Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Award Winners

Jan 13, 2020

Congratulations to Sylvia Hamilton, this year's winner of the Pierre Berton Award, one of the Governor General's History Awards handed out by the folks at Canada's History.

Hamilton is a public historian based in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia. The citation notes that she is "a direct descendent of the Black Refugees (survivors) of the War of 1812" and "has made an indelible mark on Black history, while enriching and reframing conceptions of Canadian history and its subjects." She sounds like a Renaissance woman: documentary film maker, installation artist, poet, essayist, historian.

I am also pleased to see that an award for excellence in community programming has gone to the Cumberland Museum and Archives. Cumberland, a small community near Courtenay on Vancouver Island, is blessed to have a museum of such quality. This year's award is for a series of programs relating to the centenary of the death of the labour activist Ginger Goodwin. I first encountered the museum many years ago when I happened to wander in while exploring the area and discovered on the walls images by the Japanese photographer Senjiro Hayashi. These stunning photos had been taken early in the 20th century, then disappeared. Some of the glass plate negatives actually went into making a greenhouse. They were later rediscovered and the images that so impressed me that day form part of the museum's collection. (The story of the Hayashi photographs is told in this documentary film.)

Congratulations to all the recipients of the GG History Awards this year.