Bucking Conservatism: Alternative Stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s

by Leon Crane Bear (Editor), Larry Hannant (Editor), Karissa Robyn Patton (Editor)

Overview

With lively, informative contributions by both scholars and activists, Bucking Conservatism highlights the individuals and groups who challenged Alberta’s conservative status quo in the 1960s and 70s. Drawing on archival records, newspaper articles, police reports, and interviews, the contributors examine Alberta’s history through the eyes of Indigenous activists protesting discriminatory legislation and unfulfilled treaty obligations, women and lesbian and gay persons standing up to the heteropatriarchy, student activists seeking to forge a new democracy, and anti-capitalist environmentalists demanding social change. This book uncovers the lasting influence of Alberta’s noncomformists---those who recognized the need for dissent in a province defined by wealth and right-wing politics---and poses thought-provoking questions for contemporary activists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771992596
Publisher:	Athabasca University Press
Publication date:	11/25/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	364
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Leon Crane Bear is Siksika and a treaty Indian, as well as a graduate of the University of Lethbridge. Larry Hannant is a Canadian historian specializing in twentieth-century political dissent. Karissa Robyn Patton is a post-doctoral fellow at Vancouver Island University.
Leon Crane Bear is Siksika and a treaty Indian, as well as a graduate of the University of Lethbridge.
Larry Hannant is a Canadian historian specializing in twentieth-century political dissent.
Karissa Robyn Patton is a post-doctoral fellow at Vancouver Island University.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction
by Larry Hannant

PART I
Indigenous Activism and Resistance

Introduction
by Leon Crane Bear

1. Indian Status as the Foundation of Justice
by Leon Crane Bear

2. Teaching It Our Way: Blue Quills and the Demand for Indigenous Educational Autonomy
by Tarisa Dawn Little

3. “We are on the outside looking in [. . .]. But we are still Indians”: Alberta Indigenous Women Fighting for Status Rights, 1968–85
by Corinne George

PART II
Defying Heteropatriarchy

Introduction
by Karissa Robyn Patton

4. Fed Up with the Status Quo: Alberta Women’s Groups Challenge Maternalist Ideology and Secure Provincial Funding for Daycare, 1964–71
by Tom Langford

5. Gay Liberation in Conservative Calgary
by Nevena Ivanović, Kevin Allen, and Larry Hannant

6. Contraception, Community, and Controversy: The Lethbridge Birth Control and Information Centre, 1972–78
by Karissa Robyn Patton

7. “Ultra Activists” in a “Very Closeted Place”: The Early Years of Edmonton’s Gay Alliance Toward Equality, 1972–77
by Erin Gallagher-Cohoon

PART III
Doing Politics in a New Way

Introduction
by Larry Hannant

8. Daring to Be Left in Social Credit Alberta: Recollections of a Young New Democratic Party Activist in the 1960s
by Ken Novakowski

9. Socialist Survival: The Woodsworth-Irvine Socialist Fellowship and the Preservation of Radical Thought in Alberta
by Mack Penner

10. Learning Marxism from Tom Flanagan: Left-Wing Activism at the University of Calgary in the Late 1960s and Early 1970s
by Larry Hannant

11. Drop In, Hang Out, and Crash: Outreach Programs for Transient Youth and War Resisters in Edmonton
by Baldwin Reichwein and PearlAnn Reichwein

12. Solidarity on the Cricket Pitch: Confronting South African Apartheid in Edmonton
by Larry Hannant

PART IV
Countercultural and Environmental Radicalism

Introduction
by Larry Hannant

13. From Nuclear Disarmament to Raging Granny: A Recollection of Peace Activism and Environmental Advocacy in the 1960s and 1970s
by Louise Swift

14. The Mill Creek Park Movement and Citizen Activism in Edmonton, 1964–75
by PearlAnn Reichwein and Jan Olson

15. “A Lot of Heifer-Dust”: Alberta Maverick Marion Nicoll and Abstract Art
by Jennifer E. Salahub

16. Land and Love in the Rockies: The Poetic Politics of Sid Marty and Headwaters
by PearlAnn Reichwein

17. Death of a Delta
by Tom Radford

Conclusion: Bucking Conservatism, Then and Now
by Karissa Robyn Patton and Mack Penner

List of Contributors