Who: Dr. Sarah Carter, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Professor of History and Native Studies, University of Alberta
What: A Gathering and lecture for general public. FREE admission.
When: Saturday, 3 October 2015. 4:00pm
Where: Royal Alberta Museum Theatre
This year's presentation will be delivered by Dr. Sarah Carter, F.R.S.C. Dr. Carter is a Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair in the Department of History and Classics and the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She has published extensively on the history of Western Canada and on the critical era of the late nineteenth century when Indigenous people and newcomers began sustained contact. This year the Gathering lecture is titled Indigenous Agriculture and Settler Colonialism in the Prairie West: Reflections on Lost Harvests 25 Years Later.
Dr. Carter's book Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy was published in 1990 and continues to be very influential. She argued that despite repeated requests for assistance from Plains Indigenous peoples, the Canadian government provided very little help between 1874 and 1885, and what little they did give proved useless. Officials in Ottawa, however, attributed setbacks not to economic or climatic conditions but to the Indians' character and traditions which, they claimed, made them unsuited to agriculture. Through an examination of the relevant published literature and of archival sources in Ottawa, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, Carter provided the first in-depth study of government policy, Indigenous responses, and the socio-economic condition of the reserve communities on the prairies in the post-treaty era.
There will also be official comments from several First Nations Elders and speakers followed by and an open discussion. Light snacks and refreshments to follow.
