The People's Photo Album
A pictorial genealogy of the Antigonish Movement
- Publisher
- HARP Publishing The People's Press
- Initial publish date
- Dec 2018
- Category
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780368612244
- Publish Date
- Dec 2018
- List Price
- $250.00
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 12 to 18
- Grade: 7 to 12
Description
The People’s Photo Album is a tribute to the Extension Department of St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) on its 90th anniversary. The People—individuals and families and organizations from the intergenerational community of the worldwide Antigonish Movement—opened up their albums and scrapbooks and shared with us their collections from Facebook, Flickr and Instagram. The photos came with stories of struggle and triumph, charting the legacy of social justice.
When we began this project, we had projected a modest volume with perhaps 25 contributors and 50 pages. Over 100 pages and 800 photographs later (with more connections coming at us daily), we emerged with the inarguable conclusion: the work of the Extension Department has had an enduring impact on individuals, families, communities and institutions around the world; the Antigonish Movement is alive and well.
The first murmurings of a Movement began back in the 1920s. Prominent members of the Scottish Catholic Society of Canada, many of them priests of the Antigonish Diocese, pressured the University’s Board of Governors to form a Department of Social Action or a Department of Extension. The StFX Extension Department was launched in November, 1928, and Rev. Dr. Moses Coady took up his duties as the first director in June of 1930, after an extended study leave to learn techniques of adult education in centres across Canada, Wisconsin, and the Carnegie Foundation in New York.
Adult education and social and economic cooperation have been the intrinsic guiding principles for social action. This is perhaps a more apt descriptor of the StFX Extension Department, and the organizing forces of the social justice movement known as the Antigonish Movement. Early on, Dr. Coady pronounced its social vision as the quest for the “good and abundant life” for all people. The People’s Photo Album traces the legacy of this vision through photos and archival materials, especially letters, which span 90 years.
About the authors
Contributor Notes
Excerpt: The People's Photo Album: A pictorial genealogy of the Antigonish Movement (by (author) Dorothy Lander & John Graham-Pole; cover design or artwork by Adam Tragakis & Cathy Lin)
Nowadays, the voices and assets of youth have the attention of Extension, side by side with a
springing forth of the deep wells of wisdom from Elders and Grandmothers. Consider the naming. The
library accessed through the Xavier Hall courtyard is named the Marie Michael Library. Community
education, coordinated through Extension, retains the name of People's Schools almost a century
later, evoking Fr. Jimmy Tompkins first People's School of 1921. In 2018 Colleen Cameron and Olga
Gladkikh, who had long and distinguished teaching careers with the Coady (see pp. 94, 135, 188),
have developed People's Schools in collaboration with community organizations, notably the
Antigonish Affordable Housing Society and the Antigonish Poverty Reduction Coalition. The People's
Place, Antigonish's community library, opened in 2011, with photos of Antigonish Movement pioneers
Fr. Jimmy Tompkins and Nora Bateson on prominent display. Elders and grandmothers have been
appointed as the Coady Chair of Social Justice, which was inaugurated in 2012 under the leadership
of Dr. John Gaventa. In 2012, Dr. Deborah Barndt facilitated workshops on the Arts 4 Social Change
(see p. 182). In 2016, acclaimed Mi'kmaw artist Alan Syliboy became the voice for art as a vehicle
for social change. On Nov. 14, 2016, Alan, along with Senator Murray Sinclair, Chair of Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, met in the StFX Keating Centre with 200 StFX Bachelor of Education and
high school students from local, provincial and band-operated schools. Senator Sinclair led a
presentation on the history of residential schools in Canada, and helped these students think about
their individual and collective engagement with the 94 Calls to Action. Alan invited students to
think about the way art can be used as a form of cultural reclamation, protest and expression.
Under his guidance, students represented their responses to Senator Sinclair's presentation on
canvases provided at each table.
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