Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860-1980 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 First Nations 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 is an important study. Cecilia Morgan is a Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Two chapters discuss the roles of Six Nations of the Grand River and Tyendinaga in the development and understanding of Canadian history.
