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Prairie Fairies draws upon a wealth of oral, archival, and cultural histories to recover the experiences of queer urban and rural people in the prairies. Focusing on five major urban centres, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, and Calgary, Prairie Fairies explores the regional experiences and activism of queer men and women by looking at the community centres, newsletters, magazines, and organizations that they created from 1930 to 1985.? Challenging the preconceived narratives of queer history, Valerie J. Korinek argues that the LGBTTQ community has a long history in the prairie west, and that its history, previously marginalized or omitted, deserves attention. Korinek pays tribute to the prairie activists and actors who were responsible for creating spaces for socializing, politicizing, and organizing this community, both in cities and rural areas. Far from the stereotype of the isolated, insular Canadian prairies of small towns and farming communities populated by faithful farm families, Prairie Fairies historicizes the transformation of prairie cities, and ultimately the region itself, into a predominantly urban and diverse place.
Gabby Mackenzie knows little and cares less about prairie people or their history. She sees her assignment to interview a hundred-year-old settler as nothing more than a bump in her hazy career path. But as she gets to know old Mr. Tollerud and the land that has been his home, she finds herself drawn into the interwoven stories of the settlers, the Metis, and the First Nations who came before them. And her own life changes. Review Residential school survivor and life-long educator Dr. Cecil King says of Prairie Grass “a dynamic piece of work … Yes, it is a good read.”
A renowned author investigates the dark and shocking history of her prairie house. When researching the first occupant of her Saskatoon home, Candace Savage discovers a family more fascinating and heartbreaking than she expected Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin built the house in the 1920s, an era when French-speakers like him were deemed “undesirable” by the political and social elite, who sought to populate the Canadian prairies with WASPs only. In an atmosphere poisoned first by the Orange Order and then by the Ku Klux Klan, Napoléon and his young family adopted anglicized names and did their best to disguise their “foreignness.” In Strangers in the House, Savage scours public records and historical accounts and interviews several of Napoléon’s descendants, including his youngest son, to reveal a family story marked by challenge and resilience. In the process, she examines a troubling episode in Canadian history, one with surprising relevance today. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute
“A wonderful way to introduce young readers to the natural world that lurks just outside their windows.” —Globe Books Will Franny ever prove to her dad that crows and kids can be friends? Franny has a new friend—a crow who brings her presents in its beak. Like a red button! And a silver heart! Franny’s dad doesn’t believe her. He says crows and kids can’t be friends. But Franny knows better. How will Franny prove her new playmate is real? And what will the crafty crow bring next? Award-winning author Candace Savage, whose crow expertise is lauded in popular books such as Bird Brains, motivates families to be present when exploring parks, backyards, balconies, city streets, beaches, and skies. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute
A year of eating locally results in a gastronomical journey through prairie food festivals, local food traditions and the infamous community dinners. A humorous, light-hearted chronicle of the writer's love affair with good food, prairie traditions and flavours from her childhood with recipes peppered throughout. Fueled by nostalgia and her taste buds, she set out to rediscover the flavours of her childhood - the flavours of natural, local, farm-fresh prairie food. When she vowed to serve only locally produced food at her own dinner table for one year, the pursuit took on a life of its own. Beautiful photographs enhance Amy Jo's mouth-watering menus, recipes and her adventures in the pursuit of home grown prairie food.
In this shining debut, identity and community converge in poems for a modern generation. Beginning with the open prairie skies of her youth, Sarah Ens maps an emergence into millennial womanhood, questioning feminine expectations and examining heartache and disembodiment during an age of personal and planetary upheaval. The World Is Mostly Sky looks backwards and inwards to find respite in stars, warm earth, and deep waters while rejoicing in the sacred bonds of sisterhood that offer the courage to meet our uncertain horizon.
August 12, 2002 would have marked the 100th birthday of one of Western Canada's most beloved, exemplary, idiosyncratic and admired citizens, the Hon. J.W. Grant MacEwan. A Century of Grant MacEwan: Selected Writings is published to mark the centenary of the author's birth, and showcases the writing achievements of this remarkable man. From his first foray into historical writing, The Sodbusters (1948), to Watershed: Reflections on Water (2000), this collection offers a fascinating selection drawn from the nearly fifty books that won him a place in hearts and on bookshelves across the Canadian West. From perilous Chilcotin–Klondike cattle drives to the creation of a short-lived republic within the boundaries of Manitoba, A Century of Grant MacEwan is MacEwan at his finest, preserving little-known or neglected nuggets of the past for future generations to read and remember. Through his writing, MacEwan shows us our history.
When Candace Savage and her partner buy a house in the romantic little town of Eastend, she has no idea what awaits her. At first she enjoys exploring the area around their new home, including the boyhood haunts of the celebrated American writer Wallace Stegner, the backroads of the Cypress Hills, the dinosaur skeletons at the T. Rex Discovery Centre, the fossils to be found in the dust-dry hills. She also revels in her encounters with the wild inhabitants of this mysterious land -- two coyotes in a ditch at night, their eyes glinting in the dark; a deer at the window; a cougar pussy-footing it through a gully a few minutes' walk from town. But as Savage explores further, she uncovers a darker reality -- a story of cruelty and survival set in the still-recent past -- and finds that she must reassess the story she grew up with as the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of prairie homesteaders.
The story of the Northwest Rebellion is synonymous with Métis leader Louis Riel, whose allies joined together in 1885 to face the military forces of the Canadian government, engaging in a civil war on the Canadian Prairies. A lesser-known element of the story is the gripping tale of river warfare along the banks of rivers in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. InPrairie Warships: River Navigation in the Northwest Rebellion, historian Gordon E. Tolton tells of the follies and triumphs of a small prairie war that was fought using steamboats, ferries and other river craft. This was an adventure experienced at water level by warriors and soldiers on all sides--European settlers, First Nations and Métis. Richly illustrated and thoroughly researched, Prairie Warshipstakes readers to an era when the frontier was under siege, when prairie towns were ports of call, when a region's lifeblood depended on transport and when the mood of the river determined the fate of a nation.
The life of Seager Wheeler is one of the most significant--albeit nearly forgotten--Canadian success stories. He was North America's most celebrated wheat developer, whose varieties in the 1920s made up 40 percent of the world's wheat exports, and contributed wealth to most facets of the Canadian economy. His most publicized accomplishment was being crowned World Wheat King an unsurpassed five times, from 1911 to 1918.