New Book by Trent Professor Examines Cultural Representations of the North
Dr. Joan Sangster explores relationship between colonialism and popular images of northern Aboriginal experience
"Our identity in Canada is caught up in the North, but ironically, Indigenous people have very different views of the North than southerners," says Dr. Joan Sangster, professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Trent University, commenting on the release of her latest book, The Iconic North: Cultural Constructions of Aboriginal Life in Postwar Canada.
The Iconic North examines how cultural representations of the North were an integral part of colonial relations between Indigenous peoples and settlers and how those intertwined with North-South relations, particularly in the period following the second world war.
"The book is not about how Indigenous people saw the North," Professor Sangster explains. "It's about how cultural representations and images constructed by southern media, visitors, and writers became implicated in the public perception of the North, in state policy, in film, and popular education, and how those became taken-for-granted views of Indigenous people."
In researching the book, Prof. Sangster enlisted Trent graduate students who helped her examine archival collections, government documents, popular writing, and various media sources including National Film Board films and television programs.
While The Iconic North is a scholarly work targeted at academics, Prof. Sangster hopes that it will resonate with a wider audience that is interested in colonialism and questions about the North.
"It may help change our understanding of post World War II history and the way in which the North was portrayed in that time," Prof. Sangster says. "People may think that by the 1950s and 1960s colonial attitudes were less prevalent, but the research shows that there was a very strong element of colonialism underlying culture representations which both romanticized Indigenous people yet often portrayed them as less advanced, even 'primitive'.”
The Iconic North is the sixth book written by Dr. Sangster. She is currently working on a book about the history of suffrage in Canada, set to be published in 2017.