Canadian Museum of History

• Retail sales of Paw Patrol merchandise have surpassed US$14 billion.
• Yet, there is little awareness here in Canada of the country’s global reach in children’s television content production.

Near and dear to our hearts

• Many of these shows are near and dear to our hearts and we hold deep nostalgia for them.
• Children’s media is massively under-researched or ignored in scholarship about Canadian cultural industries, and similarly in overlapping areas like Canadian media studies, media history, children’s studies or even Canadian children’s history.

Redefining values and representation

• Passe-Partout originally ran between 1977-92, featuring playful human characters and a family of puppets that are still cherished today.
• These are featured alongside documentary film clips of Elders and local artists teaching Inuktitut and Inuit culture.
• In the past 70 years, many of these aforementioned shows have contributed significantly to redefining national values and symbols and contributed to a fuller picture of cultural and racialized diversity.
• But as research from the Children’s Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University indicates, there is still a ways to go with representing children across the country.

Canada as hub

• Canada is also an international hub for the children’s entertainment industry.
• For example, the children’s media program at Centennial College is world-renowned, as is Sheridan College’s animation program.
• And Kidscreen — the top trade publication for the global children’s entertainment industry — is produced in Toronto, demonstrating the depth of cultural capital here.

Children’s media and policy, funding decisions

• Canadian children’s television has shaped children’s media around the world and has had a big impact on how media should tell stories to child audiences.
• For example, much of Nickelodeon’s early programming was Canadian children’s TV often produced by local TV stations.
• Without an appreciation for Canada’s long history of children’s media production, the danger exists that the industry won’t be prioritized in policy decisions or in funding opportunities.

Museum exhibits: telling the stories

• If you are looking for something to do this summer, there are two museum exhibits that rectify this oversight in unknown stories of Canadian children’s media.
• The Canadian Museum of History, in Ottawa-Gatineau, is currently holding a special exhibit called From Pepinot to Paw Patrol — Television of our Childhoods, until Sept. 1, 2023, covering 70 years of Canadian children’s TV from coast to coast to coast.
• Featuring 100 shows and 85 artifacts, the exhibit aims to create an intergenerational and intercultural experience for the whole family.

• The 2023 Call for Proposals closes on December 1, 2023.
• Full list of approved projects selected from the 2022 Call for Proposals: https://www.digitalmuseums.ca/news/approved-projects-submitted-as-part-o...
  The Digital Museums Canada investment program helps build digital capacity in Canadian museums and heritage organizations and gives Canadians unique access to diverse stories and experiences.
• Digital Museums Canada is managed by the Canadian Museum of History, with the financial support of the Government of Canada.
• In this video, Leah Resnick, Director of Digital Museums Canada (DMC), launches the 2023 Call for Proposals and showcases some of the engaging projects that have been funded by DMC.

• This is the main question that the Canadian Museum of History tries to answer in its brand-new podcast series, available as of June 13.
• Artifactuality: Stories From the Museum of the Future, a podcast of the Canadian Museum of History, is produced by Makwa Creative and Antica Productions.
• Located on the shores of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec, the Canadian Museum of History welcomes more than 1.2 million visitors each year.
• Work of the Canadian Museum of History is made possible in part through financial support of the Government of Canada.

• Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the appointment of Mr. Russell Grosse as the Nova Scotia representative for the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC).
• A native of the historic Nova Scotia multi-generational Black Community of Cherry Brook, Russell Grosse has dedicated his work to honour, celebrate, and share the important Black history as one of the founding cultures in Canada.
• To date, based on recommendations from the HSMBC, the Government of Canada has designated over 2,200 national historic sites, events, and persons.
• Approximately 90 percent of nominations brought forward for the consideration of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada originate from members of the public.