The Politics of the Canoe: Activism and Resistance

Authors

Bruce Erikson Ed.
Sarah Wylie Krotz Ed.
Chuck Commanda
Larry McDermott
Sarah E. Nelson, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Nelson - https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1891-6976

Files

Description

Popularly thought of as a recreational vehicle and one of the key ingredients of an ideal wilderness getaway, the canoe is also a political vessel. A potent symbol and practice of Indigenous cultures and traditions, the canoe has also been adopted to assert conservation ideals, feminist empowerment, citizenship practices, and multicultural goals. Documenting many of these various uses, this book asserts that the canoe is not merely a matter of leisure and pleasure; it is folded into many facets of our political life.

Taking a critical stance on the canoe, The Politics of the Canoe expands and enlarges the stories that we tell about the canoe’s relationship to, for example, colonialism, nationalism, environmentalism, and resource politics. To think about the canoe as a political vessel is to recognize how intertwined canoes are in the public life, governance, authority, social conditions, and ideologies of particular cultures, nations, and states.

Almost everywhere we turn, and any way we look at it, the canoe both affects and is affected by complex political and cultural histories. Across Canada and the U.S., canoeing cultures have been born of activism and resistance as much as of adherence to the mythologies of wilderness and nation building. The essays in this volume show that canoes can enhance how we engage with and interpret not only our physical environments, but also our histories and present-day societies.

ISBN

978-0-88755-909-9

Publication Date

3-2021

Publisher

University of Manitoba Press

Comments

"Chapter 5: Ginawaydaganac: Algonquin teachings of the birch bark canoe: The canoe in Indigenous community revitalization and reconciliation" is coauthored by University of Nebraska at Omaha's Dr. Sarah E. Nelson and can be accessed at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/geoggeolfacpub/85/

Recommended Citation

Erikson, Bruce Ed.; Krotz, Sarah Wylie Ed.; Commanda, Chuck; McDermott, Larry; and Nelson, Sarah E., "The Politics of the Canoe: Activism and Resistance" (2021). Geography and Geology Faculty Books and Monographs. 9.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/geoggeolfacbooks/9