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Canadian Authors - Non fiction - |
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Ancient Land, Ancient Sky: The True Story of the Discovery of Canada |
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 Ancient Land, Ancient Sky:The True Story of the Discovery of Canada by Peter McFarlane and Wayne Haimila Random House Canada 318 pages, June 2000 ISBN 067697263 Reviewed by Faith Leslie - South Africa faithlez@mweb.co.za This book is an account of a flying adventure inspired by history, with particular emphasis on the original inhabitants of Canada. There are many flashbacks into history, giving the correct names of the tribes and in various cases, setting the record straight. As a non-Canadian with little real knowledge of that country's history and ethos or of Native Canadians or Americans apart from Longfellow's Hiawatha, I found the story of Canada's original dwellers enlightening, fascinating and tragic. The coming of the Europeans brought not only horses and implements, but the diseases which decimated hundreds of thousands of indigenous people. A great deal is told from the viewpoint of the villagers, as the French and British came upon the scene and the very disparate customs and characteristics. They touch on modern politics and the efforts of the latter day native Canadians to establish a new national integrity. The book concludes with the Queen's visit to Canada, where in a Labrador village, she was handed a letter which stated: "We believe we are entitled as a People to full ownership rights over the lands which we have lived upon since the glaciers retreated from this peninsula." Wayne Haimila is a British Columbian lawyer, journalist and political advisor of Cree, Tsimshian and Metis ancestry who is very involved in Native land claims, while Peter McFarlane, the pilot of the Cessna plane in which they travelled, is based in Montreal. Hamila is a writer specialising in native affairs and is the author of several books on that subject. Some of the duo's adventures are hair-raising and exciting, and they have covered much of the Native canoe routes. Ancient Land, Ancient Sky will give the reader much to think about and a great deal to revise on sterotyped impressions gained about Canadian history. |
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