2010s

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August 22, 2019

Ken Brown, 1941-2019

Posted by Amanda Hill under 2010s, people
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Former Deseronto archivist Ken Brown passed away on June 29th, 2019. Ken looked after the Deseronto collections from 2001 to 2007. He was a keen historian of the town and spent many hours examining the pages of the Deseronto Tribune. He coordinated the project to transcribe the obituaries of the Tribune, which are now available here for everyone to see, and to catalogue the Deseronto Archives photographic collection, now online through the Flickr Commons.

This newspaper clipping from the Napanee Beaver of June 12th, 2002 shows Ken with fellow history buff, the late Floyd Marlin, whose own collection of historical materials is now part of the Deseronto Archives. The headline refers to Floyd, but could be equally well-applied to Ken.

Newspaper article about Floyd Marlin and Ken Brown

Ken was a frequent visitor to the Deseronto Archives (always by bicycle!) after his retirement from this post, and his knowledge and willingness to share it were invaluable for his successor. Ken’s obituary is online here. Our thanks to Ken for all his work on building the Deseronto Archives collection, and our condolences to his loved ones.

 

May 23, 2015

Mohawks and Settlers: Neighbours throughout History

Posted by Amanda Hill under 2010s, Deseronto Public Library, events, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory
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Marlene Brant Castellano and wampum beltsMarlene Brant Castellano got our summer series of local history talks off to a great start with her examination of the local history of the Bay of Quinte from a Mohawk perspective.

Marlene used reproductions of two famous wampum belts to tell the story of the Mohawk people’s interactions with Europeans, beginning with the treaty represented by the Two-Row Wampum in 1613 with the Dutch. The two purple rows of the belt were intended to show the parallel courses of a European ship and a Haudenosaunee canoe, bound together by friendship, peace and respect. The other belt, the Friendship Belt, represents the Covenant Chain connecting the two peoples: a chain of silver which needs to be regularly polished by both groups in order to maintain its shine.

Marlene got the audience involved from the beginning, with questions about the importance of family roots and stories and what they mean to us. Until recently, formal education in Canada paid little or no attention to native people’s own histories, while the use of native languages was actively repressed for many years. Marlene noted that this has now changed and Indigenous children are now able to connect to their stories and language in a way that people of British descent may have taken for granted in the more Anglo-centric teaching of the past.

The stories associated with wampum belts have endured within these communities for hundreds of years, and Marlene explained that a thorough knowledge of their meaning and importance is a key part of being a chief. A chief, she noted, is an archivist, as well as a leader!

 

January 15, 2014

The Reverend Canon Cyril J. Betts

Posted by Amanda Hill under 2010s, archives, people
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Cyril BettsThe Deseronto Archives Board would like to express its deep sympathy to the family of Cyril Betts, who died this morning. Cyril was a long-serving member of the Board and an influential supporter of the Archives and its work. Board meetings attended by Cyril always went on too long as Cyril had an apparently endless supply of highly entertaining stories, accumulated during his long career as an Anglican minister.

You can still hear some of these stories in the interview Cyril gave us for the ‘About Deseronto’ project on September 10th, 2010.

We are hugely grateful for Cyril’s contributions to the work of Deseronto Archives and will miss him very much.