Call for Presentations, Workshops, and Displays
Newcomers: The impacts of 250 years of immigration on indigenous economies, the labour movement and work
52nd Annual Conference of the Pacific Northwest Labour History Association
with the BC Labour Heritage Centre and the Labour Studies Program at SFU
Friday night May 8 – Sunday noon May 10, 2020
Simon Fraser University – Downtown Harbour Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia
Indigenous peoples in the lands now known as the Pacific Northwest enjoyed strong and diverse relations of trade and exchange before contact with Europeans. Despite the vital role of Indigenous workers in early resource industries, ongoing colonization and commercialization eventually resulted in the systematic exclusion of First Nations from fishing, logging, trapping and other economic activity on their lands.
Immigration enabled these processes, but was also highly stratified. This conference will examine the methods and impacts of those measures, and how successive waves of migrants have been received through a lens of labour history, racism & exclusion, reconciliation and new forms of organizing.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- First Nation economies – then and now
- Why they came – opportunities and broken promises
- Exclusion and attraction – political determinations around immigration and refugees
- The role of organized labour in giving welcome or advocating exclusion, and advancing equity
- Continued racism and discrimination – Farm workers, domestic workers, temporary foreign workers
- Reconciliation and de-colonization
- The connection between attacks on unions and precarious work
- Music, theatre, poetry, film, memorabilia and visual arts
We invite proposals for panels, individual presentations, academic research, workshops and other forms of presentation. Interactive sessions are preferred, and the reading of papers is discouraged.
Please send a short (1 -2 page) proposal to Joey Hartman at joeyhartman@shaw.ca
- Summary of your workshop or presentation
- Anticipated duration (typically 30, 60 or 90 minutes)
- Presenter(s) name(s) and contact information, plus a short bio and vitae of presenter(s)
- Audio / Visual requirements
DEADLINE: December 2, 2019. We will respond by January 10, 2020.
For more information: joeyhartman@shaw.ca 1-778-870-0703
