Aqueduct (Semaphore) Paperback – April 19, 2016 by Adele Perry (Author)
$14.95

Aqueduct: Colonialism, Resources, and the Histories We Remember

Brand: Arbeiter Ring Publishing
Current Stock:
UPC: 9781894037693
Gift Wrapping: Gift Wrapping Available
Authors: Adele Perry
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arbeiter Ring Publishing (April 19, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 101 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1894037693
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1894037693
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.9 x 0.4 x 6.8 inches

 

1919 is often recalled as the year of the Winnipeg General Strike, but it was also the year that water from Shoal Lake first flowed in Winnipeg taps.

 

For the Anishinaabe community of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, construction of the aqueduct led to a chain of difficult circumstances that culminated in their isolation on a man-made island where, for almost two decades, they have lacked access to clean drinking water.

In Aqueduct: Colonialism, Resources and the History We Remember, Adele Perry analyzes the development of Winnipeg's municipal water supply as an example of the history of settler colonialism. Drawing from a rich archive of historical sources, this timely book exposes the cultural, social, political, and legal mechanisms that enabled the rapidly growing city of Winnipeg to obtain its water supply by dispossessing an Indigenous people of their land, and ultimately depriving them of the very commodity clean drinking water that the city secured for itself.

Review

It's difficult not to get angry when reading Aquaduct. Perry's frustration is palpable in the first chapter, and as the story progresses, it's hard for the reader to not become more incredulous-the injustice is truly unmistakeable. However Perry does a phenomenal job of trying the hard history of Shoal Lake's indigenous people into the hopeful future of tomorrow. -Maria Siassina

About the Author

Adele Perry is Professor of History and Senior Fellow at St John's College, University of Manitoba. She has taught there since 2000 and held the Canada Research Chair in Western Canadian Social History from 2003 to 2014. Perry is the author of On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, and the Making of British Columbia, 1846-1871 (2001), which won the Canadian Historical Association's Clio Award for the best book published on the history of British Columbia; co-won the American Historical Association Pacific Coast Branch Book Prize; and was shortlisted for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Raymond Klibansky Prize for the best English-language book in the humanities. The book has been reprinted six times. Perry is also co-editor of three editions of Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women's History. She has been awarded the Jensen-Miller prize for the best article in Western American Women's History and the Hilda Neatby Award awarded by the Canadian Committee on Women's History. Perry was co-chair of the 2014 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. Since 2008 she has been book review editor for the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History.