(SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – April 4, 2016): Beginning today, Algoma University’s Archives, housed in the Arthur A. Wishart Library, will honour and highlight local author Brian Vallée as part of Archives Awareness Week, running from April 4th until April 10th.
Archives Awareness Week is a celebration of archives’ unique potential to inspire and excite people, bring communities together, and tell memorable stories about the past. Algoma U’s vast archives include over 200 distinct and complementary collections in from the Shingwauk Indian Residential School, the Anglican Diocese of Algoma, as well as substantial or important university-related fonds. The archives also contain unique historical records relating to the Algoma region, locally significant individuals, and many community organizations.
The Brian Vallée fonds will be highlighted throughout Archives Awareness Week. Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Vallée (1940 – 2011) was an award-winning journalist, documentary film producer, screen-writer, public speaker, and author. He began his newspaper career in the Sault and later worked for newspapers in England, the United States, and Canada. Vallée later worked for 10 years on the CBC’s award-winning documentary The Fifth Estate, including five years as producer and director. He was also a researcher and associate producer on the Oscar-winning documentary Just Another Missing Kid. Vallée was an advocate for victims of domestic abuse. 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of Vallée’s first and best-selling book, Life with Billy, which chronicles Jane Hurshman, an abused wife who took the law into her own hands, whose case resulted in battered wife syndrome becoming a legal defense in Canadian courts.
The Brian Vallée fonds will be on display on the main floor of the Wishart Library. Selections from Valleé fonds will also be online as a virtual exhibit on Tumblr. An article highlighting his life’s will also be published on www.canadahistory.ca.
For more information, please contact Researcher and Curator Krista McCracken at [email protected] or call 705.949.2301, Ext. 1015.
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