Vernon Wishart (Métis)

Vernon Wishart was a Métis United Church minister, Old Testament teacher, community advocate and author whose work linked Christian ministry with public service and the recovery of Indigenous family history. His career included theological education, university governance, service in India, and congregational ministry in Alberta and Quebec. In retirement, he became known for writings that traced the Cree, Assiniboine and Orkney connections within his family and examined the effects of racism on the transmission of that history. Hia graduate education, teaching and Senate appointment form an important part of his place in Indigenous Canadian history. 1, 2, 3

Family background and education

Vernon Roy Wishart was born on Aug. 27, 1927 in Lacombe Alberta. He was the eldest of the three children of Roy David Wishart and Alta Maud Woodall. His father worked as a grain buyer and his mother as a teacher and newspaper correspondent. His younger brother, William David ‘Bill’ Wishart, became a wildlife biologist, while his sister, Shirley, became a medical librarian, artist and an important collaborator in the family’s genealogical research. The family’s years in Carstairs provided a rural Alberta setting for their childhood. 2, 4

Wishart’s education took him beyond Alberta before his career in ministry. He attended Colorado College from 1946-1950 where he earned a BA. He also played hockey there and its records list Vernon R. Wishart, from Carstairs, among its players in 1946–1949. Wishart was also associated with Colorado College’s Sigma Chi fraternity and the Theology Club. He returned to Canada in 1950 and obtained a Bachelor of Divinity in 1952, making him the second Indigenous Canadian to earn a BD (Bachelor of Divinity degree). Together, these records show the combination of college life, athletics and theological study that preceded his ministerial career. 5, 6, 7

In 1958 he earned an MA in divinity at Drew University, making him the fifth Indigenous Canadian to earn a graduate degree at a North American university and the first to earn a graduate degree in divinity. The qualification placed him among the earliest Indigenous Canadians to pursue advanced university education in theology. 1 . He married Johanna ‘Jo’ Zimmerman in 1956 in Baltimore, and they had five children together: James, Beth, Mark, Karen and Stephen.

Ministry in India and Canada

Wishart, his wife and four oldest children moved to India in 1963 and lived in Bangalore from 1963 to 1968 where he and Jo worked with the Student Christian Movement. 9 After returning from India, they served congregations at Garneau United Church in Edmonton (1968-1979), Erskine and American United Church in Montreal, (1979-1988) and St. Paul’s United Church in Grande Prairie (1988-1992). 8

Wishart arrived at Garneau United Church in 1968, at a time when the neighbourhood around the University of Alberta was changing. A declining residential congregation was reconsidering its role among students, apartment dwellers and young travellers. Working with St. George’s Anglican Church, Garneau developed a drop-in programme in 1969 under the direction of theology student Evelyn Battell. Approximately 5,000 young people visited between May and August. Volunteers helped connect them with medical and legal assistance, and a network of private homes offered places to sleep. Baldwin and PearlAnn Reichwein’s account describes this work as a collective effort involving ministers, congregations, staff and community partners. 2

The same ministry brought Wishart into contact with Americans who had come to Canada because of the Vietnam War. In a report published in The Witness on 1 March 1970, he urged churches to help the newcomers, telling a public discussion that Americans had begun arriving at Garneau the previous summer. His appeal accompanied an Edmonton and District Council of Churches resolution supporting assistance to expatriates. It was a practical expression of his willingness to address a divisive public issue through hospitality and support for people in need. 10

Teaching and university governance

Wishart combined congregational service with theological teaching. In 1972 he was appointed as a lecturer in Old Testament theology at St. Stephen’s College, associated with the University of Alberta. He was the third Indigenous Canadian to hold a teaching appointment at a Canadian university and the first Indigenous Canadian to become a lecturer at the University of Alberta. His teaching brought biblical scholarship into the preparation and continuing education of people engaged in ministry. 1

His educational work also extended to Newman Theological College. St. Stephen’s College awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1972, recognizing his contribution to theological and church life. The University of Alberta’s alumni account remembers his long involvement in teaching across these institutions. 7

Wishart was appointed to the University of Alberta Senate in 1974 and became the first Indigenous Canadian appointed to a Canadian university Senate or a Canadian university governance position. His academic significance therefore encompassed graduate study, teaching and institutional service. These milestones preceded the fuller public articulation of his Métis ancestry in his later historical writing. 1, 3

