Learning Canadian History
What I learnt in History 1120
At the beginning of the term we were asked to write what we thought history was and how we did it. I remember not knowing what to write down, partially because I was pressed for time but also because I did not really know how to answer the question. Isn’t history just reading a text book and learning about past events? This is how I was taught history the first time I took it and it is good to know historical events but it is also good to know who wrote about the past event and how they interpreted that event. When I went to answer this question the first thing that came to my mind was everything that happened prior to 1985, which is the year I was born, is history. Okay so I was being funny. Realistically though, I only had a little knowledge of Canadian history and how to interpret history, that to me is disappointing.
Throughout the course I have really enjoyed learning about Canada’s history and how to interpret past events in an unbiased and open minded way or as our guest speaker said how we should use an ethnohistorical methodology when looking at history. An example of this would be ensuring we are looking at who wrote an article and what the article is about. I remember one day in class we were talking about indigenous people of Canada and how most of the accounts of indigenous people were written by Europeans. This is interesting in the fact that indigenous people might have had a completely different account of what happened but there is not much written material until later on in history.
Primary Vs. Secondary Sources
I think it is also important to know the difference between a primary source and a secondary source. A primary source is going to be an original source from people who lived during the time period, where as a secondary source is a source that provided interpretation of the primary source. I think a primary source will allow you to make your own interpretation of an event and then from the primary source look at other sources to see if they supported your view or not. It is hard to completely understand what happened throughout history when you are not living during that time but you can get an understanding of past events by these primary and secondary documents. It is also important to ensure the credibility and reliability of a source you are looking at to ensure you have correct information about the past event. Some information you would want to look at is when the document was produced and by whom. Why did someone write about the particular event and how were they connected to the event. As long as you have a point of view, as well as, reliable and credible sources to support your interpretation, you are on the right track.
Lectures
I enjoyed learning about past events through lectures as well this past fall semester. The lectures were able to provide reassurance of my interpretations of the reading logs which was great because sometimes I had difficulty interpreting some of the readings. An example of this was when we had to read the two articles The Beothuk on the Eve of Their Extinction and The Collapse of the Beothuk World. Even though these two articles were about the same past event I found there were a few discrepancies between the two articles. I would not say the discrepancies were large but there was a definite gap between some of the information between the two articles. I pointed out some of the differences in my reading log, which I have provided below, of the Beothuk.
Due to the differences in some of the readings I found it helpful to have a lecture that provided a clear understanding of the different past events we discussed in class. I also enjoyed the films that were shown in class as they changed up the lectures and provided information on the events we were studying in class.
Seminars
I have to say I felt really lucky to have the group of ladies I had in my seminar group. We had a lot of great discussions about the reading logs we had to do. I felt as though I facilitated a lot of the discussion because I knew my group would not of judged me if my interpretation was wrong. I am not saying I think I will get judged all the time I have an opinion but I do have a slight fear of having a ‘wrong’ point of view or interpretation. This might sound silly but because I do not have a great understanding of Canada’s history I feel as though how I might look at something is completely different than someone else might look or interpret something but that is how it is suppose to be. We have to remember that everyone’s interpretation is important and for myself, I find it interesting when someone has a different interpretation or idea of a past event that I might not have had. However you always have to ensure you support your interpretation. A good example of this is the work we did with the Great Canadian Mystery: The Chilcotin War. We were asked to analyze the documents, interpret the events and provide evidence as to whether you thought the Chilcotin War was actually a war or murder. I enjoyed the discussion we had in class class and seeing how each group interpreted this particular war and how every group came to that interpretation, also what evidence they chose to support their interpretation.