ReReading Catharine Parr Traill: Stranging the Familiar

ReReading Catharine Parr Traill: Stranging the Familiar is a bold and unflinching re-examination of one of Canada’s most celebrated settler voices. In this decolonizing memoir and cultural critique, author and nature artist Dorothy Lander revisitsTraill’s 1852 children’s story Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains, exposing how its colonial narratives andracialized stereotypes were long normalized—and remain largely unquestioned. Lander’s close reading reveals howthebook promotes white supremacy and the Doctrine of Discovery, even as it offers a surprisingly complex portrayal of Indiana, a Mohawk girl whose Indigenous knowledge is essential to the settlers’ survival. This tension—between overt racismandreluctant admiration—serves as a catalyst for exploring the contradictions embedded in Canadian colonial literature. Withcontributions from Alderville First Nation, including a powerful foreword by Maurice Switzer and five original illustrations byartist Koren Smoke, ReReading Catharine Parr Traill becomes more than literary analysis: it becomes a collaborative act of truth-telling and reconciliation.

NEW: ReReading Catharine Parr Traill: Stranging the Familiar is now available as an epub. Find it on Kobo or Kindle or most any of your preferred online book retailers today.