In May of 1868, Elizabeth Bingham Young and her new husband began a long journey from Hamilton, Ontario, to the Methodist mission of Rossville. For the next eight years, she lived in two mission houses, Norway House and then Berens River. Unprepared for the difficult conditions and the "eight months long" winter, and unimpressed with "eating fish twenty-one times a week," the young Upper Canada wife rose to the challenge. Her account of mission life in these remote outposts, is the first of its kind to be archived and now to appear in print. Accompanying Elizabeth's memoir, and offering a counterpoint to it, are the reminiscences of her eldest son, "Eddie," who was born and raised in the Cree community at Norway House. These two remarkable recollections of mission life are an invaluable addition to the fields of religious, missionary, and Aboriginal history.

Mission Life in Cree-Ojibwe Country: Memories of a Mother and Son (Our Lives: Diary, Memoir, and Letters Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Young, Elizabeth Bingham

Young, E. Ryerson

Historical

Athabasca University Press

In honest, reflective prose, Joegodson allows us to walk in the ditches of Cité Soleil, to hide from the macoutes under the bed, to feel the ache of an empty stomach. But, most importantly, he provides an account of life in Haiti from a perspective that is rarely heard. Free of sentimentality and hackneyed clichés, his narrative explores the spirituality of Vodou, Catholicism, and Protestantism, describes the harrowing day of the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath, and illustrates the inner workings of MINUSTAH. Written with Canadian historian Paul Jackson, the memoir is a true collaboration, the struggle of two people from different lands and vastly different circumstances to arrive at a place of mutual understanding. In the process, they have given us an unforgettable account of a country determined to survive, and on its own terms.

Rocks in the Water, Rocks in the Sun: A Memoir from the Heart of Haiti (Our Lives: Diary, Memoir, and Letters Series)

Jackson, Paul

Deralcine, Vilmond Joegodson

Community & Culture

In 1990, the Glenbow Museum took its first tentative steps toward repatriation by returning sacred objects to First Nations' peoples. These efforts drew harsh criticism from members of the provincial government. Was it not the museum's primary legal, ethical, and fiduciary responsibility to ensure the physical preservation of its collections? Undaunted by such criticism, more than fifty medicine bundles were returned to Blackfoot and Cree communities between the years of 1990 and 2000, at which time the First Nations Sacred Ceremonial Objects Repatriation Act (FNSCORA) ― still the only repatriation legislation in Canada ― was passed."We Are Coming Home!" is the story of the highly complex process of repatriation as described by those intimately involved in the work, notably the Piikuni, Siksika, and Kainai elders who provided essential oversight and guidance and Gerald Conaty, senior curator at the museum.

We Are Coming Home: Repatriation and the Restoration of Blackfoot Cultural Confidence (Athabasca University Press)

Arts & Photography

When citizens take collaborative action to meet the needs of their community, they are participating in the social economy. Co-operatives, community-based social services, local nonprofit organizations, and charitable foundations are all examples of social economies that emphasize mutual benefit rather than the accumulation of profit. While such groups often participate in market-based activities to achieve their goals, they also pose an alternative to the capitalist market economy. Contributors to Scaling Up investigated innovative social economies in British Columbia and Alberta and discovered that achieving a social good through collective, grassroots enterprise resulted in a sustainable way of satisfying human needs that was also, by extension, environmentally responsible. As these case studies illustrate, organizations that are capable of harnessing the power of a social economy generally demonstrate a commitment to three outcomes: greater social justice, financial self-sufficiency, and environmental sustainability. Within the matrix of these three allied principles lie new strategic directions for the politics of sustainability. Whether they were examining attainable and affordable housing initiatives, co-operative approaches to the provision of social services, local credit unions, farmers' markets, or community-owned power companies, the contributors found social economies providing solutions based on reciprocity and an understanding of how parts function within the whole―an understanding that is essential to sustainability. In these locally defined and controlled, democratically operated organizations we see possibilities for a more human economy that is capable of transforming the very social and technical systems that make our current way of life unsustainable.

