Historica Canada

To commemorate the era of COVID-19 in Canada for future generations, Historica Canada launched Canada During COVID-19, a "living archive" of the Canadian experience during the coronavirus pandemic beginning in 2020.[9]

Historica Canada invites people to add to this grassroots project in any form—be it through photograph, video, GIF, music, art, or writing—using the project's hashtag and tagging the project's page on Instagram (and Historica Canada itself on other social media).[9]

Indigenous Arts & Stories, on hiatus for the 2019/2020 year, is the largest art and creative-writing competition for Indigenous youth in Canada. Starting in 2005 as exclusively a writing competition, the contest expanded to accept arts submissions in 2010–2011.[10]

The program invites First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists aged 11 to 29 to interpret an aspect of their culture and heritage through literary and visual arts. The winning submissions are reviewed and selected by a jury (one for arts and another for stories) of accomplished Indigenous authors, artists, and community leaders. The contest was born out of a joint project of the Dominion Institute and Doubleday Canada: Our Story, a short story compilation that brings together 9 leading Indigenous authors, including Thomas King, Tomson Highway, and Tantoo Cardinal.[11] In its 15-year run, more than 5,500 youth have participated in the Indigenous Arts & Stories program.[10]

Jury members include Bonnie Devine, Brian Maracle, Drew Hayden Taylor, John Kim Bell, Kent Monkman, Lee Maracle, Maxine Noel, and Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, among others. Honorary Patrons of the program have included Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Terry Audla, and Métis National Council President Clément Chartier.[12]

The Citizenship Challenge allows participants to test their Canadian knowledge by studying for and writing a mock citizenship exam in English or French. Presented by Historica Canada and funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Citizenship Challenge has tested of over 1.05 million people as of January 2021.[13][14] As a studying resource for both the challenge and for actual citizenship tests themselves, Historica Canada offers a "Citizenship Collection" through the Canadian Encyclopedia.[15]

The Canadian Encyclopedia is a free bilingual online resource that offers the largest collection of authored and continuously-updated articles focused on Canada and Canadiana.[16] It is the only established national encyclopedia of its kind in the world,[16] in that it is a bilingual national edition of an encyclopedia produced by, for, and about the people of a single country, charting its events, culture, history, and landscape.[17]

Established in 1985, the Encyclopedia began in print form before transitioning to CD-ROM, then moving to a digital format in 2001. In 2003, the Encyclopedia incorporated the content of the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, which included around 3,000 articles and 500 illustrations. In October 2013, the Encyclopedia released its present "enhanced digital interactive" version online, with multimedia augmented through acquisition and partnerships with Maclean’s magazine and The Canadian Press.[17] These interactive features include "curated content exhibits, interactive timelines,…and a user-generated content map" that allows users to "share their stories," as well as classroom resources, quizzes, and themed study guides for teachers and parents to use.[17] With its online format, the Encyclopedia is now able to be updated on a daily basis—also allowing for immediate updates to important events—as well as having a staff of six full-time editors regularly write and commission new articles.[17]

As of 2021, the Encyclopedia's collection consists of more than 20,700 bilingual articles by more than 5,000 authors including David Suzuki, Margaret Atwood, Marc Laurendeau, Natasha Henry, Pierre Berton, and Tim Cook.[17][18]

Historica Canada produces numerous learning tools for educators and students through the Canadian Encyclopedia. Some examples include: Women in Canadian History;[19] Residential Schools in Canada;[20] Indigenous Perspectives Education Guide;[21] Official Languages Act;[22] and Black History in Canada Education Guide.[23]

Historica Canada also provides some of its content through iTunes University, where users can browse materials organized in course collections along such themes as Women in Canadian History and Asian-Canadian History.

Encounters with Canada was a bilingual program for teenage students (14 to 17 years old) in which participants spend a themed week in Ottawa to meet other young people from across Canada, and explore future career pathways. With over 113,000 youth having participated in the program, EWC was Canada's largest youth forum.[24]

EWC was established in 1982, originally as a program of the Canadian Unity Council. Its first year was held at the Terry Fox Canadian Youth Centre, offering 11 weeks, from September to early December, with six themes: Arts & Culture, Science & Technology, Canadian Studies, Natural Resources & Environment, Law, and the Economy.[25] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program closed in August 2020.

The Heritage Minutes is a collection of 60-second short films, each recreating or depicting a significant person, event, or story—those of great importance, accomplishment, tragedy, and bravery—in Canadian history. Shown on television, in cinemas, and online, some topics covered by the Heritage Minutes include Terry Fox; the Asahi Baseball team; Lucy Maud Montgomery; the Acadian Deportation; the invention of Basketball; residential schools; Viola Desmond; Jennie Trout; and Winnie the Pooh.[26]

The Minutes were first released in 1991 by The CRB Foundation and re-launched by Historica Canada in 2012. With the tagline "A part of our heritage", the Minutes themselves have since become a piece of Canadian culture and have featured appearances over the years by some of Canada's best-known actors, including Jared Keeso, Michael Shanks, Calum Worthy, Colm Feore, Dan Aykroyd, Jean l'Italien, and Kate Nelligan. Voice-over end narration for the Heritage Minutes has been provided by such recognizable voices as Peter Mansbridge, k.d. lang, Adrienne Clarkson, and Lloyd Robertson.[26]

The Memory Project is a volunteer speakers bureau that arranges for Canadian Forces members and Canadian veterans (including those of World War I, WWII, the Korean War, and peacekeeping missions) to share their stories of military service at school and community events across Canada.[27]

The Memory Project Digital Archive is an extensive online collection of the oral histories and digitized artefacts & memorabilia of veterans and Armed Forces members, providing over 3,000 firsthand accounts, 10,000 photos, and 1,500 other original artifacts (letters, memorabilia) that chronicle Canada's military heritage.[28][29]

Reaching over 3 million Canadians since 2001, the Project is an initiative of Historica Canada made possible with the federal government's Departments of Veterans Affairs and of Canadian Heritage.[27] The Project also partners with the Royal Canadian Legion, Korean Veterans Association of Canada, Canadian War Museum, Library and Archives Canada, Concordia University Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.[30]