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Faculty Research Focus
Research on Canada at the UW is exceptional, including projects that span from documentaries about First Nations to food security, border issues, public health, endangered aboriginal languages, etc. Please see below for articles by our Affiliates on their most current research grants and projects.
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Improving Education for Toronto's Diverse Students
Annette Henry is a Professor of Education at UW Tacoma specializing in multicultural and multilingual education.
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| Annette Henry (left) with colleagues at the Toronto Institute. |
Based upon an urgent need to improve education for Toronto’s diverse students, York University and several schools in the North York/Toronto have embarked upon a three-year partnership that involves various members of the community (staff, parents, students, practitioners, activists, administrators). In May 2008, I was invited to participate in the project as well as to provide workshops at a two-day “kick-off” institute. I was invited as someone who has conducted research on culture and learning in the Toronto schools and who brings US cross-cultural, multicultural knowledge and practitioner experience. During the institute questions of student learning, mentoring and counseling, parental involvement, curriculum, pedagogy and school organization were also addressed.
I applied for a Canadian Studies Program Enhancement Grant to continue to work and learn with my Canadian colleagues. I participated in a three-day institute with the same teachers and members of the larger community on August 18-20, 2009. The institute was hosted by York University’s Center for Community Engagement, directed by Dr. Carl James. During this visit, I participated as an ethnographer/participant observer. This enabled me to explore possibilities for ongoing researcher, practitioner, or student collaborations/exchanges (either physical or virtual) and to consider ways that my own research and teaching at the UW can be informed by the collaborative project. Importantly, it enabled me to participate in follow-up conversations with some of the teachers from last year. There were also several opportunities for intensive small-group discussions centered on specific issues with a range of community members. Over 80 people attended including York faculty, Toronto District School Board administrators, teachers, school principals, social service agencies, high school students, graduate students, mentors, parents, and community members associated with Brookview middle school, Oakdale middle school, Shoreham K-5 school, Westview Centennial Secondary school, all in the Jane-Finch Area.
This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
Profiling Older Adults Living with HIV/AIDS in Toronto
Charles A. Emlet is an associate professor of Social Work at UW Tacoma. He has worked as both a practitioner and research in aging and HIV since the 1980s.
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| Charles Emlet (left) and David Brennan, University of Toronto. |
Similar to the epidemiological trends of the United States, Canada is experiencing increasing numbers of adults, age 50 and over, living with HIV disease. This increase is due not only to growing numbers of new infections among older adults, but to the increased longevity of people living with HIV/AIDS as a result of the success of HIV medications. While some epidemiological data exists on this population throughout Canada, little is known about the psychosocial and health related issues of this emerging population.
Dr. Charles Emlet from the University of Washington, Tacoma is teaming up with Dr. David Brennan from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto to explore these factors. Drs. Emlet and Brennan met at the University of Toronto this August to plan an initial study of older adults living with HIV/AIDS in the Greater Toronto area. Collaboration with community-based partners is part of the plan. The researchers hope to gather data on the demographic profile of older adults with HIV/AIDS, as well as obtain data on psychosocial issues such as stigma, depression, substance abuse and health related issues such as access to medical care, comorbidity and medication adherence. This research could make great strides in understanding the needs and issues of this population beyond simple demographic characteristics. The researchers are coordinating with long standing community-based HIV providers, such as Casey House, in their efforts. It is hoped that such a project can get off the ground in the next 6-12 months.
This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
Canadian and Korean Arctic Interests
By Vladimir Kaczynski
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| Vlad Kaczinski (center) with Jung-Keuk Kang (left), President, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Seoul, and Timothy C. Mack, President, World Future Society, Bethesda, Maryland. All attended the symposium on "Blue Economy Initiative for Green Growth" held May 7 in Seoul. |
Vladimir M. Kaczynski, School of Marine Affairs, is an affiliated faculty of the Center. Each fall he teaches a Jackson School of International Studies course, Comparative Marine Business in the North Pacific (SISRE/SMA 555).
On May 7 in Seoul, the Korean Maritime and the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institutes organized an international symposium entitled "Blue Economy Initiative for Green Growth." I presented two papers at this conference, “Present and Future of the Arctic Energy Resources Use,” and “The Arctic Era: Impact of Major Changes on Management and International Relations.”
The symposium promoted debate on Arctic affairs and contributed to the formulation of Korean policy toward the Arctic Ocean. As a non-coastal state, Korea is part of the international debate on the future of the Arctic as well as in the sustainable use of its resources.
