The distinguished historian and author Jean Barman discusses her recent book Invisible Generations: Living Between Indigenous and White in the Fraser Valley (Caitlin Press, 2019), with Joseph Planta.

Invisible Generations: Living Between Indigenous and White in the Fraser Valley by Jean Barman (Caitlin Press, 2019). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Invisible Generations

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Jean Barman joins me again. The distinguished historian and author of more than a dozen books of BC and Canadian history recently published Invisible Generations: Living Between Indigenous and White in the Fraser Valley. We talked last week about this book, which is the story of a family, three generations of mixed Indigenous and white descent. At the book’s heart is Irene Kelleher, a woman born in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, whose European grandfathers had families with Indigenous women. It turns out it wasn’t at all uncommon. Though it was a story not readily shared. Kelleher, who lived to be 103 years old when she died in 2004, had meticulously preserved her family’s story through journals and histories. There are even tapes of interviews that Imbert Orchard of the CBC had done with Kelleher’s parents in the 1960s. So the story goes back 150 years or so, and captures what life was like in the Fraser Valley in three different centuries. I’ll get Jean to tell us about how she got to know Kelleher in the 1990s, and about the relationship she had with her identity, that being of mixed race meant at times in the 20^th century it was difficult to belong. Irene Kelleher became a teacher and taught Doukhobor children, a more difficult part of her life as you’ll read in this book published by Caitlin Press. Jean Barman received the 2004 Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing for her book Sojourning Sisters. She is professor emerita at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Educational Studies. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. She holds graduate degrees from Harvard, Berkeley and the University of British Columbia. Her book Stanley Park’s Secret, which she was first on the program with in 2005, was also a critically acclaimed hit that I see cited regularly so many years later. You’ll find, like I did, Professor Barman’s thoughts how Miss Kelleher was viewed in her lifetime, and how we are confounded by the coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic particularly interesting and timely. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Jean Barman; Professor Barman, good morning.

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