Category Archives: Uncategorized

Early in their encounters with Aboriginal peoples, European newcomers struggled to conceive of and understand a continent teeming with (what was to them) mysterious peoples with highly unusual ways of doing things. Often the Europeans rejected the possibility that these civilizations … Continue reading →

The telling of Aboriginal history in Canada often begins with a discussion of human migration routes into the Americas, which reflects the long-standing misperception that was held by Europeans that Aboriginal societies were primitive, usually migratory, and unlikely to have been … Continue reading →

The idea that the Americas have no history before the arrival of Europeans derives mainly from the apparent absence of a written record. European, Middle Eastern, and Asian civilizations evolved highly bureaucratic and centralized administrative functions based on the ability to write … Continue reading →

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. – L.P.Hartley (1953) Writing history does not take place in a vacuum, nor is it a straightforward process. There are issues associated with cause and effect that have not … Continue reading →

It’s one thing to know about some of the key events in Canada’s history; it’s another to know a thing or two about how our history came to be written. Part of the challenge is defining what constitutes history. For example, it is … Continue reading →

Where does history come from? Historians use a great many different sources to assemble information on the past. Evidence comes in many forms. To think like a historian, we must concern ourselves not only with what people did, but also with what … Continue reading →

The telling of every country’s national story is unique, and there are conflicts in that telling. Who gets to speak? Who does not? What alternative stories are there to be told? And how did it all turn out this way? … Continue reading →

Tadoussac stands as the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in Canada. Located where the fresh water of the Saguenay River meets the salt water of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Tadoussac was an outstanding site for hunting seals and whales. The … Continue reading →