Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• Program affiliate Michael Barbour to receive King Charles III Coronation Medal

• The Big Give is in two weeks! (March 13)

Event Tomorrow

• Panel: Asserting Indigenous Title to Unceded Wolastoqey Territory

Upcoming Event

• Indigenous Confinement on the Canadian Plains

Other Events

• Film Screening: Maliglutit

• Canada, US, + Paths Forward: A NorCal Fulbright World Forum Salon

• Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Theory of Water

PROGRAM NEWS

Program affiliate Michael Barbour to receive King Charles III Coronation Medal

The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to announce that our longtime friend Michael Barbour has been selected to receive the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Dr. Barbour is president of the Royal Canadian Legion’s US Branch #25, representing the San Francisco Bay Area. The medal recognizes his devoted service to Canada’s veterans, and his role in revitalizing the branch.

The Coronation Medal is issued by the Canadian government to commemorate the ascension of Charles III as King of Canada. It is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to Canada or its provinces. In total, 30,000 medals will be awarded, in both civilian and military classes.

Dr. Barbour has been an associate member of the Royal Canadian Legion for 28 years. He joined US Branch #25 in 2016, and held several executive positions before being elected president in 2021. As president, Dr. Barbour has worked diligently (and successfully) to increase community involvement and strengthen the branch’s ties with other organizations. He organizes the branch’s annual Poppy Campaign, educational events, and commemorative services, all in honour or support of Canadian veterans and their families. Friends of Canadian Studies will no doubt recognize him from our annual Canadian Thanksgiving dinner, where he can be found promoting the Legion. Dr. Barbour is also a faculty member at Touro University California, Vallejo, where he is director of faculty development for the College of Education & Health Services.

The formal presentation of the medal will be made at the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco on Monday, March 10. Friends are welcome to attend the ceremony, but must RSVP to mkbarbour@gmail.com by Tuesday, March 4. Members of the Branch will meet for lunch following the presentation. Learn more here.

The Big Give is in Two Weeks! (March 13)

The big day is almost here! In just 16 days, join our community in showing your support for Canadian Studies on Big Give, UC Berkeley’s annual day of giving. Your donation is more important than ever! It empowers students to study Canada; supports events that inform the American public about our neighbor to the north; and builds a local Canadianist community. It’s an investment in cross-border understanding and vital dialogue. So mark your calendars and make a statement on why Canada matters, March 13!

EVENT TOMORROW

Panel: Asserting Indigenous Title to Unceded Wolastoqey Territory

Tues., Feb. 25 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

In 2021, six Wolastoqey communities launched a landmark lawsuit asserting an Indigenous title claim over more than five million hectares of territory in eastern Canada, one of the largest in the country’s history. They assert that the area, which covers more than half of the province of New Brunswick, was never ceded under the Peace and Friendship Treaties which various tribes signed with the British Crown in the 18th century. In a first of its kind, defendants in the suit include not just the federal and provincial governments, but also multiple forestry and industrial companies. The Wolastoqey hope that victory will not only increase their influence over issues from land use to taxation, but possibly even result in the return of land to tribal ownership.

The lawsuit has major implications for Indigenous title claims across Canada, and the Wolastoqey have already scored several key victories in their fight to assert their land rights. In November, a New Brunswick judge ruled that a declaration of Aboriginal title could be made to privately-held lands. And change of provincial government has also softened the province’s stance, opening the door to greater cooperation. Join leading negotiators and legal experts from the Wolastoqey Nation as they discuss the case’s current status; the state of Crown-Indigenous relations; and how the suit could change the future of Indigenous nations across Canada.

About the Speakers

Allan Polchies Jr. is the four-term Sakom (chief) of the Sitansisk Wolastoqey (St. Mary’s) First Nation, located in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Sitansisk is the second-largest Wolastoqey community in the province, and one of the six plaintiffs in the title suit. Polchies has served over seventeen years on the band council, and has led the community through its Indigenous title claim.

Renée Pelletier is a partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend (OKT) LLP, and the lead counsel on the Wolastoqey title claim. She is a member of the New Brunswick and Ontario Bars, specializing in Aboriginal and treaty rights litigation and negotiation. She teaches courses on land claims and self-government at the University of New Brunswick and serves as co-chair of Osgoode Professional Development’s Certificate Program in the Fundamentals of Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law. She was awarded the Osgoode Hall Law School’s Alumni Gold Key Award for a Career of Distinction in 2024.

