Stories

What are you looking for?

Filter stories

  • Tessie Oliva, a young Filipina woman, pictured in a nursing school graduation photo wearing a 1960s white nursing uniform.

    “She Can Move Mountains”: Tessie Oliva’s Impact on the Nursing Sector in Edmonton

    Giselle General

    After moving to Edmonton in 1969, Teresita “Tessie” Pajarillo Oliva began working as a nurse. Over the next several decades, while advancing her career in nursing, she simultaneously became more involved in the city’s Filipino community and broader and immigrant advocacy at the provincial level.

    Founder of the Filipino Nurses Association in Alberta, Oliva’s tireless efforts to recruit Filipino healthcare workers and support immigrant nurses had profound impacts on the province’s healthcare system that are still felt today.

    In Giselle General’s ECAMP article for our labour history series, she describes how a 2020 visit to the Royal Alberta Museum and its exhibit on Tessie Oliva’s career deeply resonated with her on a personal level, spurring her to research Oliva for this article. Building off her experience at the exhibit, General speaks with Oliva’s good friend, Letitia Tria, and learns more about Oliva’s efforts to advocate Filipino nurses and other immigrant healthcare workers in Edmonton and beyond.

  • Edmonton Streetcar 33: The Highs and Lows of a Public Transit Vehicle

    Adeline Panamaroff

    Relying only on volunteer labour, the need to fabricate many of the mechanical and structural parts from scratch, as well as [funding grants from] which did not come on a constant schedule, this rebuild of Edmonton streetcar No.33 took over a decade to complete. 

  • Shadows, Shade, and Sunshine

    Oumar Salifou

    In its 1966 annual report, the City of Edmonton Parks and Recreation Department described its purpose as facilitating “the development…

  • Filipino Pioneers of Edmonton

    Ida Beltran Lucila

    The 1952 Immigration Act introduced a points system that brought about the entry of professionals to fill labour gaps in Canada.

  • Colours of the Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan Sikh Parade

    Gagan Kaur Hoonjan

    If you come to Mill Woods on the Sunday of Victoria Day long weekend, you’ll join thousands of people coming…

  • THE HILL: The Secret Edge of Downtown

    Darrin Hagen

    MacDonald Drive has overlooked the river valley from Edmonton’s earliest incarnation, marking the south edge of downtown, a steep bank…

  • Wong Bark Ging 黃柏振 : A History of My Father’s Market Gardens

    Ging Wei Wong 黃景煒

    One hundred years ago my father stepped onto Canadian soil for the first time. It wasn’t until he passed away…

  • Cariwest: The Caribbean Community’s Gift to Edmonton

    Donna Coombs-Montrose

    CARIWEST – Caribbean Arts Festival was introduced to Edmonton in 1984. It was created by Western Carnival Development Association (WCDA)…

  • Once a Teacher, Always a Teacher

    Jeannette Austin-Odina

    My journey towards becoming an educator started in my childhood with time spent under a mango tree at my home…

  • Edmonton’s Caribbean Journey

    Donna Coombs-Montrose

    The flights touched down at a Canadian International Airport bringing scores of eager Caribbean nationals, their suitcases packed with their…

  • Vivacious Caribbean Teachers

    Etty Shaw-Cameron

    During the 1960s, school jurisdictions in Alberta advertised for teachers in leading newspapers and at teacher training colleges in the…

  • Sam the Shoemaker: Cobbling Together Community

    Harma-Mae Smit

    It was the turbulent sixties. In the United States and Canada, teenage unrest was making headlines. Even in the small…