BC historian, Cole Harris, lectures at the Mir Centre for Peace

BC Historian, Cole Harris, will lecture at the Mir Centre for Peace Thursday, November 8 at 7:00 pm.

The Mir Centre for Peace at Selkirk College and Allan Markin are pleased to host Dr. Cole Harris, a BC historian and geographer, whose lecture is entitled: BC Aboriginal Land Claims: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects. Harris was born and raised in New Denver and is now retired after some forty years of teaching at the University of Toronto and at the University of British Columbia.

His career has concentrated on examining the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous people in British Columbia, with particular interest in their connection to the land. His works have led to a considerable rethinking of the history of British Columbia, as exemplified in one of his books entitled, The Resettlement of British Columbia, in which the colonial notion of settlement is challenged. As the author of many books and articles on early Canada, he has dealt with the remaking of European ways in new environments overseas or with the dispossession of native peoples. His principal writings on British Columbia are The Resettlement of British Columbia (1996) and Making Native Space (2002). He is editor of The Historical Atlas of Canada Vol 1 (1987), and author of The Reluctant Land: Society, Space and Environment in Canada before Confederation (2008).

Dr. Harris is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an officer of the Order of Canada. He is an historical geographer whose recent work has focused on the longstanding First Nations land question in British Columbia. He will speak on opportunities in the past that were missed which could have led to a much different outcome today for Native Peoples in B.C.

The event will be held at the Mir Centre for Peace, Selkirk College Castlegar Campus, Thursday, November 8 at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $16 adults, $13 students and seniors. Tickets are available at the door, Selkirk College bookstores (250.365.1281), and Otter Books in Nelson. Call 250.365.1234 for more information.