New from Creekstone Press
Crossing the Divide: Discovering a Wilderness Ethic in Canada’s Northern Rockies
In Crossing The Divide Wayne Sawchuk takes us from his early days as a logger and trapper to his role in creating the largest protected wilderness area in the Rocky Mountains. Sawchuk grew up near Chetwynd in the province’s northeast, working with his father in resource industries. Then in 1985, he helped his uncle build a trapper’s cabin at Mayfield Lake in the Northern Rockies and eventually bought the trapline. Through the 1990s he began taking extended horse packing trips into the area while helping shape the future of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, 6.5 million hectares of land where intact ecosystems co-exist with carefully regulated resource extraction. “It is,” says Sawchuk, “an incredible experiment where we can maintain a sustainable economy and keep the wild heart of Canada’s Northern Rockies beating strong forever.” Read more
Song of the Earth: The Life of Alfred Joseph
When your culture is banned and your land and resources stolen, it takes a special individual not only to survive but to thrive. Grounded in the wisdom of his elders, Gisdewe Alfred Joseph wove respect, kindness and courage into his years of service to the Witsuwit’en people of northwest British Columbia. As an artist, teacher, chief band councilor, house chief and lead plaintiff in Delgamuukw-Gisday Wa – one of the most important Aboriginal title cases in Canada – Alfred relied on the lessons he learned as a boy to deal with a pervasive colonial reality. Song of the Earth opens the feast hall doors, throwing light on what the Witsuwit’en have lost and what they have preserved since settlers came to their lands. (Please note that the royalties from the sales of Song of the Earth will be donated to the Dr. Alfred Joseph student bursary at UNBC.) Read more
Shared Histories
Shared Histories looks deeply into what happened at the intersection of settler dreams and Witsuwit’en reality in the small northwestern British Columbia town of Smithers. Planted in a swamp at the base of a mountain, this railway town tried to exclude the region’s first inhabitants. This collection of hidden histories reveals how generations of Witsuwit’en made a place for themselves in town despite local, provincial, and national efforts push them, and indeed all Indigenous peoples, to the fringes. Read more