Korea is interested in using the Northwest Passage to ship its goods to Europe. Korea also has great interest in oil and gas resources, and with its experience using technology in the icy conditions of the Sakhalin oil fields, will be a valuable partner in any joint ventures with coastal states like Canada, the US, or Russia. Canada would be an ideal partner with Korea in commercial arrangements in the Arctic.
An important part of the ensuing discussions were devoted to possible Korean economic cooperation with coastal Arctic states, including Canada as a potential partner.
Korea is calling for a peaceful settlement of conflicts, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, and avoidance of unilateral actions by countries bordering the Arctic. Such a solution would allow Korean participation in shaping the future of Arctic resource use and management and would take advantage of Korea’s industrial and research capabilities.
Comparative Marine Business in the North Pacific (SISRE/SMA 555) is supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, US Department of Education, Office of International Education and Graduate Program Services.
International Networks in Cross-Border Public Health
The Fourth Annual Public Health Symposium: US/Canada Academic Collaboration in the Pacific Northwest was held in La Conner, Washington, 9-10 January 2009. Over 75 faculty and graduate students from UW’s School of Public Health, University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health, and Simon Fraser Faculty of Health Sciences participated in the event. Jack Thompson and Bud Nicola, Department of Health Services and Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, UW School of Public Health, Laurie Goldsmith, Simon Frasier University Faculty of Health Sciences, and David Patrick, University of British Columbia School of Population and Community Health, served as this year’s chairs.
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The Symposium opened Friday afternoon with ten excellent student poster sessions. Jack Thompson from the University of Washington School of Public Health convened the afternoon session with opening remarks from Martin Schechter, Director of the University of British Columbia, School of Population and Public Health; John O’Neil, Dean of the Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Health Sciences; and Patricia Wahl, Dean, UW School of Public Health. There were two plenary presentations on Friday and one Saturday morning covering diverse topics of international interest. These included treating heroin addiction in British Columbia, challenges in measuring health status in the US, and applying complexity systems approaches to addressing the obesity epidemic.
In addition to a wonderful dinner and fellowship on Friday evening, participants were treated to jazz from an impromptu assembly of musicians from symposium participants. All present were amazed at the level of talent – both in terms of musicianship and vocal talent – displayed by participants.
As has been the tradition from earlier symposia, the Saturday session then broke into inter-school break out groups in which faculty and students from each of the universities provided updates and new information to colleagues in the areas of health services research, infectious diseases, population health, global health, aboriginal health, and maternal and child health. The closing sessions summarized the learning from the plenary and breakout sessions. There seemed to be much interest and enthusiasm on the part of all of the participants. The annual symposium on cross-border public health has truly succeeded in bringing together researchers on both sides of the border to in compare best practices and to build international research networks.
This project was supported, in part, by funding from a Canadian Studies Center Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
Impact of the 2008 International Canadian Studies Institute at the UW
by Carl Sander
2008 International Canadian Studies Fellow Carl Sander is the Public Programs Manager at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at UW. His duties often bring him into contact with a wide variety of Canadians, particularly Aboriginal artists and scholars.
The 2008 International Canadian Studies Institute took scholars from universities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska on a twelve-day trek through business, government, and cultural centers of British Columbia and the Yukon. A total of twelve professors from a wide range of disciplines made the excursion under the excellent guidance of Kevin Cook, Political, Economic and Academic Officer for the Canadian Consulate General in Seattle. Over ninety presentations by mayors, police officers, border security, business promoters, ambassadors, and curators filled each day with a comprehensive overview of how Canada views itself and us.
The days were a lively mix of boardroom debriefings followed by tours. For example, we spent four days on Vancouver Island with visits to a fish hatchery, a plywood veneer mill, the Parliament Buildings, the Royal British Columbia Museum, Maritime Forces Pacific Headquarters, and Butchart Gardens. In Vancouver, our stay coincided with the 18th annual Pacific Northwest Economic Regional Summit, affording us an opportunity to witness how policy is “hammered out” across borderlines to regulate commerce and promote trade.
Three days in the Yukon provided me with a rich resource of contacts for the Alaska Yukon Pacific (AYP) Exposition centennial celebration in 2009. The AYP Exposition was instrumental in the early planning of the UW campus, and its centennial will offer many opportunities for UW to connect with the Yukon once again.
I was struck by the difference between visiting Canada and visiting Europe or Asia. Usually, you return to the States with a vivid sense of North America’s uniqueness. However, a visit to Canada is like a family reunion or seeing a sibling use a tool in a way you’ve never seen before and thinking, “I wonder where s/he picked that up.”
The Burke Museum is evaluating its strategic mission, and the Fellowship provided me with a singular overview of Canadian practices in the field. My report on this subject to our planning committee is sure to inform and increase the breadth of our discussions. I also had the good fortune to meet numerous colleagues and make professional connections that will last a lifetime.
Viewing Indian Treaties from Both Sides of the US-Canada Border – Fall 2008
by Alexandra Harmon, Associate Professor, American Indian Studies
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Alexandra Harmon, a former attorney for tribes in Washington State, is now an Associate Professor in American Indian Studies and an Affiliated Faculty in Canadian Studies. Harmon is an historian and the editor of a just-released volume published by UW Press, The Power of Promises: Rethinking Pacific Northwest Indian Treaties.
In 2005 – the sesquicentennial of ten US treaties with Indian tribes in Washington – UW’s Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest hosted a conference to consider the significance of those treaties. Deeming it important to include the views of people outside the US, organizers invited Canadian scholars to participate and enlisted the Canadian Studies Center as a conference co-sponsor. Consequently, half the featured speakers were from Canada, and many other Canadians came to listen, including leaders of several First Nations. So stimulating was the ensuing exchange of ideas that it deserved a wider audience. Thirteen of the speakers therefore contributed essays to a volume recently published by University of Washington Press, The Power of Promises: Rethinking Pacific Northwest Indian Treaties.
Seven of the volume contributors – historians, lawyers, and one interdisciplinary scholar – are Canadian university faculty.
The book attests to the great significance of treaties with indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest on both sides of the international boundary. Treaties from the 1800s are the basis for land titles and rights claimed by millions of people in present-day British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. They have been the focus of high-stakes litigation, which has confirmed their continuing legal force. And where the colonial governments took land without indigenous people’s consent, as in British Columbia and Alaska, authorities have found it necessary to negotiate new treaties or agreements.
Essays in The Power of Promises also reveal that the influence of developments pertaining to Indian treaties has crossed the forty-ninth parallel in both directions. Nineteenth-century negotiators for the US and the Crown took note of each other's legal doctrines and plans for Indians. Euro-Canadian and Euro-American settlers had similar extra-legal methods of expropriating land. More recently, Canadian courts have adopted principles articulated by US judges in treaty rights cases, and indigenous people in both countries have struggled to educate non-Indian judges about treaty history.
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A Comparative View of Diversity in the United States and Canada – July 2008
by Cherry A. McGee Banks, Professor, Education, UW Bothell
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| Cherry McGee Banks while teaching. |
As nation-states throughout the world experience globalization, technological change and increasing mobility, their demographic profiles are changing and reflecting increasing levels of racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity (Sassen, 1999). For example, Canada as a result of political changes during the 1990s, experienced an increase in the number of people immigrating from Hong Kong and other parts of the British Commonwealth (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2007). During that same period, the United States also experienced an increase in the number of immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (US Census Bureau, 2008). As democratic nations such as Canada and the United States experience increasing levels of immigration, they must face the challenge of finding ways to maintain national cohesion while creating inclusive societies where people of all groups can experience a sense of belonging and have opportunities to fully participate in the social, economic and political spheres of their societies (Banks, J. A., 2007). In this paper, readers will learn about some of the ways that the United States and Canada have responded to the challenges and opportunities of diversity.
Diversity is embedded in multiple contexts. Those contexts can illuminate nuanced as well as salient ways in which diversity can impact people's lives. Three contexts, the political, legal, and historical, are discussed in this paper. While these contexts do not represent an exhaustive list of contexts in which diversity can be examined and discussed, they provide a template for identifying important issues that can frame a thoughtful comparative analysis of diversity in Canada and the United States. By using a comparative approach to explore how Canada and the US have respond to diversity, students can deepen their understanding of diversity in their own country while gaining new insights on the challenges and opportunities of diversity from a global perspective (Banks, et.al, 2004). A comparative approach can also result in insights and perspectives that can help students become more effective citizens in a changing and challenging global society. When doing comparative analysis of diversity, it is always important to take note of the terms that are used to describe it. For example, even though the term multicultural education is used in Canada and the United States to describe efforts to address diversity, other terms are also used. The term anti-racism is used in Canada, in some ways in opposition to multicultural education, to capture a stronger statement on culture as well as methods and perspectives for reducing racism and promoting tolerance. That term is rarely used in the United States. Instead terms like diversity and inclusion are frequently used in the US as synonyms for multicultural education.
