On the Canadian Studies Advisory Board, few have as deep ties to the program as Dr. Françoise Barnes Bonnell. The daughter of its late co-founder, Professor Thomas Garden Barnes, and his wife Jeanne-Marie Barnes, Françoise was born in England during one of her father’s sabbaticals and grew up in Berkeley but spent many summers at her family’s ancestral home in Nova Scotia. Together with her mother and family, Françoise continues to support Professor Barnes’ legacy while expanding the program’s scope and relevance. We asked her about what drives her engagement with the program, and how her experiences have convinced her of the importance of not just sustaining, but advancing her late father’s work.
What is your background?
I grew up in Berkeley. My father, Thomas Garden Barnes, was a professor of law and history at the university. I went to school at Scripps College in Claremont, California. Given my father’s profession, it was probably no surprise I studied history and political science. But the career path I chose was a little different than you might expect from a young lady at all-female college at that time. While I was in college I joined Army ROTC on a 3-year full scholarship. I did very well in the program and learned a lot of great skills. So, when I was offered a regular army commission at graduation, I accepted. I chose to go to Germany and after that I really only went back to California to see my parents.
I spent four years on active duty, then after I left the active army I pursued my master’s degree in US history at the State University of New York at Stonybrook. I remained in the Army Reserve. I was called to active duty for Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm and moved to Fort Bragg, NC. My husband, Charles, and I were married in 1991. With him on active duty, we were stationed all over the country and overseas. Our oldest son was born in the Netherlands, the younger one at Fort Lewis, WA. Since our first move, of six over the next 15 years, I pursued a career in teaching at various colleges and universities as an adjunct. My father was very much my mentor in my varying careers; my mother was always there for me, too. Charles’ last assignment brought us to Virginia. I worked in civil service culminating as Director of the U.S. Army Women’s Museum. I completed a Ph.D. in education, focusing on curriculum and training in an informal learning environment. We recently moved to Newport News, VA where I now work as the Director of Museums, Education and Interpretation at Fort Monroe. We raised our kids on the saying “you never know ‘til you go.” This has served the family well over the years and we continue to live by it. When I look back at my own upbringing and all the travels the Barnes family went on, I realize now where this idea really came from!
What is your family’s connection to Canada?
Our connection is through my father. Many people think it is my mother, but she is from France. Six generations ago, my father’s ancestors emigrated to Nova Scotia from Massachusetts. One side, the Sabins, arrived in Weymouth in 1762. The other ancestor, a Savary, arrived after the American Revolution, but he wasn’t a Loyalist per se; it seems he was running away from something in Massachusetts. One day I hope to find out what the reason was. Together, they built a house on St. Mary’s Bay, later named Plympton, near Digby, where they raised their twelve children. The house and land was passed down through the generations to my father, who spent many summers there while growing up, and his first cousin, who was raised there and remains very close to the Barnes family. In 1976 my parents loaded us up in the old blue van and drove across the country for what would become one of dozens of cross-country trips to spend the summer restoring the old house. I was amazed by how many family members we had up there – my father was an only child, but we had so many second and third cousins who were all so happy to see “Tommy Gardener”, as they called him. I got along very well with everyone – they were all so friendly.
Why did your father create the Canadian Studies Program?
Because of his family connections my father always had an interest in Canada, but there was a particular incident that really motivated him to start the program. In 1979, during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, a handful of US diplomats were taken in by the Canadian embassy in Tehran. My father wrote a letter to the Canadian Consul thanking Canada for its assistance in saving the lives of Americans. So that started a relationship between my father and the Canadian consul in San Francisco, and the rest is history. He had a desire to make people aware of just how close Canada has always been as an ally of the United States, not just then but going back years and years.
Through the hard work of many people the Canadian Studies program was founded. My father had a great ability to connect with people at any level, but it was a little difficult to convince people that this program was worth it because at that time many people thought “Canada? Who cares?” But my father was always very determined; he wouldn’t give up. And I can’t dismiss my mother’s part either. She was a huge supporter of everything my father did and continues to maintain his legacy today. So to me, it’s really interesting how so many universities now have an interest in developing Canadian studies programs, because it’s something he was promoting for years.
