The 2014-2015 Wintermeyer Lecture on Religion and Politics
“Sometimes leading, sometimes following, sometimes side-by-side”: Catholic and Anglican Missionaries and the Political Evolution of Canada’s North This talk reconsiders the role and contributions of Catholic and Anglican missionaries in the shaping of Northern politics and life in the twentieth century. While contemporary scholarship and popular and political discourse focuses on the dark legacies of colonialism and particularly residential schools, Lackenbauer draws upon recent academic literature, memoirs, and interviews to situate missionaries as a source of support for indigenous rights, helping to animate Northern political life, reshape relationships, and change the face of Canada.
P. Whitney Lackenbauer
P. Whitney Lackenbauer, a professor and chair of the department of history at St. Jerome’s University (University of Waterloo), researches, writes and speaks on the history of the Canadian North and contemporary circumpolar affairs. He is the author or editor of seventeen books, including The Canadian Rangers: A Living History (2013, shortlisted for the Dafoe Prize), and co-author of Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Far North (2008, winner of the Donner Prize).
This lecture is endowed by a special fund created by family and friends in memory of the Honourable John J. Wintermeyer.