Context
Context is important when exploring issues of diversity because diversity and the issues related to it do not occur in a vacuum. Discussing race, class, gender, religion, culture, language, and other elements of diversity without identifying and acknowledging their multiple contexts can be misleading and result in superficial understandings that do not address their deep meaning. Identifying the contexts that highlight, influence, and shape diversity is an important step in understanding the nature of multicultural education within a nation-state. With that understanding in hand, educators can look beyond their national borders and learn from the experiences that others have had in organizing, implementing, and maintaining multicultural education programs. Exploring global perspectives on diversity without an understanding of its multiple contexts will likely result in frustration, confusion and a sense of being overwhelmed with its complexity. Context grounds discussions on global perspectives on diversity and adds to their authenticity.
Political Context
The response of Canada and the US to the linguistic diversity within their borders is an example of how the political context can influence public policy on diversity. While there were Native American languages as well as a variety of European languages spoken during the early settlement of colonies in North America, English eventually became the dominant language in modern day Canada and the United States. However, Canada unlike the United States developed an official language education policy that includes self-contained, withdrawal, transitional, and mainstream programs that enable students to maintain their mother tongue (Ashworth, 1992) They also have an official bilingual policy that requires that all official documents are made available to the public in both English and French. The United States has a very different official response to language diversity. Many US politicians fiercely defend speaking English as a marker of an individual's commitment to the United States and their legitimacy for being in the country (King, 1997).
On the surface it would appear that there are stark differences between language policies in the United States and Canada. A close analysis, however, reveals a more complex picture. Students should be encouraged to examine power as a key concept and the following generalization to uncover nuanced elements of language policies in the US and Canada: Economic as well as political power can influence a nations' response to language diversity. In investigating the validity of that generalization students could research Canada's bilingual policy to determine the extent to which it is embedded in concerns about reconciling its linguistic duality brought about in part by the political power exercised by officials in Quebec, where a majority of French speaking Canadian citizens live (Moodley, 2001). They could also investigate the extent to which what is actually happening on the ground in the United States reveals a much more accepting climate for language diversity than statements by politicians suggest. Students could look at the ways in which economic factors are driving businesses in California and the southwest part of the US and Florida to print signs and provide brochures in Spanish, as well as hire bilingual staff. They could also look at the extent to which businesses in Hawaii are providing services in Asian languages.
When the political context of language policies is implicit, its connection to larger societal issues such as economic realities can be concealed and remain unexamined. In that sense, the complexity of language policies is difficult to fully analyze and understand. Examining the political context of language policies, where key concepts such as power can be used to illuminate them and generalizations can be used to compare and contrast policies in different nations states, can deepen students' understanding of the implicit as well as the explicit elements of the issue and the policies related to it.
Legal Context
The Japanese internment in the United States and Canada is an example of the extent to which laws exist within a socio-political context, which can result in gaps between the letter of the law and the ways in which it is implemented. Students can learn how two nations, which pride themselves on being nations of laws, failed to protect the rights of individuals within their borders.
After the Japanese government bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 both the US and Canadian governments interned people of Japanese decent (Daniels, 1981). The internment, however, was not the first act of discrimination directed toward them. Japanese people living in the US and Canada did not have the full protection of the law long before World War II began (Okihiro, 2001). For many years Japanese immigrants were prevented, by law, from becoming citizens in both countries. There were also legal restrictions on their ability to immigrate to the US and Canada. In 1907, the Canadian government limited the number of Japanese immigrants to 400 people a year. The US also used legal measures such as the Gentleman's Agreement to restrict Japanese immigration. In addition, the California Alien Land Law restricted the rights of Japanese to own and lease land. Students can use the key concepts such as prejudice and discrimination to reflect on the following generalization: When sanctioned by law, prejudice can lead to increasing levels of discrimination.
Leading up to the internment, people of Japanese descent living in British Columbia and the Western part of the US experienced increasing levels of discrimination (Okihiro, 2001; Scantland, 1986). Initially they were surveilled by their governments, later their governments required them to surrender cameras, radios, binoculars, and other items that were identified as contraband. Eventually motivated by fear, economic gain, and prejudice, the Japanese were sent to internment camps. Most of the Japanese who lived in Canada in the 1940s lived in British Columbia which was the site of eight internment camps. Sixteen internment camps were established in the US.
In some respects, people on the margins of society are most keenly aware of the gap between the law as an ideal and the reality of the law in daily practice. One way that students can get a sense of that gap is to examine how people on the margins of society as well as other groups describe their experiences with the law and with representatives of the legal system. The law and its enforcers can look one way from the margins of society and quite differently from the top (official) levels of society. Exploring that gap can provide some insights on the law and the ways in which various segments of society view it.
