Expo 1967 was the centrepiece of Canada’s 100th birthday. In a country of only 20 million, 50 million people attended Expo ’67. Amid the crowds and the pageantry, one building stood out. The Indians of Canada Pavilion. This was more than a tall glass tipi. It revealed (at least partly) Canada’s sordid colonial history, and it challenged the myth of Canada being a peace-loving and tolerant society. We tell the surprising story of the historical experts who put this thing together, and the public’s reaction to their work.

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Thank you to: the hostesses who shared their time with us, Barbara Wilson, Janice Antoine, Velma Robinson and Vina Starr; Romney Copeman and the Deslile Family; the Marjoribanks family for sharing their father’s memoir; the Russ Moses Archive, and Russ’s son, John Moses; Doreen Manuel and the estate of George Manuel; the York University Archives; Jane Griffith and Greg Spence; and to Clinton L.G. Morin and L. Manuel Baechlin for production help in Ottawa.

This episode was funded in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. It’s part of a larger project on the politics of historical commemoration. Professor Eagle Glassheim at the University of British Columbia is the academic lead on that project.