“The Invisible Child” wins Alberta Literary Awards Prize

Leilani Muir (centre) with Sandra Anderson (to her right) and the cast of The Invisible Child.

At the Alberta Literary Awards last night, the play The Invisible Child received the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for outstanding play.  The play was written by David Cheoros, Lou Morin, and Leilani Muir (O’Malley), and was performed at last year’s Edmonton International Fringe Festival.  A special reading of the play was given at the Living Archives team meeting in October 2012, and footage of both performances features in the Alberta Eugenics Awareness Week highlights video, which will be released later this week.  Congratulations to the team that wrote and performed Invisible Child on this well-deserved honour! 

 

Philosophy, Eugenics and Disability in Alberta and Places North – Rob Wilson Part 1

On October 25, 2008, the What Sorts Network hosted a public symposium to examine, well, philosophy, eugenics, and disability in Alberta and places north. Four speakers were featured on the panel, Dick Sobsey, Simo Vehmas, Martin Tweedale, and Rob Wilson. This event was video recorded and over the next month we will highlight these videos on this blog. Roughly four videos will be featured each week.

To download the full description of the symposium please click here.

With this video we begin the first part of the presentation by Rob Wilson. Professor Wilson’s presentation is titled “Building Inclusive Communities Through Practices of Collective Memory: The Case of Eugenic Sterilization in Alberta.” Part interim report, part philosophical reflection, this presentation is a glimpse into the ongoing process of exploring the eugenics history of Alberta.

Part 1

Highlights: collective memory, particular practices of collective memory, constructive value of the very activity of remembering, direction of the What Sorts Network.

Transcript below the cut.

Voting for Mavericks

Just a reminder to anyone who wants to vote in the Mavericks competition that the Vocational and Rehabilitation Research Institute in Calgary is running to GET TO IT FOLKS. On the roster (Maverick #6) is our very own Leilani Muir (pictured here, some time earlier than yesterday), who blazed a maverick path by taking the Province of Alberta to court in 1995-96 for her wrongful eugenic sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta. The decision in Leilani’s case paved the way for a large number of further settlements for other plaintiffs, and more than a blip of public awareness about this aspect of Alberta’s history. You can vote for three candidates in different categories (education, deinstitutionalization, and community living), and voting for Leilani is a small step to having the courage and determination behind her efforts recognized more publicly,