The Paris

of the prairies

I can’t believe it has almost been two weeks since my last post. What can I say? It was been a busy two weeks. After a brief week back in nun-ville I was whisked off to Saskatoon for the Association of Canadian Archivists annual conference. It was an action packed, left me feeling like I had been hit by a train, super good time.

I left Kingston on Tuesday, flying in a rather small plane (over my old stomping ground - you can see my mom's house in the photo if you look close enough) to Toronto then onto The Wonder City. It didn't seem too wondrous as we landed as I left sunny Ontario (30 degrees and just plain gorgeous) to land in a rainy, Saskatchewan (a less than balmy 9 degrees). Nevertheless, I was quite happy to be there.

Airplane - view 3 Moms house

After checking in to my kick-ass room in the historic Bessborough (which was particularly astounding compared to my home of two weeks in Vermont, the Motel 6), which overlooked the Saskatoon River and the hotel's gardens, I went to register. At the desk I picked up my conference package I happened to met up with the ACA Board and they invited me out for dinner with them at the Conference Pub. We had wings and beer and it was all in all a pretty good start to things. Following that we went to the Vice Regal Suite, the president's digs, where I happily drank his beer, met up with friends and talked to a whole-lot of archivists.

The next day, was a pre-conference trip to Batoche. This was an extraordinary trip, regardless of the still rather miserable weather (at least it didn't rain, much) but I had a sweater and a coat so I was a lot better off than some. A history prof from University of Saskatoon (that's right, USask to those in the know - it is no UMan, but how many schools are?) gave a lecture on the background of the Metis struggle and the lead up to Batoche.

Batoche

When we arrived the story was picked up by a Parks Canada guide who showed us where the battle took place, including where the British army set up camp, through the house they occupied, then onto the cemetery where there was the graves of the Metis warriors who died and a monument to them. Then it was on to the church and rectory before going back to the interpretive centre for lunch (Bison soup) and a slightly kitschy but very interesting show on the battle complete with video re-enactments and animatronics (hurrah for edu-tainment!). Unfortunately there was a fair bit we didn't get to see - the site is huge - as some people needed to get back for a meeting, but it was a very worthwhile trip.

We got back in time for the official opening of the conference presided over by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, the mayor of the city, and some archival types. The highlight, though, was the entertainment - the Wanuskewin International Dance Troupe consisting of three Native dancers with two drummers. Their performance was nothing less than spectacular. It was an early night as I wanted to look bright-eyed and bushy tailed for the next day.

The conference program, on the theme of "Theory and Practice" was quite good. I made some mistakes in picking the concurrent sessions I attended, wishing that I had went to other ones when I heard from other people how good they were, but it was all in all pretty free of stinkers. Three of the four plenary sessions were great - with Laura Millar (theorist, practitioner and educator extraordinaire) kicking things off, Brewster Kahle, creator of the Internet Archive and many other super-cool free-access-to-information things knocked my socks off (even if all of what he was doing wasn't strictly "archival" but, unlike some of the UBC grads I talked to I am not about to quibble about the value of what he is doing based on that), and our Dean of FIS, Brian Cantwell Smith, gave an entertaining, forward looking, energetic talk on where he thought the Information Profession (library, archives, museum, and computer stuff) should go. He rather aptly asked something along the lines of "what the hell is Information Studies anyway?" something I wonder about as I am supposed to be a Master of it, and he went from there. The paper I presented seemed to go over quite well. While I was a smidge nervous to begin it was fine by the time I hit the third page. Very positive response from many people afterwards, which is nice ‘cause you just never know if people are gonna think it sucked.

The social event planning was unparalleled. On the first day was the East-West ballgame. Thankfully the sun decided to show itself and the rest of the week (which other than the baseball I spent in the hotel) and I played, rather surprising myself that I didn't completely suck at baseball and hadn't completely forgotten how to throw a ball. The east was glorious in defeat (9-6 or something like that) but at least we managed not to get trounced as we have in past years. Next year we will be ready for them. Then it was on to the Great Western Beer Night to lick our wounds or boast about our victory, depending which side of the country you were from, drink some decent and more importantly free-flowing beer, and support a scholarship fund. Because that is what it is all about, right, the charity.

The following night it was off to the Literary/Music evening for a bit o'culture. There were four speakers, including Guy Vanderhaeghe, who read from their works, and the highlight was the Amati Quartet, who played a Haydn string arrangement on 17th instruments. They usually play to huge crowds (their last performance was to 11,000 people including the Queen on her visit to the prairies) so to see them up close, with about 20 people was pretty cool. Following that I rushed off to a dinner party at one of my predecessor’s places, for cake, wine, and some relaxed conversation.

The last night was probably the highlight of the conference - the banquet and dance. Early in my archival career I have come to a few conclusions about the profession, one of which is that Archivists Love to Dance. I think it is the only reason most of us go to these things. The dinner was good, but pretty much every damn thing had saskatoon berries in it, and this being the third day of it I was getting a bit tired of them. Maybe it is a Saskatchewan thing, but they named their damn town after the berry! It isn't even really that good! It is kinda like a blueberry but...not. I guess you have to grow up with them. Anyway, the meal was good, the dance was great. I was in my usual fine form and looked like I even had a little rhythm, at least in comparison to the few wooden-legged male archivists who got anywhere near the dance floor. Following the dance we made our way to the president's room where I drank his beer, listened to the Newfoundland contingent sing some ditties, tp-ed the pres' four-poster bed with the archivist from the AGO because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and had some fun talking with all the drunkity-drunk archivists.

TPatACA - Heh. Juvenile, yes. Funny, very yes (with thanks to Linda for the pics) .

We were kicked out sometime after the sun had risen and only then because the Board needed to get some rest before a 9 o'clock meeting. Sissies.


Bessborough 6 - view from my hotel room on the last day (Broadway Bridge river)

The following day was spent more or less wiped out. I packed, checked out, had breakfast with the Toronto contingent and spent well over an hour staring into nothingness in the park behind the hotel, being entertained by magpies and inchworms, and kinda feeling miserable all around. We left a once again rainy Saskatoon in the late afternoon, flying out in a whole crap-load of turbulence.

It was a fantastic conference. I have been pretty much destroyed all week and only now and feeling more or less human again. Totally worth it, though. I am looking forward to ACA in St. John's already.
rgsc