Heritage and the National Inquiry into MMIWG This month, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) released its Final Report. The Inquiry began in 2016 with a mandate to report on the systemic causes of all forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls. The Inquiry also extended its original mandate to focus on two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (2SLGBTQQIA) people. Besides addressing important issues surrounding policing, access to justice, and other systemic colonial problems, the Report references culture and cultural heritage. Those familiar with the TRC Final Report and Calls to Action will not find these references out of place. Indigenous nations, individuals and communities have repeatedly represented the social and individual trauma caused by colonialism’s effect on Indigenous…

Canadian Archaeological Association Annual Meeting 2019 - Québec City It’s been one week since the Canadian Archaeological Association (CAA)’s Annual Meeting ended; this year hosted in Québec City in collaboration with the Association des Archéologues du Québec (AAQ). The Québec City Hilton’s halls were packed with archaeologists attending an eclectic array of sessions from Huron-Wendat Engagement to Archaeology of the Recent Past. TMHC’s contingent had a great time catching up with old colleagues and meeting new ones. First off, on Thursday May 16th, TMHC’s sponsored the session Continuities and Change in Canada: Exploring Black Settlement and Experience through Archaeology. Holly Martelle, Matt Beaudoin, Nicole Brandon, and Josh Dent delivered papers with Chuck Orser rounding out the day as discussant. Other contributors included Heather MacLeod-Leslie, Sara Beanlands, and Catherine Coltreau-Robins from…

Lead Legacy - Addressing Unregistered Sites in the 21st Century On February 25, 2019, 11 academic, government, avocational and commercial archaeologists worked for six hours to try and push as many site lead updates into Ontario's Past Portal as they could during that period. By 7:00 pm that evening, 70 site leads had been entered into the database and an additional 137 sites leads had been processed, many of which were geo-referenced and ready to be uploaded. In all, 207 potential sites were reviewed and processed. These leads originated in Wilfrid Jury's 1932 Catalogue notes and from Early Black Settlement descriptions from Joyce Pettigrew's A Safe Haven: The Story of the Black Settlers of Oxford County. Although the weather wasn't wholly in our favour, those that came out put in…