The Friday Files - news to inform and inspire
Dr. James Kennedy, Outgoing President BACS
Dr. James Kennedy needs no introduction to most in the field of Canadian studies, where he is known as one of the pillars of the community. Often invited to speak by various governmental and academic institutions, Dr. Kennedy (or Jimmy, as he prefers to be called) is a name often referenced in the Canadian studies sphere.
Jimmy is the Director of the Centre of Canadian Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh – the spiritual home of Canadian Studies. His research interests lie broadly in comparative/historical sociology and political sociology. He holds a PhD in Sociology from McGill University. His more particular interests lie in the sociology of nationalism. Here, he has been “concerned with identifying the sociological underpinnings affecting the character of nationalism. Scotland and Quebec have been the focus of his ongoing research.”
Jimmy is also the outgoing President of the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS), who will be hosting a mini annual conference from Friday 16 April. Prominent amongst the offerings this year are panels on Transnational Literature and Print, the October Crisis of 1970, a roundtable on Canada/UK Comparisons, as well as the annual Eccles Lecture sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. Full details of the conference programme and speakers can be found on the BACS website and registrations are here.
Jimmy shared with us his thoughts as outgoing President, saying, "It has been an honour to serve as president of the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS) over these past three years. As I reflect on this time, I am especially grateful to the support received from the Foundation, most especially in relation to our annual BACS conferences. A particular highlight of our 2019 conference at Senate House was the participation of Geoffrey Kelley, the former Québec Government Minister for Native Affairs made possible by the Foundation. However, I was saddened to have to cancel the 2020 BACS Conference (our 45th anniversary conference) at the University of Edinburgh. The Foundation had once again been hugely supportive, enabling the participation of our keynote speaker, Professor Alain-G Gagnon (UQAM).”
It has been our pleasure Jimmy, you've been an exemplary leader in Canadian Studies, and we all wish you well!
The Art of Winter, The Power of Collaboration
Yukon artist Megan Jensen has, meticulously and labouriously, used only snowshoes and stamina to create one of the most meaningful, most watched Canadian videos circulated this month. Over one short minute, an epic story unfolds on film told in a language unfamiliar to most. A lone woman narrates, at times navigating the dark and the winter landscape, at others steadfastly snowshoeing. In the concluding moments, the camera draws back to reveal a staggering Raven design in the snow done in the style of Formline art. Called The Art Show of Winter, the short film commissioned by Travel Yukon demonstrates the power of creative collaboration.
Released as the days grow longer, the video recounts the multigenerational Tlingit creation story of how Raven brought the world out of darkness and into light by unleashing the sun, the moon, and the stars. Yukon-based Tlingit visual artist Megan Jensen — who recounts the story in Lingít language which she is in the midst of fully learning — worked together with Shaunoh Anderson and assistants Robert Anthill, Calla Paleczny and Dan Carr (local Yukon filmmakers from TSU North), and Vancouver-based creative agency, Cossette. The final Raven design which is nearly 100m across at its diameter took 15,400 snowshoe steps to complete over the course of 11 hours, and a total of 60 drone flights to capture it all on video.
The Friday Files – news to inform and inspire
Dr. James Kennedy, Outgoing President BACS
Dr. James Kennedy needs no introduction to most in the field of Canadian studies, where he is known as one of the pillars of the community. Often invited to speak by various governmental and academic institutions, Dr. Kennedy (or Jimmy, as he prefers to be called) is a name often referenced in the Canadian studies sphere.
Jimmy is the Director of the Centre of Canadian Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh – the spiritual home of Canadian Studies. His research interests lie broadly in comparative/historical sociology and political sociology. He holds a PhD in Sociology from McGill University. His more particular interests lie in the sociology of nationalism. Here, he has been “concerned with identifying the sociological underpinnings affecting the character of nationalism. Scotland and Quebec have been the focus of his ongoing research.”
Jimmy is also the outgoing President of the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS), who will be hosting a mini annual conference from Friday 16 April. Prominent amongst the offerings this year are panels on Transnational Literature and Print, the October Crisis of 1970, a roundtable on Canada/UK Comparisons, as well as the annual Eccles Lecture sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. Full details of the conference programme and speakers can be found on the BACS website and registrations are here.
Jimmy shared with us his thoughts as outgoing President, saying, "It has been an honour to serve as president of the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS) over these past three years. As I reflect on this time, I am especially grateful to the support received from the Foundation, most especially in relation to our annual BACS conferences. A particular highlight of our 2019 conference at Senate House was the participation of Geoffrey Kelley, the former Québec Government Minister for Native Affairs made possible by the Foundation. However, I was saddened to have to cancel the 2020 BACS Conference (our 45th anniversary conference) at the University of Edinburgh. The Foundation had once again been hugely supportive, enabling the participation of our keynote speaker, Professor Alain-G Gagnon (UQAM).”
It has been our pleasure Jimmy, you've been an exemplary leader in Canadian Studies, and we all wish you well!
The Art of Winter, The Power of Collaboration
Yukon artist Megan Jensen has, meticulously and labouriously, used only snowshoes and stamina to create one of the most meaningful, most watched Canadian videos circulated this month. Over one short minute, an epic story unfolds on film told in a language unfamiliar to most. A lone woman narrates, at times navigating the dark and the winter landscape, at others steadfastly snowshoeing. In the concluding moments, the camera draws back to reveal a staggering Raven design in the snow done in the style of Formline art. Called The Art Show of Winter, the short film commissioned by Travel Yukon demonstrates the power of creative collaboration.
