Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Canoes as Fetish Objects

Jan 20, 2014

In the latest issue of Geist magazine (#91) my regular column looks at two new books about the fetishization of the canoe in our national mythology.

The books are Inheriting a Canoe Paddle: the Canoe in Discourses of English-Canadian Nationalism by Misao Dean and Bruce Erickson's Canoe Nation: Nature, Race and the Making of a Canadian Icon.

"The virtue of these two new books is that they contradict the claims of 'canoe nationalism' and reveal the ideology that lies behind the use of the canoe as an all-purpose symbol for Canada."

Look for Geist at your local newsstand and if it is not there, demand satisfaction.