Scaling Up: The Convergence of the Social Economy and Sustainability (Athabasca University Press)

Business & Money

Economics

Food nourishes the body, but our relationship with food extends far beyond our need for survival. We use food choices not only to express our personal tastes but also, and perhaps more importantly, to declare our affiliation with certain groups to the exclusion of others. Thanks to a newly global system of food production, however, coupled with rising concerns about the nutritional value of the foods we consume and the impact of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, the modern foodscape has become remarkably difficult to navigate. A single food item may, for example, be labelled with health-related claims made by the manufacturer that do not dovetail with the information provided in the "Nutrition Facts" label. In the media sphere, the enormous amount of food-related advice provided by government agencies, assorted advocacy groups, diet books, and so on compete with efforts on the part of the food industry to sell their product and to respond to a consumer-driven desire for convenience. As a result, the topic of food has grown fraught, engendering sometimes acrimonious debates about what we should eat, and why.This volume is the latest to emerge from a series of workshops about the role of media in Canadian popular culture. By examining topics such as the values embedded in food advertising, the meaning of "organic" and "natural," the locavore movement, food tourism, dinner parties, food bank donations, the moral panic surrounding obesity, food crises, and fears about food safety, the contributors to this volume paint a rich, if at times disturbing, portrait of how food is represented, regulated, and consumed in Canada. We also hear from "food insiders"―bestselling cookbook author and food editor Elizabeth Baird, veteran restaurant reviewer and food writer John Gilchrist, executive chef and culinary tourism provider Eric Pateman―who provide valuable insights about the way that Canadians cook, eat, and experience food. The result is a thought-provoking look at food as a system of communication through which Canadians articulate cultural identity, personal values, and social class.

How Canadians Communicate VI: Food Promotion, Consumption, and Controversy

Science & Math

Agricultural Sciences

In Democracy in Alberta: The Theory and Practice of a Quasi-Party System, published in 1953, C. B. Macpherson explored the nature of democracy in a province that was dominated by a single class of producers. At the time, Macpherson was talking about Alberta farmers, but today the province can still be seen as a one-industry economy―the 1947 discovery of oil in Leduc having inaugurated a new era. For all practical purposes, the oil-rich jurisdiction of Alberta also remains a one-party state. Not only has there been little opposition to a government that has been in power for over forty years, but Alberta ranks behind other provinces in terms of voter turnout, while also boasting some of the lowest scores on a variety of social welfare indicators. The contributors to Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy critically assess the political peculiarities of Alberta and the impact of the government's relationship to the oil industry on the lives of the province's most vulnerable citizens. They also examine the public policy environment and the entrenchment of neoliberal political ideology in the province. In probing the relationship between oil dependency and democracy in the context of an industrialized nation, Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy offers a crucial test of the "oil inhibits democracy" thesis that has hitherto been advanced in relation to oil-producing countries in the Global South. If reliance on oil production appears to undermine democratic participation and governance in Alberta, then what does the Alberta case suggest for the future of democracy in industrialized nations such as the United States and Australia, which are now in the process of exploiting their own substantial shale oil reserves? The environmental consequences of oil production have, for example, been the subject of much attention. Little is likely to change, however, if citizens of oil-rich countries cannot effectively intervene to influence government policy.

Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada (Athabasca University Press)

Industries

Online discourse has created a new media environment for contributions to public life, one that challenges the social significance of the role of public intellectuals―intellectuals who, whether by choice or by circumstance, offer commentary on issues of the day. The value of such commentary is rooted in the assumption that, by virtue of their training and experience, intellectuals possess knowledge―that they understand what constitutes knowledge with respect to a particular topic, are able to distinguish it from mere opinion, and are in a position to define its relevance in different contexts. When intellectuals comment on matters of public concern, they are accordingly presumed to speak truth, whether they are writing books or op-ed columns or appearing as guests on radio and television news programs. At the same time, with increasing frequency, discourse on public life is taking place online. This new digital environment is characterized by abundance―an abundance of speakers, discussion, and access. But has this abundance of discourse―this democratization of knowledge, as some describe it―brought with it a corresponding increase in truth?Casting doubt on the assertion that online discourse, with its proliferation of voices, will somehow yield collective wisdom, Speaking Power to Truth raises concerns that this wealth of digitally enabled commentary is, in fact, too often bereft of the hallmarks of intellectual discourse: an epistemological framework and the provision of evidence to substantiate claims. Instead, the pursuit of truth finds itself in competition with the quest for public reputation, access to influence, and enhanced visibility. But as knowledge is drawn into the orbit of power, and as the line between knowledge and opinion is blurred, what role will the public intellectual play in the promotion and nurturing of democratic processes and goals? In exploring the implications of the digital transition, the contributors to Speaking Power to Truth provide both empirical evidence of, and philosophical reflection on, the current and future role of the public intellectual in a technologically mediated public sphere.

