Research
Indenture and Canadian Sugar in Navua, Fiji
The Vancouver-Fiji Sugar Company, a subsidiary of BC Sugar, ran a mill and plantations at Navua, Fiji, from 1905 to 1922. This research asks how a Canadian corporation profited from indenture, how girmitiyas (indentured people from India) responded to conditions on those plantations, and how people in Navua pressed for indenture’s abolition and fairer wages and cane prices.
Cane Sugar in Western Canada
BC Sugar’s refinery has stood on the Vancouver waterfront since 1890. This research examines its history, looking at both where the refinery sourced its cane sugars and how it marketed its products.
Retail and Department Stores
Before shopping malls, before box stores, department stores dominated the retail scene. This research explores the rise of mass retail in Canada, looking at how Eaton’s, the Hudson’s Bay Company, Simpson’s, and such smaller stores as Morgan’s, the Dupuis Frères, and Woodward’s came into being and helped usher in a modern Canadian age.
Women and Consumer Culture
During and after the First World War, prices in Canada rose faster than wages. This research asks who set the terms on which households were provisioned and how people answered as consumers and citizens.
Hidden Authors
This research asks how mid-century universities relied on the work of faculty wives and highlights the work of Mary Quayle Innis, a writer, scholar, and public intellectual.
How to Cite
Belisle, Donica. “Research.” Donica Belisle. donicabelisle.ca/research.html. Accessed