Category: Blog (Page 6 of 7)

From left to right: Jay Ramasubramanyam, Chris Russil, Sergio Guerra. Climate Cafe-1st March 2017: Heart & Crown, Preston St., Ottawa.

Sharing Perspectives on Climate Migration: From Narratives, to Language, to Conceptualization

April 19, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Jay Ramasubramanyam

“Rains have become so fickle, the days measurably hotter, the droughts more frequent and more fierce, making it impossible to grow enough food on their land” read an article in the New York Times that appeared in late February which elucidated the grounds for mass-migratory patterns across Sub-Saharan Africa (Heat, Hunger and War Force Africans Onto a ‘Road on Fire’). In light of such patterns increasing more than ever in the global south, the role of Carleton University’s Climate Commons, a working group that brings together faculty members and undergraduate and graduate students to discuss climate change issues, becomes all the more prominent within the context of such narratives. An evening of discussion and dialogue on climate change migration on the 1st of March brought together professors, a slam poet and a graduate student to discuss ‘climate refugees’.

Oxfam Canada and Relief to East Timor, 1975-76

April 13, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by David Webster

When does the humanitarian impulse to provide aid and relief contribute to activism to promote human rights? When does it prompt avoidance of activism in favour of quietly enduring access to places and people in need?

This is one of the questions I am trying to answer in current research on relations between Canada and East Timor. Under Indonesian military occupation from 1975 to 1999, Canadian aid agencies tended to shy away from criticizing Indonesian actions in order to make sure they could deliver aid supplies. Humanitarian impulses dictated a quiet stance on human rights from a range of Canadian NGOs. But there was an early exception, in the work of Oxfam Canada.

When Historians Meet Aid Workers and Policy Makers.

March 30, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Julie Van Drie

Reflections on the Conference, “A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016.”

On December 12th and 13th 2016, the colloquium, A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016 was held at the Lester B. Pearson Building, the main office of Global Affairs Canada, in Ottawa, ON. The conference involved an array of academics and professionals on the history of Canada’s foreign aid policies since 1950, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Dr. Keith Spicer’s A Samaritan State?[1] The conference featured 17 speakers, all of whom gave a presentation on a specific aspect of Canada’s humanitarian aid policy. With approximately 150 attendees, undergraduate and graduate students, research assistants, professors, academics, bureaucrats, ambassadors, and other distinguished guests gathered together in the impressive Robertson Room at Global Affairs Canada to engage with this important field of study, and explore questions about Canada’s past role in foreign aid and development.

Humanitarianism and its History: Insights from Down Under, 1/3

March 13, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Sarah Glassford

This series is being reposted in HistPhil

RC Conference Program 2016.

During the weekend of 9-11 September 2016, roughly 50 scholars, archivists, museum curators, and aid practitioners gathered at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia to discuss the oldest and arguably most complex of the world’s major humanitarian organizations. “Histories of the Red Cross Movement: Continuity & Change” brought together representatives of more than a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia in lively discussions of Red Cross history, Red Cross archives, and the nature of humanitarianism itself. This is the first in a series of blog posts reporting and reflecting on the issues raised at the conference.

“Histories of the Red Cross Movement: Continuity & Change” drew together three thought-provoking keynote speakers from different parts of the globe: American political scientist Michael Barnett (University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, Washington, DC), European historian Davide Rodogno (Professor and Head of the International History Department at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva), and New Zealander historian Margaret Tennant (Professor Emeritus and Honorary Research Fellow at Massey University, Palmerston North). Each took a particular approach to thinking about the nature of humanitarianism and its history, but collectively their remarks paint a picture of a research field coming into its own.

Archives and Foreign Aid, A Workshop Summary

February 6, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Tyler Owens

On December 12th and 13th 2016, the conference A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016 was held at the Global Affairs Canada Lester B. Pearson Building in Ottawa. The aim of the conference was to explore the development of Canadian foreign aid over the preceding 60 years. (In footnote: 2016 was also the 60th anniversary of the publication of A Samaritan State?, among the first scholarly analyses of Canada’s foreign aid policy, written by Dr. Keith Spicer.) Prior to the official opening of the conference, archivists, historians, and members of the aid sector from Quebec and Ontario gathered for a workshop session. The aim of this session was to bring together colleagues from all branches of aid history; those gathered were experts in the archival, library, and document management sciences related to the production, preservation, and use of archives on humanitarian aid. The workshop therefore facilitated the sharing of tips, procedures, and best practices for researching the history of Canadian aid.

The workshop took the form of seven presentations followed by a brief question period.