Released as the days grow longer, the video recounts the multigenerational Tlingit creation story of how Raven brought the world out of darkness and into light by unleashing the sun, the moon, and the stars. Yukon-based Tlingit visual artist Megan Jensen — who recounts the story in Lingít language which she is in the midst of fully learning — worked together with Shaunoh Anderson and assistants Robert Anthill, Calla Paleczny and Dan Carr (local Yukon filmmakers from TSU North), and Vancouver-based creative agency, Cossette. The final Raven design which is nearly 100m across at its diameter took 15,400 snowshoe steps to complete over the course of 11 hours, and a total of 60 drone flights to capture it all on video.
A recent BFA graduate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Jensen usually works as a painter. She leapt at the opportunity to collaborate on a larger-than-life scale uniting her Formline designs with her Tlingit language. Greater than her designs, Jensen realises the power and importance of sharing her language at a critical juncture for revitalisation and preservation.
“One of the most meaningful parts of this entire process has been knowing that communities from all over the Yukon and hopefully beyond will be able to use this film as a resource to learn this story in our language. It is one of the most heartfelt and meaningful projects I’ve ever been a part of, and I am greatly humbled and honoured that I was asked to be a part of it.”
Uniting art, film, language, land, and storytelling, this unique collaboration brings authentic visibility to indigenous presence. It goes beyond tokenism and romanticisation. For Jensen as a young artist of Dakhká Tlingit and Tagish Khwáan ancestry from the Dahk’laweidi Clan, the commission empowered her as an indigenous female artist and has inspired her to explore more multidisciplinary and embodied practices.
In sharing a timeless story of how light came to the world, the Travel Yukon film resonates with the current moment. Jensen shares, “... this story also reveals to us how humans cannot overpower the natural world and the supernatural. We see this teaching through the selfishness of the chief, and how he did not wish to share these beautiful gifts with the world.”
As we emerge from a year of hardship and despair, we too emerge into new light, but also new consciousness. What echoes from this stunning artistic collaboration is the inspiration and wisdom that comes in connecting to ancestry and to the earth. At this critical juncture for healing, The Art Show of Winter reveals a way forward.
A longer version of the video will be shared in a few months’ time. Follow Megan Jensen to stay informed.
Tribute to HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh
We joined the world in mourning the loss of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who passed peacefully at home, Windsor Castle, 9 April 2021. John Bridgeman CBE TD DL reflects on Prince Philip's strong connections to Canada, and his life-long commitment to environmental health.
Prince Philip is reported to have visited Canada more than any other country. The Duke of Edinburgh visited Canada over 70 times between 1950 and 2013 (according to the CBC last week) and always saw himself as a committed Anglo-Canadian. And he never lost his determination to engage whenever he could with those taking responsibility for the health of Planet Earth.
I first met Prince Philip when he visited Oxfordshire during my term as High Sheriff of the County. He was interested to learn that I worked for Alcan Aluminium, then Canada’s leading multinational corporation, and had twice lived in Canada. He was clearly a passionate Anglo-Canadian, had visited Canada many times, and told me of his vivid memories of opening, in August 1954, Alcan’s flagship aluminium smelter and hydro-electric power complex at Kitimat in remote Northern British Columbia. The project was pioneering not only for its engineering excellence but also for its attention to environmental and social impact.
Prince Philip was characteristically modest in his description of the occasion, but I subsequently discovered (1) that the Prince had been following closely the massive construction project in the British press. Much of the Kitimat smelter’s output was destined for the UK - still very much in post-war reconstruction but desperately short of aluminium for its world class aircraft industry. Prince Philip had accepted an invitation to attend the British Commonwealth Games being held in Vancouver in August 1954 and let it be known that he would like to find time to visit the Kitimat Project. The company was understandably delighted and made sure that the “opening” would be arranged to coincide with his visit. Prince Philip stayed for a full day, arriving at Kitimat Port on the Canadian Cruiser HMCS Ontario, which fired a 21 gun salute in his honour – and that doesn’t happen very often in Canadian inshore waters.
Much later I became a Vice Chairman of London’s Canada Club, of which Prince Philip had been Patron since 1954. The Prince kindly agreed to hold a Millennium Dinner in August 2000 at St James’s Palace, and initiate the Canada Club Prince Philip Award for a Club Member’s Services to the Environment. I had not forgotten a speech which the Prince had made to the World Wildlife Fund in New York in 1962 (2). In this he had said “Since the time of our Lord, that is in 1,962 years, about a hundred different animals and the same number of birds have become extinct. Species that took at least 2.5 million years to develop have been wiped out for ever. And today another 250 species of animals and birds are in danger of extermination by the sheer callousness of mankind”. Prince Philip spoke with great passion again that night on the urgency of needing to take greater care of our planet, its habitats and its wildlife. With an echo of his World Wildlife Fund speech he said “We rightly collect vast sums of money and go to endless trouble to preserve man-made treasures most of which serve no practical purpose, surely then we should also pay attention to conserving the living, God-made treasures of this world”
Prince Philip will be remembered in many ways, including his commitment to environmental causes, but surely his most enduring legacy will be as a constant and reassuring companion of more than 70 years to Her Majesty the Queen.
1. “Global Mission – The Story of Alcan” by Duncan C Campbell, published privately in Canada, 1989 (ISBN 2 9801656 1 1): Volume II, Chapter III: The Giant Step to British Columbia
2. “The Environmental Revolution” by HRH The Prince Philip, Speeches on Conservation, 1962 – 1977, published by Andre Deutsch Limited London, 1978 (ISBN 0 233 97035 5)