Researching the Edmonton Story By Catherine C. Cole A report commissioned by the Edmonton Heritage Council February 2014 Researching the Edmonton Story Executive Summary The objectives of this study were: • To provide the Edmonton Heritage Council (EHC) with a framework of the Story of Edmonton from 1939 to the present and • To increase knowledge of Edmonton’s history, heritage and shared culture. This report is intended to be used to inform efforts by the Council to enhance the interpretation of Edmonton’s history with a focus on identifying the important stories to tell, that are not currently being told, and how to ensure they are incorporated into our understanding of the city. An underlying premise for this study is that it is important for all Edmontonians to have access to and understand our history and heritage and the shared cultural heritage of people who have adopted Edmonton as their home. Whether people grow up in Edmonton and learn about local history in school or have moved here as adults and adopted Edmonton as their home, there’s relatively little information available about local history, particularly recent history. Historical narratives are valuable in shaping the community and foster local identity but these narratives must be inclusive of both the positive and negative aspects our our history and be a history that resonates with immigrants, migrants and Edmonton’s relatively large urban Aboriginal population, not just with the dominant society. Although Alberta’s population has been predominantly urban since the middle of the last century – and Edmonton’s population has grown exponentially since the end of the war, historians studying Alberta history have continued to focus on the rural rather than the urban, on pre-WWII rather than more contemporary history. This is partially due to the challenges of studying and disseminating contemporary history: the need to try to remain as objective as possible when studying events that occurred within our own lifetime or events in which we participated, as is often the case particularly with community-based projects. People are uncomfortable with recent history because it can take years to realize the implications of decisions, movements and personalities. While possible to indicate what happened five years ago, it’s impossible to fully understand the significance of events. There’s a tendency to look at local history in isolation yet Edmonton’s history is not restricted to the municipal boundaries of the City of Edmonton – or indeed of Canada. 3 Sources for the study of contemporary history also pose particular challenges: relevant material may been deposited in or processed by archives and museums, researchers may not be trained in recording oral histories, changing approaches to the Internet and news media further complicate sources. Edmonton’s history has been written (both literally written and told through other media than the printed word) by people with various backgrounds including professional and amateur historians, curators and archivists, community groups, journalists, and genealogists. Novelists, poets, playwrights, visual artists, musicians and filmmakers – while focusing on ‘story’ rather than ‘history’ – have contributed significantly to community memory, how Edmonton and its history are interpreted. Our public history is spotty: there is no overarching approach to Edmonton’s history through a museum, there have been few efforts to memorialize events in local history, and Edmonton has few works of public art with specific commemorative or memorial aspects. Local museums, archives and heritage preservationists too focus on particular periods, technologies, sectors, events, and peoples. Themes in Edmonton History Post-1939 It’s very difficult to identify the most significant themes in recent Edmonton history without the benefit of some distance, both in time and personal biases but having said that there are a number of themes that are clearly important. At the risk of overlooking some themes, or of giving too much significance to others, below is a list of significant themes in Edmonton’s contemporary history. These are not presented in any particular order. • Edmonton and the North • Leduc No. 1 as the Turning Point • Family farms to Agribusiness to Local Food Movement • Edmonton: City of Champions • Edmonton as Distinct from Calgary Comparisons • Edmonton: City of Newcomers • Edmonton’s Neighbourhoods • Community Service and Social Justice • Changing Dynamics Between Women and Men • Secularization of Society • Global Trends with Local Implications • Edmonton and Canada’s Sesquicentennial 4 Objectives The objectives of this study were to provide the Edmonton Heritage Council (EHC) with a framework of the Story of Edmonton from 1939 to the present and to increase knowledge of Edmonton’s history, heritage and shared culture. This report is intended to be used to inform efforts by the Council to enhance the interpretation of Edmonton’s history with a focus on identifying the important stories to tell, that are not currently being told, and how to ensure they are incorporated into our understanding of the city. Methodology This study was completed between November 2013 and February 2014. The consultant scanned secondary literature incorporating aspects contemporary history in Edmonton as well conducting as a systematic review of articles highlighting the major stories of the year in the Edmonton Journal and an extensive Internet search. The topic was discussed by a diverse group of local historians at a meeting in January and presented publicly the beginning of April. These findings were interpreted through the lens of current heritage interpretation in the city. Understanding Edmonton’s History and Heritage It is very important for all Edmontonians to have access to and understand our history and heritage and the shared cultural heritage of people who have adopted Edmonton as their home. Those raised here build their understanding of their identity as Edmontonians first through school. However, there is very little information about Edmonton history on the school curriculum and he history taught in schools may differ from the history learned from family and community members or from public history programs. There a numerous organizations working to improve the quality of history education in schools. The Heritage Fairs program operated by Canada’s History Society since 2009 (and previously Historica) is one example and the Edmonton Regional Heritage Fair is being held at the Prince of Wales Armouries in April.1 However, students are often stymied by the lack of resources for local subjects and choose the old standards in Canadian history. Other organizations include THEN/Hier, the History Education Network/Histoire et éducation en réseau a collaborative network across the diverse fields of history, history education and school history teaching in Canada that “brings together people from across Canada and internationally to inform, carry out, critique, and implement research into history education.”2 The organization Facing History 1 http://www.canadashistory.ca/Kids/Heritage/About; http://www.edmontonheritagefair.org/. 2 http://thenhier.ca/ 5 and Ourselves “combats racism, anti-Semitism, and prejudice and nurtures democracy through education programs worldwide.” The Canadian branch has been active in Toronto since 1981 but less so throughout the country and not at all in Edmonton.3 The Aspen Foundation for Labour Education in Leduc “is dedicated to providing citizens with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that empower them to contribute fully to a healthy, just, and democratic workplace, community, and society through participation in labour and social justice initiatives.”4 The EHC should collaborate with educational organizations working to improve history education in schools to ensure that contemporary local history resources are available. The majority of Edmontonians, people who have adopted Edmonton as their home but were not born here, gain our understanding of local history primarily through public history, artistic expressions, local media (e.g., “This Day in Journal History,”5), and the Internet with its unedited, uncurated, uneven content. People are becoming more discerning about information posted to the Internet but use of the Internet for historical research still poses challenges. According to the 2001 census, 18% of Edmonton’s population of 812,201 identified as immigrants and 5.3% as Aboriginal people. Unfortunately migration figures are not available at the municipal level but data for the Edmonton CMA (census metropolitan area), shows that 63% of the CMA’s increase was from net-migration with 37% from natural increase.6 Alberta’s economic stability and the decline in Ontario’s economy have continued 1http://censusdocs.edmonton.ca/DD16/FEDERAL%202001/CITY/EDMONTON.pdf to attract people from other parts of the country. Edmonton’s historical narratives may be used to shape the community and foster local identity but the Edmonton story has to be an inclusive history that resonates with immigrants, migrants and Edmonton’s relatively large urban Aboriginal population. The discipline of history does not blindly celebrate the past but fosters critical thinking, based on rigorous, systematic study of 3 http://www.facinghistory.org/offices/toronto; correspondence with the Executive Director 4 http://aspenfoundation.squarespace.com/ 5 The series began as reprints from the Journal’s files, then revised stories, and now is a series