Olive Dickason Explained

Olive Dickason
Birth Name:Olive Patricia Dickason
Birth Date:6 March 1920
Birth Place:Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Children:3
Thesis Title:The Myth of the Savage
Thesis Year:1976
Academic Advisors:Cornelius Jaenen
Discipline:History
Sub Discipline:Canadian Indigenous history
Workplaces:University of Alberta

Olive Patricia Dickason (1920–2011)[1] was a Métis historian and journalist. She was the first scholar in Canada to receive a PHD in Indigenous history. She is known for writing one of the first textbooks about First Nations in Canada, Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from the Earliest Times.

Personal life

Dickason was born on 6 March 1920 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to parents Frank Leonard Williamson and Phoebe Philomena Côté, who had Métis heritage.[2] Her father worked for the Bank of Montreal and her mother was a schoolteacher.[2] Her family moved to the Interlake region after losing everything they owned in the 1929 stock market crash.[3] There, her mother taught her and her sister Alice how to hunt, trap, and fish to provide food for the family. The family was unable to send Dickason for more schooling after grade 10 because of their poor financial situation.[4]

Encouraged by her mentor, the priest Athol Murray, she decided to finish high school. He accepted her as the lone girl in his all-boys namesak Notre Dame College in Saskatchewan.[4] She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and philosophy at Notre Dame College, an affiliate of the University of Ottawa. She was the first scholar in Canada to receive a PHD in Indigenous history.[2]

Dickason had three daughters: Anne, Clare, and Roberta. Olive Dickason died on 12 March 2011, one week after her 91st birthday.

Career

She began a 24-year career in journalism at the Regina Leader-Post and subsequently, worked as a writer and editor at the Winnipeg Free Press, the Montreal Gazette, and The Globe and Mail. She promoted coverage of First Nations and women's issues.

In 1970, aged 50, she entered the Master of History program at the University of Ottawa.[2] She had to struggle with faculty preconceptions regarding Aboriginal history – including arguments that it did not exist – before finally finding a professor, Cornelius Jaenen, to act as her academic advisor. "I was lucky ... [a] Belgian fellow, who didn't know much about Native people, but knew a lot about discrimination, took up my cause, and the university eventually admitted me." She completed her master's degree at the University of Ottawa with the thesis Louisburg and the Indians: A Study in Imperial Race Relations, 1713–1760[5] two years later, and her PhD in 1977. Her doctoral thesis, entitled The Myth of the Savage, was eventually published as were Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from the Earliest Times and The Native Imprint: The Contribution of First Peoples to Canada's Character -- Volume 1: to 1815 (1995), which she edited. In addition she also wrote Indian Arts in Canada, which won three awards for conception and design and coauthored The Law of Nations and the New World.

Dickason was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Alberta in 1976.[6] She received tenure as Full Professor in 1985, the same year she turned 65–the age of mandatory retirement as enforced by the University of Alberta's mandatory policy.[2] Dickason filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission against the University of Alberta, claiming its mandatory retirement policy was a violation of the Alberta Individual's Rights Protections Act.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Obituary - Olive Patricia Dickason . The Globe and Mail . Toronto . 14 March 2011 .
  2. Web site: Conn . Heather . Olive Dickason . The Canadian Encyclopedia . Historica Canada . 14 October 2022.
  3. Book: MacKinnon . Donna Jean . Newsgirls : gutsy pioneers in Canada's newsrooms . 2017 . Toronto . 978-1-988170-04-6.
  4. Web site: Conn . Heather . Olive Dickason . The Canadian Encyclopedia . Historica Canada.
  5. News: Posner . Michael . Michael Posner (journalist) . 17 April 2011 . Olive Dickason Wrote the Book on Native History in Canada . The Globe and Mail . Toronto . 3 November 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303185217/http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20110416.OBDICKASONATL/BDAStory/BDA/deaths/?pageRequested=all . 3 March 2016 . dead .
  6. Web site: Beal . Bob . Macleod . Rod . Author and historian sought to set the record straight on Aboriginal peoples . Windspeaker . Aboriginal Multi-Media Society . 14 October 2022.
  7. News: Professor Contesting Retirement Order. The Leader-Post. 31 August 1985. 25 December 2010.
  8. Book: Archibald, Jo-Ann . Jo-Ann Archibald . 2009 . Creating an Indigenous Intellectual Movement at Canadian Universities: The Stories of Five First Nations Female Academics . Valaskakis . Gail Guthrie . Gail Guthrie Valaskakis . Stout . Madeleine Dion . Madeleine Dion Stout . Guimond . Eric . Restoring the Balance: First Nations Women, Community, and Culture . Winnipeg, Manitoba . University of Manitoba Press . 133–136 . 978-0-88755-709-5.
  9. Web site: Olive Patricia Dickason, C.M., Ph.D., D.Litt.. The Governor General of Canada. 25 December 2010.
  10. https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/915/index.do Dickason v. University of Alberta, [1992<nowiki>] 2 SCR 1103.][7] Dickason won her case in the human rights board of inquiry and the Alberta Queen's Bench, but lost in the Alberta Court of Appeal and then in the Supreme Court of Canada, the latter by a 4–3 split among the judges.[8] She retired from the University of Alberta at age 72 and renewed her relationship with the University of Ottawa. Her time as a professor and her significant contributions to the literature of history in Canada have influenced a whole generation of scholars, and will continue to be the basis for much historical work done in the future.