Historical Context
Canada and the US share an important history for people of African descent. During the Revolutionary War, Africans who were enslaved in the United States escaped to Canada in search of freedom. Between 1783 and 1785, Black Loyalists established communities in Nova Scotia where some of their descents remain today (Grant, 1973). Once in Canada some of the Africans left and established communities in Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa. The story of enslaved Africans who fought with the British during Revolutionary War highlights the importance of freedom for people who were enslaved and the lengths to which they were willing to go to achieve it. The story of these individuals and their experiences however, are not generally discussed in US and Canadian textbooks.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington, who would later become the first president of the United States, demanded that the enslaved Africans who had joined forces with the British be returned to their owners. Instead Sir Guy Carleton, the British Commander in chief, agreed to pay the Americans for their freedom and allow them to stay in Canada (Remembering Black Loyalists, 2001). Enslaved Africans had also joined Washington's Revolutionary Army and fought against the British in hope of earning their freedom. The economic value of enslaved Africans coupled with the newly formed and fragile union, which supported slavery, allowed it to continue in the US for almost another 100 years. Students can use key concepts such as change, cooperation, and conflict to reflect on generalizations about the legacy of slavery and the ways in which the past is implicated in the present (Casiani, 2007).
Educators who have an understanding of the ways in which contemporary issues related to diversity are frequently be embedded in an historical context can engage their students in inquiry that can help them uncover and examine elements of their nation's history related intergroup interactions (Banks, C.A.M., 2005). As educators review their curriculum, they should also consider the extent to which students are encouraged to understand and deal reflectively with intergroup conflicts and tensions in their nation's history and in contemporary society. They can use questions such as: Were groups that are currently experiencing conflict in the US and Canada always involved in conflict? Were groups that are now part of the mainstream in the US and Canada always part of the mainstream? The answers to these and similar questions can give students a more complex view of intergroup interactions and provide teachers with some direction for curriculum revision.
Conclusion
The issues covered in this article can serve as a departure point for readers to engage their colleagues in discussions about multicultural issues in the US and Canada. The educational implications of examining issues of diversity in multicultural nation states such as Canada and the United States are complex and cannot be addressed instantaneously. They must be addressed over time. They also benefit from having diverse perspectives raised and examined. This can happen most effectively when a comparative approach is employed. Using a comparative approach for examining multicultural issues within the political, legal, and historical contexts that surround them can reveal important intersections, parallels, and connections between Canada and the United States as well as other nations.
References
Ashworth, M. (1992). "Projecting the past into the future. A look at ESL for children in Canada." In K.A. Moodley (Ed.). Beyond Multicultural Education: Interrnational Perspectives (pp. 114-131). Calgary: Detselig.
Banks, C.A.M. (2005). Improving multicultural education: Lessons from the Intergroup education movement. New York: Teachers College Press.
Banks, J.A. (2007). Diversity and citizenship education: Global perspectives. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Banks, J.A. Banks, C.A.M., Cortes, C.E., Hahn, C. L., Merryfield, M.M., Moodley, K.A., Murphy-Shigematsu, S. Osler, A., Park, C. and Parker, W.C. () Democracy and diversity: Principals and concepts for educating citizens in a global age. Seattle, WA: Center for Multicultural Education, College of Education University of Washington Seattle.
Brookfield, S.D. (1999). Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools and techniques for democratic classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Cascini, D. (2007). "The legacy of slavery." Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6456765.stm.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada. (2007) Retrieved, July 10, 2008 from www.cic.gc.ca.
Daniels, R. (1981). Concentration Camps, North America : Japanese in the United States and Canada During World War II. Malabar, Fla.: R.E. Krieger.
Grant, J. T. (1973). "Black Immigrants into Nova Scotia, 1776-1815." Journal of Negro History, 58, (3) pp. 253-270.
King, R.D. (1997). "Should English be the law?" The Atlantic online. Retrieved, July 14, 2008) from http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97apr/english.htm
Moodley, K.A. (2001). "Multicultural education in Canada: Historical development and current status." In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.) Handbook of research on multicultural education. 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Okihiro, G.Y. (2001). The Columbia Guide to Asian American History. New York: Columbia University Press.
"Remembering Black Loyalists." (2001). Retrieved July 1, 2008 from http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/who.htm
Sassen, S. (1999). Guests and aliens. New York: The New Press.
Scantland, A. C. (1986). Study of Historical Injustice to Japanese Canadians. Vancouver, B. C.: Parallel Publishers Ltd.
