2020

When the COVID-19 pandemic was at full strength in Canada and required the isolation of its population, writer and journalist Janette Bertrand, profoundly affected by the fate and isolation of seniors, created a stimulating activity for them to write their memories while leaving a collective imprint of this pivotal time in our history.

Conceived and presented as a project that foregrounds Inuit voices, expertise, and engagement, the Textile Museum of Canada’s partnership with the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative made possible a process of collaboration with the Kinngait community, resulting in mutually beneficial research, educational programs, and an exhibition tour.

In Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory, Brittany Luby offers a vivid and timely illustration of the embodied legacies of settler colonialism on the bodies, lands, and lives of Indigenous peoples.

The Honourable Murray Sinclair, C.C., M.S.C., is a former lawyer, judge, Canadian senator, and is currently the Chancellor of Queen’s University. Sinclair’s work in deepening awareness of Canada’s shared and difficult history, coupled with a relentless commitment to build a better country moving forward, has restored forgotten and suppressed truths of the past.

Kristian Basaraba combined skateboard art with a history lesson on Indigenous culture and colonialism in an effort to raise awareness about reconciliation.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and to learn about the plight of Jewish children during the Holocaust, Dawn Martens guided her grades 4 to 6 students on an interdisciplinary project to study and present Hans Krása’s opera, Brundibár.

Established by high school teacher Nathan Tidridge, his students, and other community members in partnership with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Souharissen Natural Area has become a foundation for land-based pedagogy that has engaged various cohorts of students and members of the wider community.

Through primary and secondary source research, museum and historical site visits, and seminar discussions, Chris Young’s grade 10 students explored their community’s history through a project called “Kelvin Remembers the Winnipeg General Strike.”

Francis Lalande’s Histoire à vélo project is a dynamic, environmentally friendly, and transdisciplinary initiative that uses the bicycle as a means of teaching history.

Dominique Laperle’s project titled Dollard et Groulx seeks to inform a discussion on the manipulation of historical fact for political ends.