Victoria Wicks is an associate at OKT working on the Wolastoqey claim. She completed her law degree at the University of British Columbia, where she obtained a specialization in Aboriginal Law and worked at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic. Before joining OKT, Wicks clerked at the Court of Appeal for Ontario and practiced at a litigation boutique. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Toronto and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.

This event is cosponsored by The Porter-O’Brien Agency.

If you require an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please let us know at least 7 days in advance.

UPCOMING EVENT

Indigenous Confinement on the Canadian Plains

Tues., March 11 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

In 1867, Canada broke away from Britain and began to chart a new path across the continent. As immigrants pushed deeper onto the prairies, the Canadian government began to devote far more attention to designing and implementing policies that would allow them to control and confine Indigenous people. Hunger forced the Cree, Metis, and Siksikaitsitapi onto reserves. Once there, Northwest Mounted Police officers restricted their mobility, limiting the ways they could hunt, fish, or visit relatives. Canadian prisons confined those who resisted assimilation. Collectively these approaches transformed the prairies – recasting them from a geography controlled by Indigenous nations to one dominated by an emerging Canadian state.

About the Speaker

Dr. Benjamin Hoy is an associate professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. He received his BA from the University of Guelph and his MA and PhD from Stanford University. His current research examines the creation, demarcation, and enforcement of the Canadian-United States border between 1775 and 1939, exploring the extension of federal power and its uneven impact on disparate groups and Indigenous communities. His first book, A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border Across Indigenous Lands, received the 2022 Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research, Canada’s most prestigious historical prize.

If you require an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please let us know at least 7 days in advance.

OTHER EVENTS

Film Screening: Maliglutit

Fri., Feb. 28 | 7:00 pm | BAMPFA | Buy tickets

Inspired by the Westerns he grew up watching, Canadian Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk’s Maliglutit (Searchers) strips away some conventional elements of the Western (the arid deserts, horses, and cowboys) to highlight the invincible power of the Arctic landscape and the importance of community and ancestral knowledge for survival. Set in Nunavut, Northern Canada, in 1913, the wife and daughter of Kuanana are kidnapped by a trio of greedy, rapacious men. Calling on his father’s spiritual guide, Kuanana and his son set out to find them. Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq provides the hauntingly effective soundtrack. “An emotionally arduous journey with fierce twists and an unrelenting sense of urgency up until the final, hard-fought frame” (Shane Scott-Travis, Taste of Cinema). The screening will feature an introduction by Canadian Studies affiliate professor Shari Huhndorf.

Writeup modified from original provided by BAMPFA associate film curator Kate McKay.

Thurs., March 6 | 5:30 pm | San Francisco, CA | Buy tickets

The Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco and the Northern California Fulbright Association are partnering, alongside Saintsbury Wines (Napa), to host an evening of lively discussion about the future of US/Canada relations. The evening will feature a conversation between Marie Alnwick, Consul for Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, and Leslie Carol Roberts, author and journalist, whose work has appeared in The Believer, Fast Company, and many others. Audience questions will be featured as a key part of this World Forum Salon.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Theory of Water

Thurs., March 13 | 5:00 pm | 315 Wheeler Hall

Theory of Water uses Michi Saagiig Nishnaabe consciousness to dismantle and think beyond the present moment. In the face of on-going genocides, extinct glaciers, police killings, children alone in cages at borders, the resurgence of fascist states, and a dying planet, Simpson asks what does it mean, as Rebecca Belmore asks us in Wave Sound, to listen to water? What does it mean, as Dionne Brand writes through her diaspora consciousness and by inventorying the quotidian disasters of our time, in her epic poem Nomenclature, “to believe in water”? Using Nishnaabe origin stories, poetry, and thinking alongside writers and artists, these essays turn to water as a generative space for worldmaking against empire, within the network of life that makes up this planet. Theory of Water immerses the reader into water as a liminal space resistant to regiment, and considers future formations for life beyond our current collective imaginings.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, and musician. She is the author of eight previous books, including the novel Noopiming: A Cure for White Ladies, which was short listed for the Dublin Literary prize and the Governor General’s award for fiction. Leanne’s album, Theory of Ice, released by You’ve Changed Records was released in 2021 and short-listed for the Polaris Prize and she was the 2021 winner of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn Award. Her latest project Theory of Water will be published by Knopf Canada/Haymarket books in the spring of 2025. Leanne is a member of Alderville First Nation.

This event his hosted by the Department of Rhetoric and is cosponsored by the Canadian Studies Program.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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