News from the History Department at
University of the Fraser Valley
November, 2015

We are well into the fall semester and it is good to see
such fresh enthusiasm on the part of students and
faculty alike.
Enrolments have improved and
planning done last spring and summer for events in the new
academic year is gaining momentum.
Of particular note is the initiative of the History
Department to host a Professional Development Day at UFV
for the region’s history educators from across the
system, K-16. Called “History Matters” the day will
feature speakers and workshops where teachers and
professors will discuss and share pedagogy on the teaching of historical thinking. This will be a great
opportunity for educators at all levels to consider how students move through the system and especially to
consider the transition from high school to university.
Welcoming those students will be a new History program. This program, including the major,
extended- minor and minor, is more flexible and gives students the opportunity to concentrate on the things
they like to study. The new program, and some revisions made to our courses, better prepares students for
the Teacher Education Program while still providing the topical breadth and skill development for those
considering graduate studies. Of course, the History Program offers the kind of background that our
graduates have found applicable in law, business, and various public sector jobs. Historians make great
CSIS analysts too!
Finally, it was fantastic to hear from students and faculty about the success of the Peru Study Tour
completed last May. Led by veteran traveler and Latin American history specialist Dr Geof Spurling and
our colleague from Fashion Design, Gayle Ramsden, the tour explored aspects of the history and culture of
Peru. The richness of the experience that Geof and Gayle arranged for the participants was a tribute to their
hard work and represents the unique kind of experience that universities can offer.
Dr. Christopher Leach

Barbara Messamore was invited to speak at the Simon Fr aser Univer sity
Harbour Centre forum in October 2015, on the topic of “It’s a Minority: Who
Gets to Govern?” .
The full SFU Forum is available at: http://pasifik.ca/2015/10/07/minority-government/

Messamore also acted as an expert witness in a constitutional case, to
determine the nature of the financial obligations assumed by the federal
government at the time of Confederation. She prepared a 49-page report in
support of this case.
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Allan Hansom (BA, 2010)
Here is a quick update on
things! My wife and I just celebrated
the birth of our first child, Oliver, in
April, and I work as an advisor for
Canada Loyal Financial, helping to
guide local families toward financial
independence.
A project that I started as part of
a Practicum course with Robin
Anderson, has grown in scope over the
years, and included extensive research
in the Archives of The Reach,
Abbotsford. It also involved interviewing a variety of city officials and Fraser
Health employees.
Jonathan Fortier (BA, 2014) recreates a mid-19th century master cooper’s workplace and craft.
A few months ago I was given the chance to
showcase everything that I had learned during my time at
UFV, in an interview with Parks Canada. This interview
was for a GT-01 position at the National Historic site in
Fort Langley. The position requires me to have a wealth
of knowledge about the history of Fort Langley, British
Columbia and Canada. It requires me to know the site
inside and out, and give people guided tours of our
facilities. With this position I also often dress in period
clothing and do demonstrations for the guests (Coopering,
Blacksmithing, Musket firing). Most of my day is spent
having fun talking about history with guests from all
around the world and giving large presentations to dozens
of guest about the history of the Fort.
This position is the perfect career starter for anyone who loves history, and a great chance to work for the
federal government.
I would like to thank Molly Ungar and the UFV
History Department for helping prepare me for the future.
All the late night essays, all the times being up until 3 in
the morning studying for an exam and all the last minute
changes to my live presentations were all worthwhile
when I was able to land a position with Parks Canada.
Because of all the things I learned, I am now one of the
people who is excited to go to work when he wakes up in
the morning.
Jonathan Fortier
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I am happy to announce that
“The History and Development of
Health Care in Abbotsford” has been
published as a chapter in the MSA Museum book, A bbotsford, from V illage to
City: A Commitment to Excellence and
Innovation, which was released at the
end of September. The book features
contributions from a
variety of
local authors
who collectively illustrate how
Abbotsford
became the
city that it is
today.
The book launch was jointly hosted by
the MSA Museum and UFV, and the
book is available for purchase from the
MSA Museum at http://
www.msamuseum.ca/booksforsale/
Thank you for supporting local history!
Allan Hansom, Financial Advisor
Canada Loyal Financial
Chilliwack, B.C.