US Census Bureau: Immigration Data. (2008). Retrieved, July 11, 2008 from http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/immigration.html
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The 6th Annual Native Voices Film Festival Explores Cross-Border Histories and Challenges – March 2008
by Daniel Hart, Center Chair and Director and Co-Director of Native Voices
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| Three generations of UW’s Native Voices Program graduate students at the 6th Annual Native Voices Film Festival |
The Canadian Studies Center was pleased to be able to partner with the Native Voices Program and the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation to present the 6th Annual Native Voices Film Festival, an event that featured many First Nations guests, films and filmmakers. The four-day event, that ran from February 28th through March 2nd, featured the premiers of five new films and included a special honoring of the life and works of Native filmmaker Phil Lucas.
All of the new Native Voices films had a powerful cross-border focus dealing with issues that strongly affect both Canadian First Nations and Native American communities. Thursday evening saw the premiers of two new works: Frybread Babes by Steffany Suttle, an intimate new film that speaks about Native women, body image and identity; and, In Laman’s Terms: Looking at Lamanite Identity by Angelo Baca, a provocative work that explores the impacts that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Book of Mormon had on native peoples and communities.
On Friday, three new films premiered. History Lessons, by Clark Miller, explores how Native peoples are excluded from North American history, and how media and popular culture create the “Indian of the white imagination.” Travels Across The Medicine Line by former Canadian Fulbright scholar, Lyana Patrick, is a historical and contemporary look at the impact of the Canada-US border on Indigenous nations – the border has severed ancient ties to families, ceremonies and homelands. Finally, Reclaiming Our Children: a Story of the Indian Child Welfare Act, by Marcella Ernest, is a powerful new documentary that tells the story of the wholesale separation of Indian children from their families, one the most destructive and tragic aspects of Native life today.
Highlights of the festival were the events honoring the life of Phil Lucas (1942-2007), the acclaimed Choctaw filmmaker who sadly passed away this year. Over the course of his 30-year career, Phil produced many remarkable works, many of which were filmed in Canada in First Nations communities and had tremendous international impact influencing an entire generation of filmmakers. Phil was a pioneering voice in indigenous media, one of the first Native Americans to take control of the camera in an industry where Native voices are rarely heard.
The festival screened a number of Phil’s films. Healing the Hurts (1989) tells the story of adult survivors of Indian Residential Schools who gathered at Alkali Lake, British Columbia to attend a four-day intensive workshop on healing the hurt and shame of the boarding school experience. The attendees this healing ceremony accepted the camera and crew as participants in the process, resulting in the creation of this powerful film. Voyage of Rediscovery (1990) tells the moving story of Frank Brown, who as a young Heiltsuk Native boy of Bella Bella, British Columbia, found himself in trouble with the law. In an agreement between family and judge, traditional Heiltsuk law was applied and he was exiled from his village to a remote island for eight months. As a result, his life was transformed and he eventually led a canoe project, which helped to restore a sense of pride to his people. Finally, The Honor of All (1987) was screened, a groundbreaking work that tells the true story of the Alkali Lake Band of Indians in British Columbia and their successful struggle to conquer alcoholism in their remote community. The 1987 docu-drama won the prestigious international public television INPUT award and inspired Native recovery movements around the world.
What was especially exciting and rewarding about this year’s festival is that many of the First Nations participants of Phil’s films were able to come down for the screenings of their works. Andy and Phyllis Chelsea, and Fred and Irene Johnson of the Alkali Lake Indian Band, were able to respond to questions about The Honor of All, and Frank and Kathy Brown of the Heiltsuk Nation were able to answer questions about Voyage of Rediscovery. On Sunday, there was an inspiring memorial service for Phil Lucas at Daybreak Star Cultural Center, with hundreds of people from the US and Canada in attendance.
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French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Québec – March 2008
by Denyse Delcourt, Associate Professor, French and Italian Studies
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| Denyse Delcourt, Gabrielle and the Long Sleep into Mourning (translated by Eugene Vance). Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2007 |
Denyse Delcourt is an Associate Professor in the Division of French and Italian Studies. She has been teaching at the University of Washington since 1990. Other teaching experiences include Queens (Canada), Emory, Northwestern and Duke universities. Her teaching interests are Old French language and literature, contemporary Québécois literature and French fairy tales.
For someone who is trained to do literary analysis, writing a novel is like "crossing to the other side." Creative fiction has often been compared to walking through a dark and unfamiliar road using a flashlight. With only a bit of the road illuminated ahead one has to walk slowly, hesitantly and sometimes fearfully. For a scholar, writing fiction can be a very humbling experience.
