Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land
Canadians like to think our history is boring and generally peaceful. But the truth is much more insidious than that and our long history of violence, oppression and disregard for the Indigenous people of this land was hard to learn.
Adam Shoalts is an Explorer in Residence at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society his previous books blend Canadian history with his own adventures into the blank parts of our map. This was a bit of a departure for him in that the maps were not his own but those of our history.
From the very earliest maps to the more modern and complete ones he told the story of how Canada became a country. The importance of our rivers, but more importantly that of the Indigenous nations that helped the Europeans along, was alway central to the pursuit of trying to find the edges of this unknown continent.
I was disheartened by the violence throughout the entire book. The conflicts between whites and Indigenous came as no surprise however there was distrust and violence between the Nations themselves. None was more disturbing to me than the fight between the Dene and the Inuit described by Samuel Hearn in his expedition of the Coppermine River.
Throughout the book I kept thinking at how deeply flawed humans are. Our willingness to hurt each other and to distrust those who are not like us is so deeply baked into our DNA that I wonder if we can ever overcome it.
I am very glad to have read the book. I learned so much about Canadian exploration history. Even though it was a gut punch at times it is an important book to help us understand who we are and what kind of country we want to become. This will not be easy.