Why do you think Canadian Studies is important?
I think I never really understood until now why this project was so important to my father. Of course, he had a personal connection to Nova Scotia. But he also had this historical understanding that these same British immigrants, who had been Americans, then Canadians, were equally important to the histories of both countries. Canada and the United States have had a non-militarized border for over two centuries. Yet, sometimes I am surprised at how little Americans know and understand their Canadian neighbors. Canadian Studies is an important program in fostering learning between the two.
Why do you think it’s important for Americans to learn about Canada?
Personally, I feel that if we as Americans understood how much we have in common, especially from a historical perspective, we could learn so much from Canada. I think Americans, as a society can be very dismissive. But there is much we could gain in our understanding of politics, how Canadians have interacted with Native people, and how they’ve learned to live in a society that’s strongly impacted by two very distinct cultures, with the francophone-anglophone divide. Many Americans don’t ever think that we could learn anything from Canada, or consider how much it has influenced us as a nation.
I had an experience a few years ago that illustrates this point. I was in Yarmouth with my family, and we were visiting The Historic Acadian Village in West Pubnico. An American visitor told the cashier that he thought the music they were playing was really great, and she told him it was traditional Acadian music. He said, “Nah, that’s from the Bayou, that’s Cajun music from Louisiana.” He didn’t realize that the music he grew up with was directly influenced by the Acadians who had been expelled from Canada.
In recent years I’ve come to realize we can’t take the US relationship with Canada for granted; we have to work hard to forge better bonds across the border. My father really looked at that relationship as being to some extent borderless, because you have so many areas along the border where people go back and forth daily, they have friends across the border and follow the other country’s politics because it affects them. The fact that the border has been closed for almost a year due to COVID has been really hard for my mother and myself, because I wonder if it’ll ever go back to the way it used to be. But I have a lot of hope for the future.
As someone who’s been involved with the program for a long time, what made you decide to join the board now?
I was hesitant at first, because I want to contribute. I don’t want to be on the board just for the sake of being on the board. I’m still mostly just sitting back and learning how things work; it’s important to me to see what the program is about today, and how it has changed and progressed. The director has such an important influence on the program’s direction, so I’ve been learning about what Irene’s vision and goals are.
I want to help build something important and lasting. From the perspective of being able to financially support the program, I think of that as being a commitment from the Barnes family as a whole. But I look forward to providing more substantive personal contributions to the board going forward.
What do you think the program does well, and what would you like to see more of?
The program is very strong with the comparative cultural and political aspects, and of course immigration, which is very topical. I think Irene has done an outstanding job in expanding interest into so many different fields. I sat through a fascinating program on language and how important it is to culture and identity, through something as simple as word choice. It reminds me of my experience in Nova Scotia, where they have some very distinctive colloquial phrases that are unique to that shore. People sometimes look down on the area for economic reasons, but they have a very rich culture.
I’m very interested in expanding the academic research aspects of the program, and encouraging a historical perspective. I think a lot about how we can attract more students to the program, and I’d like to see if we can encourage more historical research. I also think it would be interesting to host something from a legal studies perspective, maybe comparing how common law and civil law interact in Canada. But in the end, I think everyone on the board really wants Irene to continue doing what she’s been doing, because she’s been so successful at it. My father would be very proud of her hard work and dedication to the program’s success.
What struck you the most as an American living in Canada?
For me, my connection to Canada has always revolved around “family”. And I think it was surprising to see just to what an extent that was true. It struck me that at the end of every summer, when we were preparing to go back to California, our friends in Plympton would say, “hopefully the year will go by quickly and you’ll be home soon.” It was very surprising to me because as a teenager, I thought of Nova Scotia as a place where we spent the summer. And what I realized was that people there looked at our roots in Nova Scotia and thought of us as people that had to go away for the winter, but then always came back. Even today, my cousins talk about us “coming home”, because home and family is what it’s always about. That sense of community is incredible, and I hope to be able to go back soon.