The town of Banff sits at the threshold between the Pacific Northwest and the expansive North American plains. Surrounded by idyllic lakes and mountains, the town evokes popular ideas of the Canadian wilderness. The scenery, geography, and significance of Banff made the town the perfect location for a group of historians from across Canada and the United States to meet for Common and Contested Pasts, a conference held in honour of the retirement of Dr. Ted Binnema, who taught at the University of Northern British Columbia for nearly twenty-five years.
The themes and discussions that took place at Common and Contested Pasts were centred around the various historical interests that Dr. Binnema maintained throughout his career. The two-day conference opened with presentations that explored the history of human relationships with the environment, including the history of the North American bison population, Blackfoot women’s relationships to, and knowledge of, the environment in North America, and Canada’s changing relationship with wildfires and the development of fire suppression tactics. This was followed by heated debates on the role of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s regulation of the pemmican market and an evening session that explored John Buchan’s relationship to the environment. The evening was fittingly concluded with a musical rendition of Buchan’s poetry, including the poignant and nostalgic An Evening by the Sea.
Give me, rather the evening, in a little grey northern town, where over the firth and the harbour the sun goes down.”
John Buchan
Day two of Common and Contested Past featured presentations focusing on treaties, Indigenous-settler relations, and historical biography. Dr. Jennifer Brown delivered a fascinating keynote presentation on auditory and visual worlds in Indigenous-settler relations. This was followed by discussions of treaty making and the Hudson’s Bay Company, policing in the Canadian West during the early colonial period, and biographies of significant and controversial Canadian figures such as Olive Dickason and Paul Kane. The conference closed with a keynote by Dr. Binnema, who offered a brief, and fascinating, reconstruction of the historical “salmon realm” in the Pacific Northwest, where Indigenous communities depended primarily on salmon for survival, as opposed to bison, moose, or oolichan.
Ultimately, Common and Contested Pasts served as a celebration of Dr. Binnema’s contribution to the field of history. As someone who does not study Canadian history, I was struck by the complexity, and passion, of the historical developments and debates that grew as the days carried on. The conference, while small, displayed some of the newest ideas in environmental and North American history from both established and upcoming scholars.
To help share some of the ideas and discussions that took place at Common and Contested Pasts with other scholars, as well as the interested public, the conference’s organizers and I created The Common and Contested Cast, a podcast featuring some of the scholars at the conference who shared their presentations, their ideas, and their connections to Dr. Binnema and his scholarly contributions. Over two days, Common and Contested Pasts served as a space in which some of the finest scholars of Canadian and American history came together to celebrate the retirement of a historian whose contribution to the history of North America cannot be understated. Through The Common and Contested Cast, we hope to share a piece of this conference with you, and present some of the latest developments in Canadian history from Banff to the rest of Canada.
Feature image: Petyo Lake at the Bow Pass. Used with permission.
Sean Robinson