Scott Sheffield attended a conference and research trip to Melbourne, Australia in June.
The conference was called
“Brothers and Sisters in Arms:
Historicising Indigenous Military Service”, and brought together almost all the world’s
major scholars on this subject
matter (roughly 50).
“It was a very enjoyable and
exciting conference”, Sheffield
says, “with a lot of great papers,
both from the leading figures in
the field as well as rising young
stars. My paper, “Veterans’
Benefits and Indigenous Veterans of the Second World War in
Australia, Canada, New Zealand
and the United States,” was well
attended and generated a lively
debate, which was gratifying. In addition, it was selected
Scott Sheffield in Teremesos, Turkey as one of a handful of papers
from the conference to be published in a special edition of the academic
Native American Studies journal, W icaso Sa Review.”
Recently, I resubmitted a major SSHRC Insight Research Grant proposal for a new research project on British Columbia and the Second
World War. This project brings together myself, Robin Anderson and
five other scholars from University of Ottawa, St. Jerome’s University
in Waterloo, UBC Okanagan, UVic, and UFV.
Our intention is to combine our research efforts to make the most efficient use of research funds possible, then share all the information digitally amongst ourselves, enabling each of us to develop our own books,
articles and websites on diverse topics related to the War in BC.
We applied last year and though accepted, did not score high enough in
the competition to be funded (the success rate is only about 2325%). We have strengthened and improved our application this time
around and hope for a better result when the competition results are announced in April 2016. The funds will allow me, amongst other things,
to hire four UFV students as research assistants each year, for several
years, which would be a great opportunity for our students.”
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Steven Schroeder has
been appointed Teaching
Chair in the UFV Peace
and Conflict Studies
Program.
In his role as Teaching
Chair, Schroeder will
further develop and build
the Peace and Conflict
Studies (PACS) program,

establishing a five-year
plan and teaching undergraduate courses in this
field. He will mentor and
provide research and experiential learning opportunities for students while developing collaborative relationships and networks
with community partners.
“We need to address proactively the widespread violence in language, cultural
clashes, structural injustices and war in our world
today,” says Schroeder.
“This program will expand
students’ knowledge of
current conflicts, challenge
them to think critically, and
develop their peacebuilding skills. The result
of this work will be evident
in student-led applied projects that will benefit our
communities.

In May and June, 2015, Geof Spurling and Gayle Ramsden (Fashion Design) led a group of 17 students and faculty on a highly successful study
tour to Peru. After two weeks of intensive coursework on campus, focusing on Peruvian history and culture, the tour group flew to the Andes to
begin their 24-day stay.
Tour members travelled to Peru’s capital, Lima, the southern highland colonial city of Arequipa, the Colca Canyon, Cusco, the old Inka capital and
a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and the towns and Inka sites in the
nearby Urubamba Valley (known as the Sacred Valley of the Inkas). The
final stop was in Huaraz and its surrounding region, the Callejón de Huaylas, home to the world’s highest tropical mountain range.

Student research presentations
in Santa Catalina

The group toured markets, cathedrals and beautiful colonial churches (like
the one in Chinchero), the stunning Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa,
and a number of museums with impressive collections, ranging from the
Inka and pre-Inka periods to the present (among them the Larco Museum
and the Museum of Pre-Columbian Textiles in Lima, the Andean Sanctuaries Museum and the Alpaca Museum in Arequipa, and the Machu Picchu
Museum in Cusco).
In the Cusco region tour members visited a number of Inka ruins, including
the fortress of Sacsaywaman, Inka shrine sites like Qenqo and Tambo
Machay, the curving terraces at Moray, and the royal estates of Chinchero,
Pisac, and Ollantaytambo. The tour spent a full day at Machu Picchu, with
one group climbing the peak of Huayna Picchu while the other hiked to the
Sun Gate entrance to the site. As virtually all other visitors had left by mid
-afternoon, the tour group had Machu Picchu all to themselves for the final
two hours that the site was open.
A critically important part of the tour was the project work that members
did with several NGOs. In Cusco the group spent an evening with the Canadian-based NGO Mosqoy. Tour members had dinner with Mosqoysupported Peruvian students pursuing post-secondary studies and training
in Cusco. They also heard an inspiring talk by Mosqoy’s director, Ashli
Akins, about the organization’s origins and goals, which include providing
educational opportunities for student leaders from nearby farming communities and actively supporting traditional textile producers. Tour members
later participated in two Mosqoy-organized day-long spinning, dyeing, and
weaving workshops in the Indigenous communities of Amaru and Huaran
(where tour members also spent the night at Mosqoy’s guesthouse).
In Huaraz, the tour group heard an intriguing talk given by Dr. Jorge Recharte, Director of The Mountain Institute’s Andean Program, which underscored the critical cultural, economic, and ecological importance of the
Andean sierra, provided background on TMI’s projects in the region, and
stressed the challenges posed by climate change, as well as industrial mining and other forms of development. The following day tour members accompanied TMI staff on a day-long visit to the Andean community of
Canrey Chico/Cordillera Blanca, where local authorities showed the tour a
bio-remediation project they had recently developed, using local labour and
technology to take out heavy metals and increase the pH in the highly acidic water they use for irrigation.
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4,900 metres -- the highest
point in the tour