    Awards

    Olive was awarded the Order of Canada in 1996,[9] and was the recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award, now the Indspire Awards, in 1997. She has also been the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates throughout the years.

    Biography

    Préfontaine, Darren R. (2021). Changing Canadian History: The Life and Works of Olive Patricia Dickason. Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute Press.

    Bibliography

    • Book: Indian arts in Canada. Dickason. Olive Patricia. Haas. Rudi. Arts and Crafts Development Section, Indian-Eskimo Economic Development Branch, Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. 1972. Ottawa.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Manlike monsters on trial : early records and modern evidence. University of British Columbia Press. 1980. 9780774801195. Halpin. Marjorie M.. Vancouver. The concept of L'homme sauvage. Ames. Michael M..
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. The myth of the savage : and the beginnings of French colonialism in the Americas. University of Alberta Press. 1984. 9780888640369. Edmonton. registration.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Aboriginal resource use in Canada : historical and legal aspects. University of Manitoba Press. 1991. 9780887553097. Abel. Kerry M. Winnipeg. "For every plant there is a use" : the botanical world of Mexica and Iroquoians. Friesen. Jean.
    • Book: Canada's First Nations:A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times. Olive Patricia Dickason. University of Oklahoma Press. 1992. 9780195416527.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. The Prairie West : historical readings. Pia Pica Press. 1992. 9780888642271. Francis. R D. Edmonton, Alta.. A historical reconstruction for the northwestern plains. Palmer. Howard.
    • Book: The law of nations and the New World. Dickason. Olive Patricia. Green. Leslie Claude. University of Alberta Press. 1993. 9780888642578. Edmonton.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. The Native imprint : the contribution of First Peoples to Canada's character, volume 1 : to 1815. Athabasca University Educational Enterprises. 1995. 9780919737136. Athabasca, Alta..
    • Book: Dickason, Olive. Reading beyond words : contexts for native history. Broadview Press. 1996. 9781551110707. Brown. Jennifer S.H.. Orchard Park, N.Y.. Europeans and a New World cosmography in the 1500s.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Earth, water, air and fire : studies in Canadian ethnohistory. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 1998. 9780889202979. McNab. David. Waterloo, Ont.. Art and Amerindian worldviews.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Restructuring societies : insights from the social sciences. Carleton University Press. 1999. Joseph. Alun E.. Ottawa, Ont.. Iron Men, True Men, and the Art of Treaty-Making. Knight. David B..
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Expressions in Canadian native studies. University Extension Press. 2000. 9780888804112. Laiberte. Ron F.. Saskatoon. Old world law and new world political realities. registration.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. The new peoples : being and becoming métis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press. 2001. 9780873514088. Peterson. Jacqueline. St. Paul, Minn.. From "one nation" in the Northeast to "new nation" in the Northwest : a look at the emergence of the métis. Brown. Jennifer S H.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Decentring the Renaissance : Canada and Europe in multidisciplinary perspective, 1500-1700. University of Toronto Press. 2001. 9781442673762. Warkentin. Germaine. Toronto. The sixteenth-century French vision of empire: the other side of self-determination. Podruchny. Carolyn.
    • Book: Dickson, Olive P.. Aboriginal peoples of Canada : a short introduction. University of Toronto Press. 2002. 9780802036308. Magocsi. Paul R.. Toronto. Metis. registration.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. Walking a tightrope : aboriginal people and their representations. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 2005. 9781417599660. McNab. David. Waterloo, Ont.. The many faces of Canada's history as it relates to aboriginal people. Lischke. Ute.
    • Book: Dickason, Olive Patricia. The history of immigration and racism in Canada : essential readings. Canadian Scholars' Press. 2008. 9781551303406. Walker. Barrington. Toronto. Natives and newcomers in Early "Canada". Canada when Europeans arrives.
    • Book: A concise history of Canada's First Nations. Dickason. Olive Patricia. Newbigging. William. Oxford University Press. 2010. 9780195432428. New York.
    • Book: Visions of the heart : issues involving Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Dickason. Olive Patricia. Long. David Alan. OUP Canada. 2016. 9780199014774. Fourth. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada.

    References

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Olive Dickason".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.