Oral History interview with Margaret Owen (00h 34mmm 36ss), conducted by Janis Thiessen, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2016. Interview is indexed and fully transcribed. A Related Documents file contains an article about William Cooper (originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press).
Margaret Owen was born in 1934 and worked in Winnipeg as a teacher. Her father was sent to Hong Kong during WWII as a Grenadier and spent the war in a POW camp; Margaret has published a book about their life at home during this period. Margaret’s grandfather, William Cooper, was a radical socialist who influenced the 1919 strikers. He was originally from Scotland and immigrated in 1905; he worked with CNR. During the strike itself he stayed in the background, but he ran a “Workers’ University” in one of the Labour Temples where he taught socialist theory. Cooper supported the One Big Union movement, and helped to adapt British unionism to the Canadian context and to Winnipeg specifically. He also wrote prolifically on labour issues. Margaret’s mother and other family were quite proud of Cooper and passed down stories about him. Her son has written an article about him for the Winnipeg Free Press.
Oral history interview with Betty Riediger (01h 29mmm 16ss), conducted by Sarah Story in 2019. The interview is transcribed and indexed. It includes one file of related documents containing 17 photographs.
Sarah Story interviews Rick, Gloria and Bob Gallant of Letellier, Manitoba about Gallant’s Family Food Store and Del’s Foods. Gallant’s was a multi-generational independent grocery store originally established by Rick and Bob Gallant’s grandparents in Letellier in 1923. The Gallant’s ran the Franco-Canadian family business until it was sold, along with Del’s Foods, in January 2013. The Gallants describe their lives prior to taking over the store before explaining the ways they expanded their business to include Del’s Foods. They describe their relationships with their suppliers and other businesses in Letellier, in addition to the decline and eventual sale of their business.
1 series comprised of 6 interviews (05hh 08mm 40ss) conducted as part of the Communicative Memory of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Project. The interviews have been indexed and transcribed in full. Some interview files include photographs, correspondence, and archival material.
The project began in response to Janis Thiessen’s involvement on the planning committee for the 1919-2019 Winnipeg General Strike Centenary Conference. In late 2016, she interviewed six descendants of those involved on both sides of the 1919 Strike, asking them to share stories they heard about the strike from their relatives, the lessons they learned from those stories, and how those stories shaped their own understandings of labour issues, unions, and social and economic justice.
Oral history interview with Betty Riediger (01h 29mmm 16ss), conducted by Sarah Story, Winnipeg Manitoba, 2019. The interview is transcribed and indexed.
Sarah Story interviews Ken Riediger about the independent grocery store his family operated on Isabel Street. Riediger describes his life story, including his entrance into the family business at age fourteen. Later in the interview, Riediger details his German/Mennonite background and how it was a key factor in the store’s initial success between the 1960s and 1980s. Riediger explains both the day-to-day operation of an independent grocery store, and the overall culture of working in a family owned and local community-oriented business. Riediger explains the factors that lead to the decline and eventual closing of the store. Key factors include stifling control by suppliers, encroachment by larger chain retailers, demographic shifts in the neighbourhood, and government regulation making operation less profitable.
Oral history interview with Betty Riediger (01h 29mmm 16ss), conducted by Janis Thiessen in 2019. The interview is transcribed and indexed, and includes a related documents file containing 2 photographs, interviewer's notes and question guide.
Dr. Thiessen interviews Mrs. Betty Riediger about the independent grocery store Riediger operated with her husband on Isabel Street in Winnipeg, MB. She describes the store’s humble beginnings and gradual expansion after becoming popular amongst Mennonite/German immigrants. After a long period of struggles, the store closed in January 2012. Mrs. Riediger then discusses her life story. She describes her childhood on her parent’s farm in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression and her family’s move to Manitoba. She describes her work history as a domestic worker and secretary prior to marriage. Other topics of discussion include day to day operations, offering purchases on credit, specialty ingredients and competition with chain grocers.
1 series of interviews containing 3 interview files (05hh 32mm 12ss). All interviews are transcribed and indexed.
