Before We Lost the Lake: A Natural and Human History of Sumas Valley by Chad Reimer Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781987915587 Reviewed by Jeff Oliver * Up until its disappearance, in matter or mind, Sumas Lake never really stood still. Since its birth at the end of the last ice age, it…
Read more #572 Settlers coveted Sumas Lake
The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land by Pamela Klassen London and Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018 $27.50 (U.S.) / 9780226552736 Reviewed by Susan Neylan * Colonialism has spiritual dimensions; the process of creating a country like Canada transcends physical space and expands into metaphysical realms to permeate the…
Read more #548 On a wing & a telepathic prayer
SENĆOŦEN; A Dictionary of the Saanich Language by Timothy Montler Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018 $150.00 (U.S.) / 9780295743851 Reviewed by Andrew Cienski * SENĆOŦEN; A Dictionary of the Saanich Language, by Timothy Montler, is the latest in a succession of Coast Salish language reference materials. It is the culmination of Montler’s and others’…
Read more #547 Big book, great language
First published May 5, 2019 Greg Younging (1961-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Formerly an Assistant Director of Research for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Dr. Gregory George Younging, a publisher of Theytus Books and a professor of Indigenous Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus, died at the Penticton Hospital on May…
Read more #544 Greg Younging (1961-2019)
Being Ts’elxwéyeqw: First Peoples’ Voices and History from the Chilliwack-Fraser Valley, British Columbia by the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe (producers) and David M. Schaepe (editor) Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $94.95 / 9781550178180 Reviewed Charles R. Menzies * Being Ts’elxwéyeqw is one of a growing genre of First Nations controlled and published reference books. Edited by UBC-trained…
Read more #516 Chilliwack to Ts’elxwéyeqw
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2018 $19.95 / 9780995266520 * Talking Back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories by Mary-Ellen Kelm and Keith D. Smith (editors) Toronto: University of Toronto Press,…
Read more #514 Consider the Indian Act
City in Colour: Rediscovered Stories of Victoria’s Multicultural Past by May Q. Wong Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2018 $22.00 / 9781771512855 Reviewed by Tom Koppel * When I was a kid, my father took me on a brief visit to Victoria. Part of the attraction, for him, was that he’d heard the city described as the…
Read more #513 Victoria’s secret: diversity
Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon by Karen Autio, illustrated by Loraine Kemp Vancouver: Crwth Press, 2018 $25.95 / 9781775331902 Reviewed by Ken Mather * At the heart of Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon is the beautifully illustrated story of the life of a Ponderosa Pine from a seed in the year 1780 to…
Read more #512 A Ponderosa Pine time capsule
Towards a New Ethnohistory: Community-Engaged Scholarship among the People of the River by Keith Thor Carlson, John Sutton Lutz, David Schaepe, and Albert “Sonny” McHalsie (Naxaxalhts’i) (editors) Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018 $27.95 / 9780887558177 Reviewed by Tyler McCreary * Towards a New Ethnohistory, a new collection edited by Keith Carlson, John Lutz, David…
Read more #506 Scribes of the Stó:lō Nation
Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life Beyond Settler Colonialism by Joseph Weiss Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $32.95 / 9780774837590 Reviewed by Molly Clarkson * I’ll admit that I approached Dr. Joseph Weiss’s Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life Beyond Settler Colonialism with a not-insignificant amount of trepidation. Another ethnographic examination of the Haida…
Read more #492 Future-making in Haida Gwaii
The God of Gods: A Canadian Play by Carroll Aikins, edited and with an introduction by Kailin Wright University of Ottawa Press, 2016 $29.95 / 9780776623276 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published Feb. 19, 2019 * Although a remarkable piece of British Columbia’s theatre history played out not far from where I write and was…
Read more #490 Applauding a forgotten play
Memories of a Metis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Metis Settlement by Constance Brissenden (editor) Penticton: Theytus Books, 2018 $14.89 / 9781926886503 Reviewed by Angie Tucker First published Feb. 11, 2019 * When I first received Constance Brissenden’s book, I thumbed through the pages, stopping to look at the faces and places in…
Read more #483 Métis bannock, Métis kinship
On The Rocks with Jack Knox: Islanders I will Never Forget by Jack Knox Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772032666 Reviewed by Keith Norbury First published Feb. 8, 2019 * It’s often said that journalism represents the first rough draft of history. As a reporter, editor, and columnist with the Victoria Times Colonist daily…
Read more #481 Show us your island characters
Out of the Woods: Woodworkers along the Salish Sea by Pirjo Raits Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $34.95 / 9781772032604 Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published Feb. 3, 2019 * There are trees … which in their single lives have spanned the entire history of civilized man. We woodworkers have the audacity to shape timber from…
Read more #477 Art of the forest and turbulent sea
Trail North: The Okanagan Trail of 1856-68 and its Origins in British Columbia and Washington by Ken Mather Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $22.95 / 9781772032307 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch First published January 24th, 2019 * The British Columbia grasslands became cattle country, between 1858 and 1868, largely through the effects of a cattle route called…
Read more #472 Okanagan trade & cattle trail