Reviving Civic Boosterism in Prince Rupert

Misia Robins

York University

In 2015, Prince Rupert City Hall released a vision statement called Hays 2.0. This document makes explicit reference to early civic boosterism from the time of the city’s incorporation, creating a local heritage story within the larger discourse of becoming a ‘global city’. This is a secular, pluralist history that incorporates First Nations into a story of trade, cooperation, and entrepreneurialism. I read the vision statement alongside early boosterist pamphlets from Prince Rupert’s founding to see what history is and is not used to make sense of the city as a site of potential global capital.

For Sites of Memory workshop participants — read more (password protected)

With the support of the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation, Dr. Pamela Klassen of the University of Toronto and Prof. Dr. Monique Scheer, Director of the Ludwig-Uhland-Institut of Historical and Cultural Anthropology, University of Tübingen, are directing a research project on Religion and Public Memory in Multicultural Societies. The project runs from 2015 to […]

How Should We Understand Indigenous Spirituality (in English)? A reflection on the philosophy of listening Indigenous spirituality matters to Indigenous peoples. In this discussion, I am broadly interested in how Indigenous spirituality is used in contemporary Indigenous politics. More specifically, I ask the question: How should we understand Indigenous spirituality in English? My discussion involves […]