In preparation for this novel I spent a month doing research at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Montréal. Since my novel is set in Québec during the fifties I needed to get a better sense of the period. What was happening in Québec at the time? What did people listen to on the radio? What did they eat and drink? What did they wear at school, funerals, weddings, etc.? To find answers to these questions, I consulted numerous newspapers and magazines published in Montréal between 1939 and 1955, books on etiquette, and text books used in French-Canadian elementary schools during the forties and fifties. The Bibliothèque Nationale in Montréal has an impressive collection of such materials. It was a pleasure to spend time doing research in this venerable institution.
Before I start writing fiction, I always do an outline. Even though I know by experience that the order I set for the chapters and even the role I am assigning to any given character may change along the way, I find it very useful to organize the materials beforehand.
When I was working on Gabrielle I never told myself that I was writing a "novel." That would have been too overwhelming. Instead, I followed Anne Lamott's wonderful advice to fiction writers by taking it "bird by bird." What I was writing every day was only a "bird;" that is, a small piece of a novel, a fragment or a scene. That kept me going until the accumulation of fragments was ready to be called a novel.
A word about the English translation – Eugene Vance did a remarkable job translating my novel. It is very close to the original, and beautifully done. For those who cannot read French I highly recommend it.
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From Poutine to P-Patches: Learning From Canadian and US Food Policy Councils – February 2008
by Branden Born, Assistant Professor, Urban Design and Planning
Branden Born is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning. He studies land use, planning process, and urban food systems. He is a member of the American Planning Association’s Food System Planning Committee and the Seattle-King County Acting Food Policy Council.
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| Branden Born is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning. |
The Canadian Studies Center recently co-sponsored a City of Seattle Transformational Lecture Series event that focused on food systems and an increasingly important governance tool known as a Food Policy Council (FPC). Wayne Roberts, the project director for arguably the most advanced FPC in North America, the Toronto Food Policy Council was the featured speaker. His talk was followed by a panel discussion that I served on along with fellow Canadian Herb Barbolet, representing Vancouver’s FPC, and Steve Cohen from the City of Portland and the Portland-Multnomah FPC.
Roberts' lecture focused on ways that food and cities and their residents interact, and how food systems – the people and processes that produce, process, market, distribute, consume, and dispose of food – can be tools of economic development and community empowerment. The lecture focused on the projects of the Toronto FPC.
Since there aren't any city departments of food, FPCs have functioned as multi-stakeholder advisory bodies to government. Their suggestions address issues of food access, nutritional adequacy, economic impacts of food systems, environmental effects of food-related choices, and more. From the provision of healthful foods through grocery stores and farmers' markets, to developing and protecting community gardens, to closing resource loops through composting and food rescue, cities have a hand in making sure their residents have food security or, access to culturally appropriate, nutritionally adequate food through non-emergency sources at all times. And while the Toronto FPC is a pioneer, urban planners and policy makers are turning to FPCs with growing frequency: in the last few years the number of food policy councils in North America has doubled to approximately 70. There are now nine separate efforts at different stages of development in Washington alone. Roberts and the panel discussed the many strategies of their councils and fielded questions from an enthusiastic audience that filled City Hall’s Bertha Landes Room.
The importance of food policy to cities and metropolitan areas is a focus of my graduate course, Urban Planning and the Food System, which was offered at the UW through the Department of Urban Design and Planning in the fall term. Using examples from Canada, the US, and beyond, the course explores food production, global trade, social justice and food access, environmental sustainability, and urban policy formation. Roberts also joined former students and college faculty for a presentation and discussion the day after his lecture downtown. Students from the class have helped conduct research in support of Washington's Local Farms, Health Kids legislation. They have also assisted the City of Seattle, the Acting Food Policy Council, and local farmers' markets with service learning research projects.
Seattle, with its P-Patches and progressive-thinking government is an urban leader along with a handful of other cities in the US when it comes to food policy, and yet knowledge sharing across state borders both north and south is pushing food policy understanding and development into new areas for all involved.
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Expanding Cross-Border Partnerships at the Northwest Center for Public Health – January 2008
by Jack Thompson, Director, Northwest Center for Public Health Practice
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| Jack Thompson, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, chaired the Population Health symposium. |
Jack Thompson is the Director of the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice at the University of Washington and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Health Services. He is the Principal Investigator for the Northwest Center for Public Health Preparedness Program, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also Co-Principal Investigator for the Public Health Training Center supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Jack has been on the faculty of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine since November of 1994.
