Now, we are all familiar with the idea of a Poet Laureate, so why not one for history?
And here I take my line from the City of Edmonton, which was “Canada’s first municipality to appoint a Historian Laureate…… who ….. is the City’s official ambassador on historical matters and promotes the history of the city and its citizens by documenting, researching, interpreting and speaking about the people, places and events that have created Edmonton's distinctive heritage and character.”*
The post lasts for two years, is a paid position, and the “post holder undertakes to, maintain a continued dialogue with community through social media platforms, and the Edmonton Historical Board and the Edmonton Heritage Council”.
Along with producing at least one written document, or other documentation, which can be audio or video and two public presentations for specific events or occasions as agreed upon in each year of the two-year term.
And “develop a work plan, writing activities and public presentations in consultation with an advisory committee established by the Edmonton Historical Board and the Edmonton Heritage Council”.
I came across it by pure chance yesterday with the announcement on Monday of the 7th Historian Laureate, who is Amber Violet Paquette.
She is the city’s first historian laureate of Indigenous decent which according to one press account promises a new direction for the projects, because after “kicking off with a couple of relatively traditional historians, subsequent appointees have employed a wider variety of approaches — from Marlena Wyman’s sketches of Edmonton architecture to Chris Chang-Yen Philips’s podcasts on bits of local history, to Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail’s work on the jagged past of the Charles Camsell Hospital.
Two of the last three appointees have been in their 20s, while a lot of the recent work has gone beyond civic boosterism into history that is complex and uncomfortable”.**
And if you want to learn more I suggest you follow the links to the City Council’s page and the newspaper article devoted to Amber Violet Paquette.
Of course here in Manchester there are a plethora of organizations which in their different ways do much the same work, of which the charity Manchester Histories is one I have been involved in.
It “delivers projects, events and activities with communities that reveal, share and celebrate Greater Manchester's diverse histories and heritage.
We also host Manchester Histories Festival.
Manchester Histories is a growing and dynamic charity that works collaboratively with people, organisations, and partners to reveal, share and celebrate Greater Manchester's diverse Histories and Heritage.
Manchester Histories works throughout the year delivering projects, training, exhibitions, events, networks and more with communities to recognise, explore and value histories”***
And that pretty much is that, leaving me just to say I look forward to reading about how Ms. Paquette, develops the story of the indigenous people of Alberta, and the links with modern day Edmonton.
But I couldn’t close without mentioning The Neon Sign Museum, which is the first of its kind in Canada, and features a collection of functional historic signs that tell a story about Edmonton’s neon past.
The City of Edmonton has collected 20 neon signs, all of which have been restored and installed on the east wall of the TELUS building and the south wall of the Mercer Warehouse building on 104 Street and 104 Avenue, Edmonton.****
And before anyone points out that there are no pictures of Ms. Paquette, or the indigenous peoples of Alberta, that is simply because I have yet to acquire permission to include them.
But I have made requests, so as they say watch this space.
Pictures, the Canadian heartlands, 2011, Lori Oschefski, statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simcock, Neon Museum, courtesy of Edmonton City Council, Manchester Histories, courtesy of Manchester Histories, the Albert Memorial, 2019 and Manchester History Festival, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
* Role of the Historian Laureate, Edmonton City Council,6 https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/edmonton_archives/historian-laureate.aspx
** Edmonton's historian laureate program a success story too few know about, Keith Gerein, Edmonton Journal, May 23, 2020, https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/keith-gerein-edmontons-historian-laureate-program-a-success-story-too-few-know-about/
***Manchester Histories, https://manchesterhistories.co.uk/aboutus/default.aspx
**** The Neon Museum, https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/edmonton_archives/neon-sign-museum.aspx
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