Speaking Power to Truth: Digital Discourse and the Public Intellectual (Athabasca University Press)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

In 2010, five magnificent Blackfoot shirts, now owned by the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum, were brought to Alberta to be exhibited at the Glenbow Museum, in Calgary, and the Galt Museum, in Lethbridge. The shirts had not returned to Blackfoot territory since 1841, when officers of the Hudson's Bay Company acquired them. The shirts were later transported to England, where they had remained ever since. Exhibiting the shirts at the museums was, however, only one part of the project undertaken by Laura Peers and Alison Brown. Prior to the installation of the exhibits, groups of Blackfoot people―hundreds altogether―participated in special "handling sessions," in which they were able to touch the shirts and examine them up close. The shirts, some painted with mineral pigments and adorned with porcupine quillwork, others decorated with locks of human and horse hair, took the breath away of those who saw, smelled, and touched them. Long-dormant memories were awakened, and many of the participants described a powerful sense of connection and familiarity with the shirts, which still house the spirit of the ancestors who wore them. In the pages of this beautifully illustrated volume is the story of an effort to build a bridge between museums and source communities, in hopes of establishing stronger, more sustaining relationships between the two and spurring change in prevailing museum policies. Negotiating the tension between a museum's institutional protocol and Blackfoot cultural protocol was challenging, but the experience described both by the authors and by Blackfoot contributors to the volume was transformative. Museums seek to preserve objects for posterity. This volume demonstrates that the emotional and spiritual power of objects does not vanish with the death of those who created them. For Blackfoot people today, these shirts are a living presence, one that evokes a sense of continuity and inspires pride in Blackfoot cultural heritage.

Visiting with the Ancestors: Blackfoot Shirts in Museum Spaces (Athabasca University Press)

Peers, Laura

History & Criticism

An extensive body of literature on Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing has been written since the 1980s. This research has for the most part been conducted by scholars operating within Western epistemological frameworks that tend not only to deny the subjectivity of knowledge but also to privilege masculine authority. As a result, the information gathered predominantly reflects the types of knowledge traditionally held by men, yielding a perspective that is at once gendered and incomplete. Even those academics, communities, and governments interested in consulting with Indigenous peoples for the purposes of planning, monitoring, and managing land use have largely ignored the knowledge traditionally produced, preserved, and transmitted by Indigenous women. While this omission reflects patriarchal assumptions, it may also be the result of the reductionist tendencies of researchers, who have attempted to organize Indigenous knowledge so as to align it with Western scientific categories, and of policy makers, who have sought to deploy such knowledge in the service of external priorities. Such efforts to apply Indigenous knowledge have had the effect of abstracting this knowledge from place as well as from the world view and community - and by extension the gender - to which it is inextricably connected. Living on the Land examines how patriarchy, gender, and colonialism have shaped the experiences of Indigenous women as both knowers and producers of knowledge. From a variety of methodological perspectives, contributors to the volume explore the nature and scope of Indigenous women's knowledge, its rootedness in relationships both human and spiritual, and its inseparability from land and landscape. From the reconstruction of cultural and ecological heritage by Naskapi women in Québec to the medical expertise of Métis women in western Canada to the mapping and securing of land rights in Nicaragua, Living on the Land focuses on the integral role of women as stewards of the land and governors of the community. Together, these contributions point to a distinctive set of challenges and possibilities for Indigenous women and their communities.

Living on the Land: Indigenous Women’s Understanding of Place

In Grant's earlier book, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study, he followed a practical-critical analysis of the letters that dealt with key patterns of metaphors and concepts. This volume is a complement to the first book and provides an effective, theory-based reading of the letters that brings them more fully and successfully into the domain of modern literary studies. Each chapter addresses some significant aspect of Van Gogh's writing including a "reading" of the letter-sketches and their narrative dimensions, a deconstruction of the binaries used in Van Gogh's writing and painting, observations of Van Gogh's own understanding of the permeable boundary between words and visual art, and a discussion of the set of polarities apparent in Van Gogh's discussions of imagination, fantasy, belief, and self-surrender. Consequently, as a whole and in each of its parts, this book offers a new, timely, and theoretically-informed interpretation of Van Gogh's literary achievement.

"My Own Portrait in Writing": Self-Fashioning in the Letters of Vincent van Gogh (Athabasca University Press)

Literature & Fiction

Grant, Patrick

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