Congratulations to Professor Ray on being named an Officer of the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada is one of the country’s highest honours and is presented by the Governor General. The Order recognizes people from all sectors whose service has shaped Canadian society and made a difference.
As described in the Governor General’s announcement, Prof. Ray was selected for “his contributions as a historical geographer and expert witness in Aboriginal land claims.” The full press release can be viewed here.
In celebration of this exciting news, Prof. Ray shares his thoughts on receiving this distinguished award in a short Q&A below.
What does the Order of Canada mean to you?
My interest in the historical economic geography of Canada’s Indigenous peoples’ is what drew me to Canada. I have had the great pleasure and reward to be able to devote my career to this broad subject. For me, the Order of Canada is not only a recognition of my work, but a more general acknowledgement that history and geography have important contributions to make towards the country’s efforts to understand key aspects of Canada’s past relationships with Indigenous Peoples and help resolve crucial long-standing issues that derive from that past.
What is the most exciting part of receiving the Order of Canada?
It is one of the country’s highest civilian honours. I never expected to receive such an award.
What academic/career achievements were recognized through this honour?
Although not specifically cited, my first book, Indians in the Fur Trade (1974), was extremely important. This book caught the attention of First Nations and Metis groups and their lawyers, who thought that my work on the historical economic geography of indigenous groups was relevant to their aboriginal and treaty rights struggles in the courts. Various First Nations and Metis from Ontario, the Prairie provinces, and British Columbia asked me to undertake research on their behalf and to appear in court as an expert witness.
As a result, I became involved in applied as well as academic research and appeared in a number of landmark cases, most notably Delgamuukw vs. Regina (1997), Regina v. Horseman (1990) and Regina v. Powley (2003). This experience led me to write Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Re-making of History,which won the 2017 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia and the Canada Book Prize of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. This experience and my teaching of indigenous history at UBC led me to write the best-selling, I Have Lived Here Since the World Began(1996), which has gone through multiple editions as An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People: I Have Lived Here Since the World Began.
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