Finding Directions West
explores the ways that Western Canada has served as a space of constant movement between places of spiritual, subsistence, and aesthetic importance. Showcasing new research, this volume brings together studies that approach community building, placemaking, and the self-creation of meaning from many different perspectives.
From the representation of Indigenous people in museum displays to the efforts of LGBTQ+ people to discover themselves within the historical record, from the way Métis communities have turned to grassroots narratives as a means of cultural preservation to the efforts of early Alberta suffrage activists to define themselves within the public eye, this anthology is a fascinating overview of new directions in Canadian historiography.
Too often, history is understood as fixed, precisely mapped and authoritatively documented.
challenges readers to think differently about the history of Western Canada, a region where people, places, and ideas are in constant, energetic flux, and where those who have come before leave a significant legacy for the present day.