Recovering a concealed family history

Wishart’s investigation of his ancestry began in the 1960s following work undertaken by his sister Shirley. In his 2007 essay, Finding Jimmie No-Toes, he explained that a passage in John Martin’s local history, The Rosebud Trail, had alerted her in 1965 to their Indigenous background. It described their great-grandmother Eliza’s medical knowledge during the ordeal of her husband, James Wishart, after a severe blizzard. Vernon understood his father’s silence about the family’s ancestry as an attempt to protect his children from racial prejudice. 3

A walk with Shirley near Red Deer in 1993, shortly before Vernon’s retirement, strengthened his decision to pursue the subject much furter. Building on her research, he consulted Hudson’s Bay Company records and gathered information from relatives and other contacts. His investigation connected family recollections with a much longer history of the fur trade and western settlement. 3

The resulting book, What Lies Behind the Picture? A Personal Journey into Cree Ancestry, appeared in 2006 through the Central Alberta Historical Society. Historian Bryce Wilson described the research as extending across roughly 250 years of Wishart, Flett and Spence family connections. These linked Orkney migrants with Cree and Assiniboine women and their descendants. Wilson emphasized the book’s attention to hardship, discrimination and the continuing relationships between Orkney and western Canada. 11, 12

Recovering this history required attention to Indigenous women whose lives were less fully documented than those of the men employed in the fur trade. Wishart’s work helped restore those women to the family narrative. Historian Jennifer S. H. Brown placed Vernon and Shirley among the researchers whose investigations of their own roots were contributing to a broader reconsideration of Canadian history. Her discussion situated their work within the growing recognition of women, Indigenous families and kinship in the history of Rupert’s Land. 13

Books, public history and reconciliation

Wishart returned to these subjects in Kisiskâciwan (Saskatchewan): Tracing My Grandmother’s Foot Steps, published by White Buffalo Books in 2012. The book focused on his Cree ancestor Saskatchewan, also known as Isabella, who married the Orkney-born fur trader William Flett. It used the historical setting of the fur trade to reconstruct a life sparsely represented in the written record. The Alberta Genealogical Society’s review summary classifies the work as historical fiction. That distinction matters to its interpretation: it offered an imaginative account informed by historical research, rather than a claim that every episode could be documented. 14, 15

Vernon and Shirley also brought their research to audiences beyond the printed page. Canada’s History interviewed them in 2010 at the Rupert’s Land Colloquium at the University of Winnipeg, where they were presenters and regular participants. The interview introduced their experience of discovering a heritage concealed within the family and the effect of that discovery on their understanding of themselves. Their participation connected personal genealogical inquiry with a wider community of researchers studying Indigenous and fur-trade history. 16

His writing also entered discussions of reconciliation. In a 2012 article in The Conrad Grebel Review, political scientist Roger Epp identified What Lies Behind the Picture? as a valuable example of a personal history that reveals the interwoven lives of Indigenous and settler families. Epp’s use of the book shows its relevance beyond genealogy: histories such as Wishart’s could challenge accounts of settlement that overlooked existing peoples and relationships. 17

In 2015 Wishart published The Stories I Leave Behind: ‘Laugh Then Wherever You May Be’, a collection of short stories drawn from everyday life. This later volume broadened his published work from ancestry and historical reconstruction to personal storytelling. It also preserved another aspect of a life spent communicating with congregations, students and readers. 7, 18

Recognition, family and legacy

Wishart received the Edmonton Historical Board’s Recognition Award in 2009 for his contribution to local history. In 2013, the Centre for Race and Culture presented him with its Anti-Racism Award in recognition of his work towards reconciliation. These honours acknowledged the public value of research that began within his own family. 7

Vernon and Johanna shared 62 years of marriage. Their family included five children: James, Beth, Mark, Karen and Stephen. Their partnership extended across ministry in India and Canada and a continuing concern for community welfare. Johanna, who also qualified as a social worker, survived him and died in October 2024. 8, 19

Wishart died on 4 May 2019 in Edmonton where he had lived for the previous 27 years. Tributes from the Student Christian Movement of India and former members of his congregations recalled both his international service and the intellectual and spiritual life of his ministry. His enduring contributions can be seen in several settings: the young people welcomed through church outreach, the students he taught, the academic institutions he served, and the readers who encountered Indigenous history through his books. His career joined early Indigenous academic milestones with a sustained effort to make religious and historical understanding useful in people’s lives. 1, 9

