Creating Colonial Pasts

"In Creating Colonial Pasts, Cecilia Morgan makes a valuable contribution to the active and ongoing debate about the nature of memory and commemoration in Canada, highlighting the role of place and local knowledge in the construction of historical memory. Each chapter adds a new dimension to this innovative approach to the Canadian study of memory." -- Alan Gordon, Department of History, University of Guelph "Creating Colonial Pasts is brilliant. Morgan has presented us with a new way of seeing history, memory, and commemoration in southern Ontario." -- Donald Wright, Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick

Creating Colonial Pasts explores the creation of history and memory in Southern Ontario through the experience of its inhabitants, especially those who took an active role in the preservation and writing of Ontario’s colonial past.

Creating Colonial Pasts explores the creation of history and memory in Southern Ontario through the experience of its inhabitants, especially those who took an active role in the preservation and writing of Ontario’s colonial past: the founder of the Niagara Historical Society, Janet Carnochan; twentieth-century Six Nations historians Elliott Moses and Milton Martin; and Celia B. File, high-school teacher and historian of Mary Brant.

Examining the grand narratives of colonial Ontario – the Loyalists, the War of 1812, and the creation of settler society – Cecilia Morgan argues that place played an important role in shaping memory and narrative in locations such as Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Six Nations territory at the Grand River, and the Mohawk community at Tyendinaga. Illuminating the pivotal role of women and Indigenous people in historical commemoration and uncovering the existence of a lively and interconnected circle of historians and heritage activists in late nineteenth and twentieth-century Ontario, Creating Colonial Pasts is a virtuoso study of history-making.