Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way by Marilyn James and Taress Alexis Nelson: Maa Press, 2018 $30.00 / 9780968530283 Reviewed by Paula Pryce First published October 24, 2018 * Editor’s note: Anthropologist Paula Pryce, author of the pathbreaking Keeping the Lakes’ Way (1999), revisits the Sinixt people, previously known as the Lakes people, whose traditional territory comprised…
Read more #406 The Sinixt are not extinct
Archaeology of the Lower Fraser River Region by Mike K. Rousseau, editor Burnaby: Archaeology Press of Simon Fraser University, 2017 $30.00 / 9781772870121 Reviewed by Robert (Bob) Muckle Also open access. Free download: http://archpress.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/archpress/catalog/book/72 First published Oct. 8, 2018 * In 2011, Mike Rousseau recruited 33 active archaeologists and scholars in related disciplines to contribute…
Read more #395 Meanwhile, 5,000 years ago
Out of Concealment: Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii by gid7ahl-gudsllaay lalaxaaygans (Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson), with forewords by Wade Davis and gwaaganad (Diane Brown) Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $29.95 / 9781772031607 Reviewed by Gillian Crowther * In Out of Concealment: Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii, Haida artist and activist Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson encounters 33 supernatural beings of Haida mythology….
Read more #394 Supernatural Haida Columbia
Indian Fishing: Early Methods on the Northwest Coast by Hilary Stewart, foreword by Michael Kew Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 (first published by J.J. Douglas, 1977) $28.95 / 9781771621854 Reviewed by Dana Lepofsky First published Sept. 30, 2018 * Editor’s Note: Born in Saint Lucia in the West Indies in 1924, Hilary Majendie Stewart…
Read more #388 Indian fishing revived
Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography by Andrea Warner, foreword by Joni Mitchell Vancouver: Greystone Books 2018 $36.00 / 9781771643580 Reviewed by Jo-Anne Fiske First published Sept. 29, 2018 * Envision a young woman, naïve and conservative in 1965. She sat proudly in her undergraduate history class as the professor led discussion on the fifty-year commemoration…
Read more #387 Up where she belongs
Those Born at Koona: The Totem Poles of the Haida Village Skedans, Haida Gwaii by Carolyn and John Smyly Surrey: Hancock House, 2018 (first published 1973) $29.95 / 9780888391018 Reviewed by Dan Savard First published Sept. 27, 2018 * In 1957, John Smyly (1924-2002) was hired as carpenter by the Provincial Museum of British Columbia…
Read more #385 The carpenter of Koona
First published Sept. 23, 2018. Aboriginal Peoples and the Law: A Critical Introduction by Jim Reynolds Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 (Purich Books) $29.95 / 9780774880213 Reviewed by Neil Vallance * “Much of Canadian Aboriginal law has evolved from cases originating in the Province of British Columbia,” notes reviewer Neil Vallance. Among the leading B.C. cases…
Read more #382 An Aboriginal body of law
Obstruction of Justice: The Search for Truth on Canada’s Highway of Tears by Ray Michalko Markham, ON: Red Deer Press, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889955455 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published Sept. 17, 2017 * For ten years, ex-Mountie Ray Michalko investigated the fate of the missing or murdered women and girls on B.C.’s infamous…
Read more #377 Truth for the Highway of Tears
Kuei, My Friend: A Conversation on Race and Reconciliation by Deni Ellis Béchard and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, translated by Deni Ellis Béchard and Howard Scott Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772011951 Reviewed by Dylan Burrows First published September 07th, 2018 * Following the controversial death of 11-year old Ojibwe girl Makayla Sault from leukaemia in…
Read more #368 “Walk like an Indian”
First published Aug. 30, 2018. Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New El Dorado by Daniel Marshall Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2018. $24.95 / 9781553805021 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * “The history of British Columbia is brief,” wrote W.A. Bailie-Grohman. “Gold made it and gold unmade it.” In Claiming the Land, Daniel Marshall…
Read more #360 Gold made British Columbia
Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam by Wendy Holm (editor) Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2018 $22.95 / 9781459413160 Reviewed by John Gellard First published Aug. 26, 2018 * The 16 contributors to Wendy Holm’s Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam try to make sense…
Read more #353 Another Peace offering
The Cure for Death by Lightning: A Play Adapted from the Novel by Gail Anderson-Dargatz by Daryl Cloran Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $18.95 / 9781772012057 * Talker’s Town and The Girl who Swam Forever: Two Plays by Nelson Gray and Marie Clements Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $18.95 / 9781772012019 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published Aug. 15,…
Read more #344 Curative plays
Through Different Eyes by Karen Charleson Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2017 $19.95 / 9781773240060 Reviewed by Paul Headrick First published July 3, 2018 * Through Different Eyes focuses on three women living in Kitsum, a remote First Nations fishing village on Vancouver Island’s west coast. Lonely sixteen-year-old Brenda Joe longs to fit in with the…
Read more #335 Kitsum on Hesquiat Harbour
Southern Northwest Coast Indigenous Canoe Racing: A Brief History by Alan L. Hoover Victoria: NWC Canoe Publications, 2018 $14.95 / 9781775011903 Reviewed by Sanford Osler First published Jul. 2, 2018 * Once a year my local oceanfront park in North Vancouver fills with campers bringing dozens of long sleek wooden canoes to race over the…
Read more #333 Indigenous canoe racing
Sculpture in Canada: A History by Maria Tippett Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $39.95 / 9781771620932 Reviewed by Catherine Nutting First published June 26, 2018 * Maria Tippett’s Sculpture in Canada is, she writes, not an encyclopedia, but an introduction; an eye-opener to some of the greatest Canadian sculpture. The book is an ambitious project….
Read more #329 From inuksuit to cyberspace
Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand against Big Hydro by Sarah Cox Vancouver: UBC Press (On Point Press), 2018. $24.95 / 9780774890267 * Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam by Wendy Holm (editor) Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2018 $22.95 / 9781459413160 Both books reviewed…
Read more #327 Site C boondoggle unravelled
Beau Dick: Revolutionary Spirit by Darrin J. Martens, in collaboration with the Audain Art Museum Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2018 $40.00 / 9781773270401 Reviewed by Alan L. Hoover First published June 15, 2018 * Chief Beau Dick (Walas Gwa’yam) (1955-2017) was a much-honoured artist and activist in the Kwakwaka’wakw community, the wider Indigenous and non-Indigenous…
Read more #323 Beau Dick’s revolutionary art
Remembering Chief Kw’eh compiled by Lillian Sam and Frieda Klippenstein Fort St. James: Nak’azdli Whut’en Press, 2016 $10 / 9780995286900 Reviewed by Daniel Sims First published June 3, 2018 * The Nak’azdli Chief ‘Ulh’gweh–aka Chief Kw’eh or Chief Kwah–is mostly widely known as the man who spared the life of (future Sir) James Douglas. Nak’azdli…
Read more #316 Nak’adli Nation honours Kw’eh
The Language of Family: Stories of Bonds and Belonging by Michelle van der Merwe (editor) Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2017 $27.95 / 9780772670526 Reviewed by Claire Sicherman First published May 30, 2018 * When I first held The Language of Family in my hands, I could feel the faint stirring of emotion, the…
Read more #312 A sesquicentennial smorgasbord
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 $21.95 / 9781771621908 Reviewed by Eldon Yellowhorn First published May 28, 2018 * First published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2012, this special edition of Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse has been released to coincide with the appearance of the motion picture Indian Horse…
Read more #310 The Third Solitude