References

1. Indigenous Canadian Academic Milestones: A Timeline [Internet]. Available from: https://indigenius-canada.wishartlab.com/pioneers/ (accessed 7 October 2026). Author-supplied document: Indigenous_Academic_Firsts_NoPhotos(3).docx.
2. Reichwein B, Reichwein P. Drop in, hang out, and crash: outreach programs for transient youth and war resisters in Edmonton. In: Crane Bear L, Hannant L, Patton KR, editors. Bucking conservatism: alternative stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s. Edmonton: AU Press; 2021. p. 201–215. Available from: https://read.aupress.ca/read/bucking-conservatism/section/9de5bd2e-047d-4d66-9659-7c529ab2399e
3. Wishart V. Finding Jimmie No-Toes. Alberta Views [Internet]. 2007 Apr 1 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://albertaviews.ca/finding-jimmie-no-toes/
4. Wishart DS. Bill Wishart biography [unpublished family biography]. 2026 Sep. Author-supplied document: Bill-Wishart-Biography2-Clean-DSW.docx. Includes the Wishart parents and siblings.
5. Colorado College Athletics. Colorado College hockey media guide, 2015–16 [Internet]. Colorado Springs: Colorado College; 2015 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. All-time roster: Vernon R. Wishart. Available from: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/cctigers.com/documents/2015/11/12/CC_HMG_2015_16_FINAL.pdf
6. University of Alberta Students’ Union. Evergreen and Gold. Edmonton: University of Alberta Students’ Union; 1952. p. 92. Author-supplied yearbook image: Vernon_Wishart_1952_Graduation_Yearbook_Page92.jpg.
7. University of Alberta. Alumni notes: Vernon Wishart. New Trail [Internet]. 2016 Autumn [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://www.ualberta.ca/newtrail/media-library-new/magazine-covers-pdfs/nt_autumn_2016.pdf
8. Drew University. Johanna ‘Jo’ (Zimmerman) Wishart. Drew Classnotes 2024 [Internet]. Madison (NJ): Drew University; 2024 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. p. 1. Available from: https://drew.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/EOY-Classnotes_2024.pdf
9. Foster and McGarvey. Vernon Wishart: in loving memory and condolences [Internet]. Edmonton: Foster and McGarvey; 2019 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://www.fostermcgarvey.com/condolences.php?id=1688
10. Churches in Edmonton will aid expatriates. The Witness [Internet]. 1970 Mar 1:7 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://www.episcopalarchives.org/e-archives/the_witness/pdf/1970_Watermarked/Witness_19700301.pdf
11. Wishart VR. What lies behind the picture? A personal journey into Cree ancestry. Red Deer (AB): Central Alberta Historical Society; 2006.
12. Wilson B. Hands across the sea: Orkney and the Hudson’s Bay Company. In: Brown AK, editor. Material histories: proceedings of a workshop held at Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen, 26–27 April 2007. Aberdeen: Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen; 2008. p. 21–28. Available from: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/materialhistories/documents/proceedings.pdf
13. Brown JSH. An ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land: unfinished conversations. Edmonton: AU Press; 2017. p. 190. doi:10.15215/aupress/9781771991711.01.
14. Wishart VR. Kisiskâciwan (Saskatchewan): tracing my grandmother’s foot steps. Clandeboye (MB): White Buffalo Books; 2012. 366 p.
15. Alberta Genealogical Society. Relatively Speaking: 2013 summary contents [Internet]. Edmonton: Alberta Genealogical Society; 2013 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Includes Margaret Bendickson’s review of Kisiskaciwan. Available from: https://www.abgenealogy.ca/uploads/files/RS%20Summaries/2013_v41SummaryContents.pdf
16. Oosterom N. Secrets of Ruperts Land [Internet]. Canada’s History; 2010 Jun 4 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/genealogy/secrets-of-ruperts-land
17. Epp R. ‘There was no one here when we came’: overcoming the settler problem. Conrad Grebel Rev. 2012;30(2):115–126. Available from: https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/cgr-30-2-s2012-2.pdf
18. Wishart VR. The stories I leave behind: ‘laugh then wherever you may be’. Edmonton: Alpine Press; 2015.
19. Echovita. Johanna Wishart obituary [Internet]. 2024 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://www.echovita.com/ca/obituaries/ab/edmonton/johanna-wishart-18762350