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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Water sports & recreations > Boating
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.
The remarkable eighty-five-day journey of the first two women to
canoe the 2,000-mile route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay
Unrelenting winds, carnivorous polar bears, snake nests, sweltering
heat, and constant hunger. Paddling from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay,
following the 2,000-mile route made famous by Eric Sevareid in his
1935 classic Canoeing with the Cree, Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho
faced unexpected trials, some harrowing, some simply odd. But for
the two friends-the first women to make this expedition-there was
one timeless challenge: the occasional pitfalls that test character
and friendship. Warren's spellbinding account retraces the women's
journey from inspiration to Arctic waters, giving readers an
insider view from the practicalities of planning a three-month
canoe expedition to the successful accomplishment of the adventure
of a lifetime. Along the route we meet the people who live and work
on the waterways, including denizens of a resort who supply
much-needed sustenance; a solitary resident in the wilderness who
helps plug a leak; and the people of the Cree First Nation at
Norway House, where the canoeists acquire a furry companion.
Describing the tensions that erupt between the women (who at one
point communicate with each other only by note) and the natural and
human-made phenomena they encounter-from islands of trash to
waterfalls and a wolf pack-Warren brings us into her experience,
and we join these modern women (and their dog) as they recreate
this historic trip, including the pleasures and perils, the sexism,
the social and environmental implications, and the enduring wonder
of the wilderness.
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