Find a Lecture

Rock Art of the Eastern Canadian Shield

 

P1370478zGuest Speaker: Daniel Arsenault

2016-04-21DanielArsenault

When:   Thursday, April 21, 2016, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where:  Centennial Hall

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield H9W 4A4

 

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

 

Doctor in anthropology with specialization in pre-Columbian archaeology at Université de Montréal, Daniel Arsenault has spent the last dozen of years doing researches on aboriginal rock art sites of the Canadian Shield and Eastern Arctic, for

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content analysis as well as conservation and enhanced

presentation. The study of rock art lead him to research

studies of sites in Québec and Canada, A

ustralia, Italy, United-States, Antilles and Brazil. He presently leads an international workgroup which mandate is the production of an innovating document on documentation of rock art sites around the world.

The Triple Lines of Evidence for Prehistoric Migrations:

Genetic, Archaeological, and Linguistic

P1370205z 1Guest speaker: Roy Keys

When:    Thursday, March 17, 2016, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where:   Centennial Hall
              288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

In the past decade and a half, the relatively new science of genetics has shed new light on the peopling of the world. Recent results confirm the archeological evidence for 2 major waves of migrations into Europe after the last ice age, and enable a reconstruction of the genetic history of the populations of modern Europe.

 

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The Last of the Beothuks : Shawnadithit or Santu?"

P1240528 21Guest speaker: Roy Wright

When:    Thursday, February 18, 2016, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where:   Centennial Hall
              288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

While most Canadians with historical curiosity or feeling will have heard of Shawnadithit and her poignant fate, very few will know the name of Santu, whose story was published in 1922 by University of Pennsylvania Prof. Frank G. Speck. He wrote the short monograph BEOTHUK AND MICMAC after meeting Santu, the last Beothuk still living a century ago among the Micmac of Conn River, Newfoundland.

This remarkable encounter was the result of Speck's perseverance and the mutual trust developed between this maverick ethnologist and the indigenous people, mostly Algonquian, that he worked with in eastern North America, from the Catawba of South Carolina to the Lenni-Lenape, Abenaki-Penobscot, Passamaquoddy-Maliseet, Micmac, and Naskapi-Cree of the Northeast as far as Labrador.

We will focus on this little-known part of the history of Newfoundland, tracing the earliest origins of these "Red (-Paint) Indians" to the earliest human hunters south of the last glaciation on the Canadian Shield.

 

2016-02 SantuFamily nflds22

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 2016-02-18 Shanawdithit portrait

Santu Toney.                                                  Shanawdithit                                                    The son of Santu Toney and his family.

 Photo Frank Speck 1910.                                                                                                                                                    Photo Frank Speck.
Courtesy of American Philosophical Society (4595a)
                                                                                                           Courtesy of American Philosophical Society (4595a)

A request has been made for anyone with musical talent to record an MP3 version of Santu's Song!

 

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The Long Sault on the Ottawa River: From Prehistory to Dollard des Ormeaux

P1350799z 1Guest speaker: Robert Simard, Historian and Storyteller

2016-01RobertSimard

When:    Thursday, January 21, 2016, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where:   Centennial Hall
              288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Historian at the Musée régional d’Argenteuil in Carillon, Robert Simard is a great storyteller. His presentation balances delicately between history and fantasy. There is a point for Mr. Simard when history develops into a full-fledged pageant, thereby transporting us to the frontier where dreams and memory meet and marry.
The lecture will focus on the prehistory of the Ottawa River, the movements of First Nations people around the Long Sault and the famous battle of 1660.

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Starting in 2016 and throughout the year 2016, the Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society invites you to discover different aspects of Early Canadian History before European immigration

Everyone welcome. 

Free for members; $2 for non-members
Become a member for $5 per year 

InformationContact us

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Afghanistan, beyond the news headline, as seen by a witness

W 032749 1Guest speaker: Major Richard GrattonAfghanistan

When:    Thursday, November 19, 2015, from 19:00 to 20:45

Where:   Beaconsfield Library

               303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

From December 2010 to July 2011, Major Richard Gratton, a citizen of Beaconsfield, was deployed to Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion Royal 22e Régiment.
Major Gratton proposes to take you beyond the news headline with his presentation, videos and pictures. A conflict, still in the headlines in this month of November, remembrance month.

 

 

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Walter Percy Adams - Veteran of WWI and WWII

P1330879z 1Guest speaker: David PelletierWPAdams1917-12-25 EastbourneSussex

When:  Thursday, October 15, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

Walter Percy Adams, maternal grandfather of our speaker, was in both WWI and WWII, however he saw the most action in WWI and was awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) amongst other medals. David will show all his medals from both World Wars as well as some souvenirs brought home by Walter Percy Adams.

Walter Percy is mentioned prominently on the website memorializing the soldiers of the 117th Eastern Townships Battalion where he was amongst the first to volunteer. He was part of the 14th RMR (Royal Montreal Regiment) for most of his action overseas.

While both sets of David’s grandparents lived in Beaconsfield, Walter Percy spent almost all his time in the Veterans Hospital as in his later years he suffered from the effects of mustard gas from a battle in WWI at Hill 70. He was also at Vimy Ridge and The Canal du Nord in 1918.

WPAdamsMedals

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Remembering the Great War
 

F09182015Guest speaker: Derek Grout2015-09-RememberingGreatWar Derek68

When:  Thursday, September 17, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

On November 11, 1918 the guns fell silent over the Western Front, and the Great War passed into history and legend. Author Derek Grout will explore the many ways we remember, almost a hundred years later, the most destructive war in history up to that time, and some of the effects of the war that defined the turbulent twentieth century.

He will also discuss his new book on the Great War, entitled Thunder in the Skies, published in 2015.

Copies of the book will be for sale at this event.

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The War of the Pacific - Operation Downfall

Guest speaker: Robert L. BairdP1270954z 1

When: Thursday, May 21, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

              288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4


Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.


Operation Downfall-MapCarrying on the current theme of military history, Robert Baird’s talk will be on military history during the summer of 1945 and t
he Canadian support in the preparation of the American invasion of Japan: “Operation Downfall”.

 

The American military were actively involved in elaborate preparations for the invasion of Japan and scheduled it in two phases, one starting on November 1st 1945, “Operation Olympic” and the second on March 1st 1946, “Operation Coronet”. The summer of 1945 was a fascinating period of military history, in which Robert Baird took part.


A resident of Beaconsfield since 1962, Robert was an active member of the Beaconsfield Planning Committee for over 14 years. He wrote and published the book “Beaconsfield and Beaurepaire” in conjunction with Gisèle Hall who did most of the research. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from McGill and a Master degree in history from Concordia University. Bob was a volunteer member of the Sixth Canadian Infantry Division in 1945.

 

 

They Were So Young. Montrealers Remember World War II 


P1270189zGuest SpeakerPatricia Burns2015-04PatriciaBurns TheyWereSoYoung

When:     Thursday, April 16, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where:   Beaconsfield Library

           303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7


Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.


Patricia Burns, author of this book published in 2002, will elaborate on

 

1. The reason for writing an oral history of WWII
2. Finding people to interview
3. The technique and process of oral history
4. A few stories.