of Victoria
On leave
BA, MA (UVic), PhD (Ott)
British Columbia History, Pacific Northwest History, History of Indigenous-Settler Relations
I study and teach the history of where I live: Victoria, British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest. This is the traditional home of the Coast Salish People whose word for “worthless people” also meant “people who do not know their history.” In our world so many people do not have a place they know as “home” and without that link to place it is so easy to take our environment and our neighbours for granted. I chose to study history because it gave me a chance to learn the past of this place and in doing so make it my “home”. In my spare time I like to explore the hidden corners of this region: backpacking, canoeing, kayaking and driving the roads. I love teaching history in Victoria because while I am putting down my own roots, I think I am helping others to find their places. Without roots we are mere tumbleweeds, blowing from place to place, colonizing disturbed landscapes.
Prizes
Books
To Share Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Visions of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia (co-edited with Peter Cook, Neil Vallance, Graham Brazier, Hamar Foster (UBC Press, 2021).
Towards a New Ethnohistory: Community Engaged Scholarship Among the People of the River, (co-edited with Keith Carlson, David Schaepe, Albert McHalsie, (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018).
Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations. UBC Press, 2008, 431pp.
Making and Moving Knowledge: Interdisciplinary and Community-based Research for a World on the Edge (edited collection with Barbara Neis) McGill Queen’s University Press, 2008, 338pp.
Myth and Memory: Stories of Indigenous-European Contact, edited collection. University of British Columbia Press, 2007, 236pp.
Situating Race and Racism in Time, Space and Theory: Critical Essays for Activists and Scholars, Co-edited with Jo-Anne Lee) McGill-Queens University Press, 2005. 216pp.
Films and Exhibits
In January-March 2017 an exhibit at the Legacy Art Gallery in Victoria showcased the known British Columbia paintings of the most famous Black artist of the American- and Pacific North- West.
Articles and Chapters
“The Rutter’s Impasse and the End of Treaty Making on Vancouver Island,” in Peter Cook et al, To Share Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Visions of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia (UBC Press, 2021).
“Preparing Eden: Indigenous Land Use and European Settlement on Southern Vancouver Island” in Plants, People and Places: the Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights in Canada and Beyond, Nancy Turner, ed. (McGill-Queen’s U Press 2020).
John Sutton Lutz, ‘“A City of the white race occupies its place“ Kanaka Row, Chinatown, and the Indian Quarter in Victorian Victoria‘ with Don Lafreniere, Patrick Dunae and Jason Gilliland for The Routledge Companion to Spatial History edited by Ian Gregory, Don Debats, Don Lafreniere (Routledge, 2018) 320-347.
“Totem Poles,” in Michael Dawson, Catherine Gidney and Donald Wright, eds., Symbols of Canada. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2018.
“Turning Space Inside Out: Spatial History and Race in Victorian Canada,” in Jennifer Bonnell and Marcel Fortin, eds., Historical GIS Research in Canada, (University of Calgary, 2014) 1-26, coauthored with Patrick Dunae, Jason Gilliland Donald Lafreniere and Megan Harvey.
“What Has Mystery Got to Do with It?” in Kevin Kee, ed., Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History With Technology, (University of Michigan, 2014) 23-42, coauthored with Ruth Sandwell.
Victorian Sim CIties: Playful Technologies on Google Earth,” in Kevin Kee, ed., Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History With Technology, (University of Michigan, 2014) 292-308, coauthored with Patrick Dunae.
“Vanishing the Indians: Aboriginal Labourers in Twentieth-Century British Columbia” in Aboriginal History, A Reader, edited by Kristin Burnett and Geoff Read, Oxford University Press, 2012, 277-291.
“Making the Inscrutable, Scrutable: Race and Space in Victoria’s Chinatown, 1891,” BC Studies, No. 169 (Spring 2011): 51-80. Co-authored with Patrick Dunae, Jason Gilliland, and Don Lafreniere
“Towards a Theory of Good History Through Gaming,” by Kevin Kee, Shawn Graham, Pat Dunae, John Lutz, Andrew Large, Michel Blondeau and Mike Clare Canadian Historical Review, Volume 90, Number 2 (June 2009) 303-326.
Through Student's Eyes: Stό:lō Ethnohistory Fieldschool Studies (Fall, 2008) a special issue of Research Review. Co-editor with Keith Carlson and Dave Schaepe.
“First Contact as a Spiritual Performance: Aboriginal -- Non-Aboriginal Encounters on the North American West Coast,” in John Lutz, ed., Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact. University of British Columbia Press. 2007. 30-45.
“Myth Understandings: First Contact, Over and Over Again,” Introduction to John Lutz, ed., Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact, University of British Columbia Press. 2007. 1-14.
Digital Projects
Vancouver Island Treaties. uvic-songhees.ca Originally launched to support the conference First Nations, Land, and James Douglas: Indigenous and Treaty Rights in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia,1849-1864 the site has become a public resource for information on the Vancouver Island Treaties.
The Missing British Columbia Paintings of Grafton Tylor Brown, graftonTBrown.ca. This website provides a brief biography of the trans-racial first professional artist in British Columbia and a list of his known paintings and their locations. Its goal is to educate about race, about this important painter and to help locate his documentary art for historical research.
Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, Thirteen historical mysteries aimed at engaging students in the practice of history accompanied by 37 shorter Mysterquests to allow students to engage with short, skill-based assignments. canadianmysteries.ca.
The Fort Victoria Journal 1846-1850, fortvictoriajournal.ca Transcribed and edited version of the Fort Victoria Post Journal for the years it survives. I directed the team project which evolved out of my Historical Editing course.
The Governor’s Letters website, govlet.ca Website with four teaching modules drawing on the Despatches project directed to grades 5-12.
Colonial Despatches Project, bcgenesis.uvic.ca Digital publication of the correspondence of the Governors of Vancouver Island and British Columbia with the Colonial Office.
Autobiographies: A website, autobio.ca Archive for personal histories of family’s relationship with the cars created by students in History 317. Updated 2010.
Ethnohistory Field School with the Sto:lo, ethnohist.ca A website containing field school reports, alumni lists and photo galleries from the past field schools. Launched May 2009. Updated 2011, 2013, 2015.
viHistory, vihistory.ca A web based teaching tool for race, gender, family, labour and social history utilizing population databases drawn from Vancouver Island censuses, directories, assessment roles and other sources, for the Victorian and Edwardian era with Patrick Dunae, project originator.
Victoria’s Victoria, web.uvic.ca/vv A website on the History of Victoria, B.C. in the Victorian era and a site for student research projects. Launched April 7, 2003. There are 34 microhistories on the site, each of about 2,000 words and 20 images.
Ph.D. Supervised
MA Theses:
Major Research Papers:
MAs in Progress:
PhDs in Progress: