Distributed for University of British Columbia Press
Canoe Nation
Nature, Race, and the Making of a Canadian Icon
More than an ancient means of transportation and trade, the canoe has come to be a symbol of Canada itself. In Canoe Nation, Bruce Erickson argues that the canoe’s sentimental power has come about through a set of narratives that attempt to legitimize a particular vision of Canada that overvalues the nation’s connection to nature. From Alexander Mackenzie to Grey Owl to Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the canoe authenticates Canada’s reputation as a tolerant, environmentalist nation, even when there is abundant evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, the stories we tell about the canoe need to be understood as moments in the ever-contested field of cultural politics.
Table of Contents
Preface: Canoeing Matters
Introduction: Canoes and the Nature of Canada
1 Pedagogical Canoes: “Forced Intimacy,” Suffering, and Remembering National History
2 I Fish, Therefore I Am: Recreational Canoeing and Wilderness Travel at the Turn of the Century
3 Regimes of Whiteness: Wilderness and the Production of Abstract Space from Seton to Grey Owl
4 Recreational Nationalism: Canoeing as Political Activism
Conclusion: Future Politics and the Production of the Nation
Notes
References
Index