The purpose of this project was to study the history of the independent grocery store in Manitoba, a sector of food retail that has been disappearing over the last fifty years. There are a few histories of individual corporations and national histories of corner stores. However, there is no Canadian history of independent grocers despite their century-long existence. Funding was provided by a University of Winnipeg Major Research Grant, which permitted the hiring of Sarah Story (then a graduate student in the Joint Master’s Program in History) as a research assistant. A total of four interviews were conducted from 2016 to 2017. Three of the interviews were for public access and were transcribed. Interview participants were solicited through personal connections with the research team.
The scope of this project was expanded to become part of the Manitoba Food History Project.
Fonds consists of oral history projects completed by Janis Thiessen as the Primary Investigator, or projects/interviews completed by students under Dr. Thiessen's supervision as a Professor of History at the University of Winnipeg.
Oral history interview with Ken Reddig conducted by Kristen Hardy in 2017 (1hh14mm19ss).
Reddig describes his involvement with mental health activism/advocacy work is a result of the difficulties he experienced from sexual abuse as a child. He was not able to disclose or get help for the mental health problems this caused until late in life because of the social taboos against men disclosing and discussing sexual abuse and the lack of appropriate helping resources, especially for men. He got assistance after he attempted suicide twice. He feels lucky to have ended up with the help of a psychiatrist, a counselor, and a group for men who have experienced sexual abuse. Reddig is retired and spends most of his time with various types of advocacy for mental health. He started two support groups for people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse (Winnipeg and a rural area). He sits on a number of committees advocating, advising, and fund raising for mental health services. He does extensive public speaking, often in schools to raise awareness about childhood sexual abuse and to encourage people to seek help. He does not counsel people and is aware of his limitations, but he recognizes that self-help and peer support groups do a tremendous amount of work that would otherwise not be available or would be done by mental health professionals at a much greater cost.
Oral history interview with Nigel Bart conducted by Karen Clements in 2017 (1hh40mm46ss).
Bart tells the story of his first experiences with schizophrenia symptoms and with receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia. When he received a diagnosis of a ‘schizophrenia-like illness’, he felt some relief and hope. He accepted this interpretation of his strange and terrifying experiences; the recognition and naming gave him a sense that this was something that could be dealt with and was real. He had strong support from his close family, but from the beginning he found himself educating others about mental illness. He went through first-year university without telling people about his illness, but decided he needed to express and share this aspect of himself. He produced a performance art piece about stigma around mental illness that has been presented numerous times and made into a video (Inside Out). He speaks about feeling bound and restricted by the stigma around mental illness and he wanted to own his experiences in order to help educate others. He developed a community of friends interested in mental illness, art, and music. Art was a healing modality for him. With help from his family and community, he started an art studio and organization (Artbeat Studio) for supporting individuals with a self-declared mental illness to work on, learn about, and develop their art. Bart states there are different types of activists, some more strident and wanting to work from outside existing systems. Believes strongly in collaboration and sits on numerous government advisory boards regarding mental health and recovery.
Oral History Interview with Taylor Demetrioff, conducted by Debra Dusome in 2017 (24mm02ss).
Demetrioff speaks to experiencing mental health problems since childhood, starting therapy and treatment in his late teens, and how his own experiences motivated him to reach out and make difficult journeys a little easier for other kids, to hopefully prevent other kids from having the difficulties he has experienced. His goals have broadened to building a community that shares hard earned stories of difficulties, where others understand and support each other. Explains his work is all about personal connection, he’s found social media a means for building community without a physical location and for reaching people far and wide. Taylor has worked at these goals for last seven years through a music program for youth (Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba), public speaking, and development of a camp to support youth. Taylor develops mental health awareness merchandise (e.g., T-shirts) with other artists to raise public awareness and reduce stigma. At the time of the interview, Demetrioff has a paid job speaking in schools about mental health, though most of his activist work is as a volunteer; he takes whatever opportunities he can to reach out to others.
