture, McBriarty will share selections from the letters with context and comment.
Click here for a bio of Heather McBriarty
Patrick Lacroix, PhD
Independent Scholar
Abstract: The extent of emigration from Nova Scotia to the United States in the late nineteenth century is little-known and understudied. Canadian historians have been more attentive to the contemporary “demographic hemorrhage” that drained the Quebec countryside. Yet, proportionally, the United States exerted the same magnetic effect on predominantly English-speaking provinces as on Quebec. By comparing Quebec and Nova Scotia, Dr. Lacroix exposes outmigration as a nationwide problem whose local solutions were ultimately few, inconsistent, and ineffective.
Click here for a bio of Dr. Patrick Lacroix
Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D.
Director, Schoolhouse Institute, Halifax, and author of Turning Points: 15 Pivotal Moments in Nova Scotia’s History (2019)
Abstract: The romance of Nova Scotia being shaped by the sea tends to dissolve when we confront the historical realities of the ‘hard slog’ of navigating the ups and downs, twists and turns that come with being the easternmost appendage of the Dominion. Since the 1860s, that history has been played out along the shifting axis of Canadian east-west development — and the Scottish Canadian tradition of ‘tartanism’ was supplanted by a more diverse, tolerant and accepting Maritime society and culture. This short lecture, based upon Turning Points (2019), will analyze the historiographical trends and seek to stimulate informed discussion.
Click here for a bio of Dr. Paul W. Bennett
Mr. Mathias Rodorff
Abstract:
In Nova Scotia, the roads leading to Confederation were from the beginning marked by heated debates in the press, the legislature and at public meetings. Although, most people are familiar with the controversial role and achievements of the tribune of Nova Scotia, Joseph Howe, other highly influential persons like John G. Marshall or William Annand are almost forgotten.
Mathias Rodorff will discuss the contribution of William Annand, the owner of the strongest newspaper of Nova Scotia and premier of the Anti-Confederate government, and other members of the Annand family, who changed the debate culture and public sphere of Nova Scotia.
Click here for a bio of Mathias Rodorff
Dr. S. Karly Kehoe
Abstract:
Apart from the Culloden battlefield, there are few landscapes more evocative in Jacobite memory than the Glenfinnan monument, a striking 18-metre high column upon which a lone ‘kilted Highlander’ sits to memorialize the spot where, in 1745, clans loyal to the Stuarts raised the Jacobite standard in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie. In 2018 alone, this site attracted over 350,000 visitors – few would have had any idea that it had been at the centre of a property deal in the early 1770s that linked the Western Highlands and Islands with Jamaica, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Research focused on uncovering the links between Black African enslavement in the Caribbean and the Scottish Highlands and Islands is well underway. What we do not yet understand is how these places were linked with or enabled Scottish Highland settlement in the Maritimes. This paper will explore the colonial privilege of the Highland Scots by linking Maritime settlement with Caribbean money.
Click here for a bio of S. Karly Kehoe
Mr. Bob Sayer
Abstract:
Laurent’s career that included being a hostage, leader of armed resistance, negotiator, peacemaker and Treaty signer makes him a towering figure. As an adolescent, he was a hostage in Boston, where his father was hanged. Head of the E’se’katik/ Mirligueche/ Lunenburg band, he became a leader of the Mi’kmaw forces based in the Baie Verte area. He is mentioned in various dispatches and minutes. Casteel, in his infamous survival story, features Laurent. Spokesman for his people, Laurent met with the Halifax Council and proposed partition in 1755. He fought in the Beausejour and other campaigns, and became prominent in the Mi’kmaw leaders’ debate and dispute about peace and war. Laurent appeared before the Halifax Council again in the French-Mi’kmaw “Scare” of 1762. He had signed the 1760 treaty that became a go-to document in later landmark provincial and Supreme Court decisions.
Click here for a bio of Bob Sayer
