Kwaskastahsowin (to put things right): Conciliation in the McClelland & Stewart and E. Pauline Johnson Collections

You are cordially invited to a free online lecture (7 March 2024 at 12 p.m. EST): “Kwaskastahsowin” (“put things to right”): Conciliation in the McClelland & Stewart and E. Pauline Johnson Collections. 

In the updated and restored 2019 edition of Halfbreed, Métis writer Maria Campbell introduces the Cree word, kwaskastahsowin, to describe what it means to seek conciliation or to “put things to right.” By focusing on what it means to “put things to right” in the context of twentieth-century publishing in Canada, this talk explores Campbell’s definition of kwaskastahsowin in relation to two key twentieth century works of Indigenous women’s writing in Canada: E. Pauline Johnson’s Legends of Vancouver (1911) and Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed (1973). Specifically, Dr. Alix Shield examines how materials found in McMaster University’s Archives and Research Collections present opportunities to shift away from colonial publishing narratives and instead “put things to right” for both Indigenous-authored texts. 

Dr. Alix Shield is a settler scholar and lecturer in the Department of Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC, Canada). She recently published an updated edition of E. Pauline Johnson's Legends of Vancouver – retitled Legends of the Capilano – with the University of Manitoba Press and members of the Skwxwú7mesh Nation. 

This webinar will be moderated by Dr. Rick Monture. Dr. Monture is a member of the Mohawk nation, Turtle clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. He is Associate Professor in the Departments of Indigenous Studies and English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University and the author of Teionkwakhashion Tsi Niionkwariho:ten (“We Share Our Matters”): Two Centuries of Writing and Resistance at Six Nations of the Grand River (UMP 2014). 

This lecture is hosted by McMaster University Library’s Archives Alive program in partnership with McMaster University Alumni.  

Register using this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/2717074977679/WN_-oGs9Nz5S869tYzzTTmdog#/registration.