For the first decade or so of its existence, the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (located within the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine) defined itself in terms of the Northwest United States. Strong relationships were formed with state and local public health organizations and with tribes in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. But it wasn’t until the first Cross Border Preparedness Conference, held in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2004, that we truly became a Northwest Center – as partnerships developed with public health researchers in British Columbia and other Northwest provinces. This conference (now in its fifth year, with a meeting scheduled for Bellingham in May 2008) gave rise to another successful cross-border collaboration – the Research Symposium, a collaboration originally between the U.W. School of Public Health and the University of British Columbia’s Department of Health Services and Epidemiology.
There have been three symposia to date and I have had the honor of coordinating each of them in collaboration with colleagues from the University of British Columbia and – this year – Simon Fraser University. The first symposium was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in Fall 2005. The second was held a year later on the UW campus. The third symposium, now including Simon Fraser University, was held last January in La Conner, Washington, at a conference facility. Eighty faculty and students from the three universities attended the two-day event.
The first day was highlighted by a keynote speech from Dr. Clyde Hertzman, Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership in the College for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia that highlighted comparative health status information from British Columbia and Washington State. This led to lively discussion about the similarities in demographics of the populations but significant differences in the organization of health and health care – and in health outcomes. The second day consisted of discussions in eight break-out groups that picked up where Clyde’s remarks left off. The groups focused on Population Health, Global Health, Health Services Research, Maternal and Child Health, Infectious Disease Control, and Indigenous Health Issues. Faculty and students from the three institutions came up with action plans for each group that hopefully will lead to further collaborations in the Northwest in the coming year. Areas of interest across the groups included collaborative approaches to student practica, the possibility of developing joint degree programs across the schools, development of common sets of health indicators that could be tracked over time, joint presentations at upcoming conferences, and collaborations on specific research projects. Summaries of the breakout discussions were presented in a closing session facilitated by Dr. King Holmes, Chair of the Global Health Department at the UW.
This has been a very rich and valuable experience for me. In the coming year the Northwest Center and our partner universities will track progress on these collaborations. As always, we will look for opportunities to incorporate such planning, discussions and expanding partnerships into our work. We are already looking forward to the Fourth Research Symposium in 2009.
The annual symposia are supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s US Department of Education, Title VI grant and by a Foreign Affairs, Canada Program Enhancement Grant.
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Researching Endangered Languages in British Columbia – September 2007
A Profile of Sharon Hargus, Professor, Linguistics
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| Mike Abou, native speaker of Tsek’ene, and Sharon Hargus, working together in Fort Ware, British Columbia, Summer 2007. |
Sharon Hargus, a professor in the Department of Linguistics, just had her book, Witsuwit'en Grammar: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology published by University of British Columbia Press (2007). The book summarizes her research on the word-level grammar of Witsuwit'en (a.k.a. Wet'suwet'en), a language of the Athabaskan (or Athapaskan) family spoken in Smithers, British Columbia and neighboring communities. Witsuwit'en, a dialect of the Babine-Witsuwit'en language, is closely related to the better-known Carrier language spoken to the east. Witsuwit'en is endangered, with less than 200 native speakers left that are 55 years of age or older.
Hargus also recently received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project entitled, "Athabaskan Personal Histories of Climate Change in Alaska and Canada," (2007–2010). With this award, she has begun the next phase of research on Witsuwit'en, sentence-level grammar. The award also allows her to continue her research on two other Athabaskan languages: Tsek'ene (or Sekani), spoken in the Rocky Mountain Trench area north of Prince George, British Columbia, and Deg Xinag, spoken in western central Alaska on the Yukon River and one of its tributaries, the Innoko River. Tsek'ene and Deg Xinag are also endangered. Tsek’ene has about 20 native speakers remaining, ages 60 and older, and Deg Xinag has seven native speakers remaining, ages 72 and older. One of the goals of the current grant is to extend the documentation on each of these Athabaskan languages in the area of syntax and texts. This fall Hargus was engaged in fieldwork in British Columbia in Fort Ware and the Smithers area, where she collected narratives about climate change in these two areas of northern British Columbia from speakers of Tsek'ene and Witsuwit'en.
Hargus's doctoral student Julia Miller has been involved in research on Beaver, an Athabaskan language closely related to Tsek'ene, since 2003. Miller’s field research on Beaver tone, lexicon and verb paradigms is supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. Miller is currently in her third year of a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships for Beaver language and culture study awarded through the Canadian Studies Center.
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