KCIC adds panel discussion to internment presentation

As part of our Between Neighbours Presentation on Wednesday, June 2, looking at the impact of World War II on BC and Kelowna's Italian community, the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club will be hosting a special panel discussion talking about the internment of Canadian Italians,  the impact, Trudeau's recent apology, the road to that apology and what the legacy will be moving forward. We are honoured and thrilled to be able to welcome these special guests for this very timely and important conversation:

Adriana A. Davies
Noted Researcher and Author. Adriana Davies' latest book is From Sojourners to Citizens, Alberta’s Italian History
(Full Bio Below)

Trina Costantini-Powell
President of National Congress Italian-Canadians, Capital Division. Her grandfather Giuseppe Costantini was interned at Petawawa
(Full Bio Below)

Ray Lenzi
Ray's grandfather, Frederico Lenzi, was interned in Kananaskis

Lynne Bowen
​Historian and Author of Whoever Gives Us Bread, the Story of Italians in British Columbia 
(Full Bio Below)

Moderated by
Rosann Nanci
​President of the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club

Registration for the online presentation and panel discussion is through Eventbrite. It's free to all:

Between Neighbours: Okanagan Italians during WWII
7:00 PM, Wednesday, June 2
On Zoom

Register Now

Bios for Adriana Davies, Trina Costantini-Powell and Lynne Bowen shown below by clicking Read More

Adriana A. Davies
​
Adriana (Albi) Davies was born in Grimaldi, Cosenza, Italy and grew up in Canada. She received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Alberta, and a Ph.D. from the University of London, England. Her thesis topic was “The Art for Art’s Sake and Decadent Movements in Nineteenth Century English and French Literature.”

For more than 40 years, she has worked as a researcher, writer, editor, lecturer, executive director and curator in England and Canada. Professional accomplishments include: Science and Technology Editor, The Canadian Encyclopedia; Executive Director, Alberta Museums Association; and creator and Editor-in-Chief of the Alberta Online Encyclopedia – www.albertasource.ca. In 2009, the 84 multimedia websites were gifted to the University of Alberta.

Dr. Davies has a range of publications including authoring about one-third of the entries for the Collins' Encyclopaedia of Antiques (London: Collins. 1973; New York: Random House, 1974); Dictionary of British Portraiture, Volume 1 (London: Batsford, 1979) and Dictionary of British Portraiture, Volume 4 (London: Batsford, 1981).

Her most recent publications are the critical biography From Realism to Abstraction: The Art of J. B. Taylor (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2014); The Rise and Fall of Emilio Picariello (Fernie: Oolichan Books, 2016; and The Frontier of Patriotism: Alberta and the First World War (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2016), an anthology that she co-edited with Jeff Keshen, former Dean of Arts, Mount Royal University, Calgary. Her newest publication, “From Sojourners to Citizens: Alberta’s Italian History” will be published by Guernica Editions in Spring 2021. It documents the settlement history and contributions of Italian immigrants who worked on the railways, in the coal mines of Alberta and BC, homesteaded and also set up a range of small and large businesses. She gives Italian immigrants their rightful place in the narrative of province and nation building.

She has contributed entries to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography for psychiatrist Charles Arthur Baragar, horticulturist George Harcourt, and city planner and administrator Christopher James Yorath.

For nearly 30 years she has worked in the museum sector in Alberta (including as Executive Director of the Alberta Museums Association) and is well-known for advocacy on behalf of the sector. She served on the Government of Canada’s Cultural Sector Initiative and co-chaired the Research Steering Committee, Capacity Joint Table, responsible for designing the first-ever National Survey of Non-Profit and Voluntary Organizations as well as the benchmarking study on charities in 40 countries done by Johns Hopkins University for UNESCO. Dr. Davies has served on various cultural advisory committees adjudicating grants and making policy decisions including the Canada-France Cultural Accord.

She has undertaken a range of curatorial work including obtaining loans from French and British museum collections for the millennium exhibit Anno Domini: Jesus through the Centuries at the Royal Alberta Museum. She curated two travelling exhibits: “People of the Coal Mines: The Italian Community” for the Galt Museum covering communities from the Elk Valley to Drumheller; and, “Alberta’s Italian CommunIty” with funding support from the Italian Consul General in Edmonton. In 2012, she curated the exhibit “J. B. Taylor and the Idea of Mountains” for the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies and, in 2015, a travelling exhibit titled “The Rise and Fall of Emilio Picariello” for the Fernie Museum.

On July 1st, 2010, she was invested in the Order of Canada for her role in creating the Alberta Online Encyclopedia and for her contribution to the promotion and preservation of Canada's cultural heritage. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. As a Member of the Order of Canada she officiates at Canadian citizenship ceremonies. Other awards include: the Alberta Museums Association Life Time Achievement Award, Province of Alberta Centennial Medal, Global Woman of Vision Award and the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in the Arts. In 2015, the Association canadienne-francaise de l’Alberta awarded her the Prix Roger Motut for helping to preserve the Francophone Culture and Language of Alberta and the Italian government awarded her a knighthood (Cavaliere d’Italia) for preserving the Italian language, culture and traditions as well as her scholarship. In September 2020, she received the inaugural Heritage Writers Reserve Award from the Edmonton Heritage Council.

 Trina Costantini-Powell

A lifelong resident of Ottawa, Trina graduated from Carleton University with a Degree in History and Political Science. Her interest in these fields led her to a 35-year career with the Library of Parliament. 

Elected as President of the National Congress of Italian Canadians (National Capital District) in 2016 and as Second Vice-President at the Congress National level, Trina has worked in the Ottawa Italian Community for close to 30 years. She was President, St. Anthony's Church Ladies Auxiliary (2004-2016), Chair, Ottawa Italian Women's Filo 2005-2009, Vice-President, Italian Week Ottawa 2009-2015, Co-Chair, St. Anthony of Padua 100th Anniversary Centennial Book Project (A Journey of Faith: A History of St. Anthony of Padua Church: 1913-2013) and Director, Dalhousie Food Cupboard 2005-present. Trina is a recipient of the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers (2017) as well as a recipient of the Provincial Leading Girls, Leading Women Award (2014). Trina also is a recipient of the Ottawa Women's Filo Award for community service (2010). Trina acts as the Research and Nominations Committee Chair, Ottawa Distinguished Women.

Lynne Bowen

When Lynne Bowen enrolled at the University of Victoria to study history for the pleasure of it, she had no intention of becoming a writer. But three weeks after the former public health nurse and mother of three completed a Master of Arts degree in Western Canadian History, a group of coal miners approached her with stories to tell.

Seven books, many magazine articles and a newspaper column later, Lynne continues to write historical nonfiction. She was the Rogers Communications Co-Chair of Creative Non-Fiction Writing at UBC from 1992 to 2006.

Lynne is the author of Whoever Gives Us Bread: The Story of Italians in British Columbia.  (from Amazon.ca) Recounting the stories of individual Italian immigrants, celebrated author Lynne Bowen has crafted a loosely chronological narrative of the Italian settlement of BC. It's a story rife with discrimination and tragedy, with families torn apart when their men left Italy for more promising futures, but always there is a rich sense of community and a sense of pride.