My concept map articulates main events and main ideas that I found significant throughout this term. The main idea that I found to be consistent with most of our reading logs and assignments is that history is constantly changing. With the evaluation with new documents and the analysis of different perspectives new conclusions are often made about certain historical events. The next three main ideas that flow off the idea that history is always changing, as seen on my concept map, is that we have to be aware of the authenticity of historical documents, that we must avoid generalizations, and that we must evaluate all perspectives of a situation or event. The majority of Canadian history involves First Nations people and European settlers but almost all of the history was written Europeans even though First Nations people were equally involved. With this in mind, we have to be aware of the biases that are most likely present in a lot of Canadian historical documents. How can we be sure that the events being described are in fact accurate? There is no way no know for sure that the events being recorded are fully true which is why this factor is so important to be aware of when conducting historical research.
We must keep this idea of who wrote the history in mind, and therefore we must ensure to evaluate all the possible perspectives of an event in order to come to a fully credible conclusion. The Chilcholtin War is a perfect example of this. In class, many groups came to different conclusions in deciding if it was in fact an act or murder or an act of war. For my group in particular, we looked at a couple documents and not all and were successful in arguing that it was in fact an act of murder and others were successful in doing the opposite. This clearly represents how crucial it is to spend lots of time evaluating historical documents before coming to a conclusion about a specific event. Another aspect that I have come to realize in Canadian history, is that a lot of our past has been swept under the rug per say. There is this idea that Canada is such a great and prosperous nation but when in fact there were a lot of negative aspects to our history that simply have not been brought to light in the same manner. The immense discrimination that First Nations people experienced throughout the process of colonialism was never a priority in historical writing. Their wants and needs were not made a priority just as they were not made a priority to be included in historical documents and to be brought to light in the current day as much as they should be. One of the readings that sat with me the most was the assignment on Canadian slavery. It was not until this class that I was aware that slavery took place in Canada. Whenever I hear the word slavery I immediately associate it with the United States, but not anymore. This is an excellent example of a Canadian historical event that has not been discussed and that the majority of Canadians are unaware of.
Lastly, when analyzing Canadian history we must be conscious to avoid generalizations. For example, there are many different First Nations groups and when settlers came to Canada, these groups reacted in a variety of ways. Due to ignorance of Aboriginal peoples, they tend to be generalized into one group. For example, the Beothuk people did not accept the coming of settlers to Canada but neither did they actively resist them. The Beothuk were a tribe of First Nations people who dealt with this situation in their own way. Canadian history cannot be simply summarized into one or two events but must in fact be analyzed thoroughly through a historical lens.