The Future (for) Climate Refugees: NGOs, Security, and the Politics of Containment

January 23, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by David Meinen

First, a quick caveat for the uninitiated – there is no such thing, officially, as a ‘climate refugee.’ While a relatively new phrase, especially in the wake of recent ecological disasters, the idea that climate change would induce a new kind of conflict and migration in the global South has been gaining momentum since the mid-1980s (see El-Hinnawi, 1985). This narrative became firmly integrated into the collective conscience of UNEP and the UNSC in 2007 (Penny, 2007; Hartmann, 2010), followed quickly by Canadian policy-makers and development practitioners (see DND, 2010; Becklumb, 2013). Since then, the relationship between environmental changes, refugees, humanitarianism, and security has materialized in the notion of ‘climate security.’ This notion perpetuates a crisis narrative of politically unstable Third World peoples – colloquially referred to as climate refugees/migrants – fleeing their uninhabitable homelands and (inconspicuously) posing a threat to international security. The speculative nature of this notion brings the climate refugee into being only through “future conditional knowledge practices” (Gemenne & Baldwin, 2013, p. 267); thus, while there is a notable lack of empirical evidence on the phenomenon of climate security (Kothari, 2014), as the debate becomes further enmired in expressions of insecurity, the more the supposed climate refugee is cast as “something to fear and/or control” (Farbotko, 2010, p. 53).

Treasures of CIDA’s 30-Year-Old Photography Collections: A Visual Perspective on Canadian International Aid

December 2, 2016 / Sean Eedy

by Sonya de Laat & Dominique Marshall

This blog has been prepared ahead of the workshop on the archives of CIDA on December 12 in Ottawa, held by the CNHH on the occasion of the Conference “A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016” hosted by Global Affairs Canada

This article is cross-posted with Active History as of December 9, 2016.

Rights and Realities Exhibit; Slide Number: 730-487-04; A woman repairs shoes in a tiny kiosk on the sidewalk in downtown Lima, Peru, 1995; (c) Global Affairs Canada/Stephanie Colvey

The ways in which the former Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has visually represented its projects and people to the general public has greatly informed public perceptions of aid and international affairs. From the end of the 1960s, CIDA’s photographs have been used in the communications products of the Agency and of partners (NGOs, schools, publishers, etc.), or in travelling exhibitions, publications and teaching materials. They also represent a resource for scholars and practitioners interested in exploring and sharing CIDA’s multifaceted histories. For forty-five years, CIDA administered the nation’s official development assistance (ODA). From large-scale mining and electricity projects to smaller scale education and health programs, CIDA was Canada’s main response to a global surge in international development initiatives that started in the 1960s. Simultaneously, CIDA was a vehicle for extending Canadian economic and political interests as well as its social values abroad. It became a key entity in defining Canada’s caring and helpful identity domestically and internationally.

Presentation during the ceremony at the home of the Ambassador of Chile.

Canadian Veteran Humanitarian Honoured by Chilean Embassy of Ottawa

November 15, 2016 / Sean Eedy

Dr. John W. Foster honoured at the home of the Ambassador of Chile.

The Latin American Working Group is working in collabortion with the CNHH in order to collect, organize and publicize its historical activities. Its website, “Si Hay Camino” is already rich in material. Most of its archives are deposited at the Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) of York University, and the collection of books and archives has an online Finding Aid. In parallel, the CNHH is working with Carleton University Archives and Research Collections, to transfer John Foster’s personal papers there, to add to the papers of another veteran director of Oxfam Canada, Meyer Brownstone.

Creche for the Children of Hospital Workers in Lusaka, Zambia, 1980-1981.

November 7, 2016 / Sean Eedy

by Victoria Hawkins

Cross posted with Match International Women’s Fund.

During her BA in History at Carleton University, Victoria worked as a research assistant for the Canadian Network of Humanitarian History.[1] She seconded the University Archives and Research Collections in the inventory of this new collection, which will be available to the public soon.

Highlight of the Archives of the Match Fund Newly Arrived at Carleton University.

The MATCH International Women’s Fund’s archives include some files of specific projects conducted overseas in regions such as Africa and South America since the beginning of the Canadian NGO 40 years ago. There were many interesting projects in South America, especially out of Peru. For instance, a number of projects for the improvement of the lives of women were implemented in the shantytown Belen, outside of Lima, namely with a Mother’s Club. But most of the materials on these projects were in Spanish making them difficult for me to interpret more deeply.

Partnership Africa Canada reaches into 30-years of archives with Carleton and CNHH

August 26, 2016 / Sean Eedy

by Zuzia Danielski

As Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, welcoming a growing team and expanding programs, there is no better time to take stock of our roots.

With the retirement of PAC’s long-serving Executive Director in 2015, it became crucial to document the organization’s three decades of history in order to preserve institutional memory, share it with the newest members of our team, and ensure the principles that PAC was founded on continue to be integrated across all programs.