A condor flies over the tour
group at Colca Canyon

Ascending Machu Picchu
Spinning
lessons

Also in the Huaraz region, in the town of Vicos, tour members helped
construct four adobe-brick stoves in the kitchens of Indigenous community members (as part of a project organized by the NGO RESPONS). The
stoves replaced open-fire cooking, the cause of many lung-related health
problems.
Tour members had the opportunity to visit some spectacular locations,
from the thousands of salt pans at Salineras, worked continuously since
pre-Inka times, to two days spent in the heavily-terraced Colca Canyon,
where they saw condors fly low overhead (and eat a strategically placed
cow). The group also did some long hikes, including one 19 km. roundtrip trek to Laguna 69, at 4500 m., set amongst Peru’s highest mountains.
In addition to all of these experiences, those on the tour sampled a wide
range of cuisines, from ceviche to grilled alpaca, took many different
modes of transport, some more comfortable than others, had some interesting animal encounters, and, through it all, enjoyed themselves and had
a good time. Photographs from the tour are on display at UFV International’s Global Lounge (B223) until February, 2016.

Geof, Ian, Kalie and Brett
at Machu Picchu

Priti, Alina, Nikita and
Kalie at Laguna 69

UFV History student Pierce Smith
developed The Poppy Project for the
Chilliwack Museum and Archives as
part of a Practicum placement course
supervised by Molly Ungar.
He researched all the Chilliwack
residents who died in the Great War
and in World War II, located their
home addresses, and created an interactive map that identifies each address with a poppy.
Chilliwack Museum and Archives Executive Director Matthew
Francis, UFV History student Pierce Smith, Molly Ungar

Clicking on the poppy opens a
window with more information on the
individual, as part of the Museum’s
extensive Cenotaph project.

Pierce’s work was recognized and rewarded with a Heritage Award, which was presented at the Museum’s
AGM. This Practicum placement and another at the Museum of Vancouver, gave Pierce the training and
experience to secure his present a full-time position with the Surrey Museum.
The Poppy Project is linked to the History Department’s webpage as well as the UFV Library webpage,
and can be accessed at the Chilliwack Museum’s website:
http://www.chilliwackmuseum.ca/poppy-project/
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Not many people have heard of the Vancouver cartoonist James Fitzmaurice. I first encountered his cartoons while researching the history of baseball in Vancouver in the decade before the First World War. Local historians spend, by choice and necessity, large swaths of time reading old newspapers, most of which
are preserved on rolls of microfilm that were produced in an archival frenzy in the 1950s. It’s hard work,
unforgiving on the eyes, but filled with the delights and mysteries of uncovering lives lost and worlds forgotten. It’s the closest historians come to time-travel, and many historians – amateur and professional – are
drawn to it. Go to any library that houses old newspapers on microfilm and there you will see them, us, me,
hunched over the microfilm readers with only one foot in the present.
It was maintaining this uncomfortable posture, moving through reel after reel of the main Vancouver daily
newspapers during the First World War, where I spent most of the first four months of my research sabbatical. Fitzmaurice worked for the Vancouver Province off and on over an eighteen year period from 1908 to
1926. He left the city in 1910 to head back east for reasons that have never been clear, but returned to the
Province in the midst of war in the summer of 1916, and for the next two and a half years.

Two examples of the variety of Fitzmaurice’s work

Fitzmaurice produced what amounts to
a visual narrative of
Vancouver’s experience during the Great
War. The sheer volume
of drawings is impressive. “Fitz,” as he was
known at the time,
drew just over 500 cartoons between July
1916 and December
1918, and that does not
count the illustrations
and graphics he produced to support local
news reports and advertisements.

Fitzmaurice’s topical breadth is equally impressive. Given the context of a total war I expected to find the
steady stream of propaganda cartoons vilifying Germany or those promoting the Allied cause. But the Vancouver cartoonist did much more. This was the era of the all-purpose staff cartoonist-illustrator, an emerging mainstay of the newspaper business in both Canada and the United States from the 1890s onwards. As
such, Fitz provided cartoons on federal, provincial, and municipal politics, the wartime economy, local efforts to support the war effort, a variety of reform causes, the drive for women’s suffrage, and the prohibition of alcohol.
Most of his wartime cartoons directly supported the war effort, but not all. Some images questioned wartime state authorities and official directives, and some reflected the prevailing war fatigue with mocking
caricatures of the earnestness of local citizens. Some Fitzmaurice wartime cartoons had nothing to do with
the war at all. These images provided a break from the tensions of war to poke fun at the burgeoning moving picture entertainment scene, the chaotic revolution brought on by the automobile, and the penetration of
American-based spectator sports, all elements that expanded relentlessly during the war. It is this eclectic
mix of topics and themes that allow us to see (with some very obvious race, gender, and class caveats) Fitzmaurice’s cartoons as a representative window into Vancouver’s wartime experience.
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