Vanishingin Viridian
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reviews NON-FICTION THE EARTHTURNER The Earth’s Blanket: Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living by Nancy J. Turner (D&M $35) In 1913, when a rock slide impeded the VANISHING IN VIRIDIAN Fraser River during the construction of the Canadian Northern Railway, the “Vanishing British Columbia is Nlaka’pmx erected a wooden flume, genealogy tied to specific historic dipnetted the salmon, and then carried places” – MICHAEL KLUCKNER them to the flume so they might con- tinue their migra- Vanishing British Columbia by tions. The some- Michael Kluckner (UBC Press $49.95) times superior ap- proach of Aborigi- aving travelled for sev- nal people to na- eral decades to com- ture is reflected in Hpile the impressions for stories collected Vanishing British Columbia, by Nancy J. Turn- Michael Kluckner has distilled er’s for The Earth’s the multi-faceted province into Daisy Sewid-Smith Blanket: Traditional 12 essential colours: cerulean Teachings for Sus- blue, manganese blue, ultrama- tainable Living. The title is derived from a rine light, Payne’s grey, cad- report by James Teit who recorded the mium yellow deep, yellow belief among Nlaka’pmx (Thompson) people that flowers, plants and grasses ochre, olive green, viridian, are the blanket of the earth. From the burnt sienna, burnt umber, se- Saanich comes the story of Pitch, who pia and India red. went fishing in the sun, melted and was His 160 blue/green paintings poured over the body of the Douglas Fir. of heritage buildings, usually From the Nuxult comes the story of Raven nestled amongst trees and hills, bringing soapberries to the Bella Coola are unmistakeably Kluckner. In- BC Packers complex at Alert Bay a year before it was demolished in 2003. Painting by Michael Kluckner. Valley. Turner credits dozens of Aborigi- spired by Delacroix and by Japa- nal informants from around the province nese sumi-e sketches as a young Forsythe’s BC Almanac program nue in Zeballos shows the is where they tried to take my such as Chief Earl Maquinna George, Kim man, Kluckner has developed a to serve as his intermediary to Zeballos Hotel, built in 1938, and culture away, so it is fitting that Recalma-Clutesi, Elsie Claxton and Daisy Sewid-Smith. 1-55365-081-6 coherent style, using washed-out the public, Kluckner has at- an adjoining two-storey building it will now help me to get my hues, to match his preservation- tracted oldtimers and history that housed one of the town’s culture back.” ist aesthetic. Vanishing British buffs to his website. These peo- brothels. The static street scene, How many people today can DON’T SAY CHEESE Columbia doesn’t rescue the past; ple have supplied background complete with parked cars, is remember Siska Lodge in the Second Chapter by Don Denton it invests the ever-ephemeral tidbits — ‘local colour’— to com- non-descript, and yet Kluckner Fraser Canyon, managed by (Banff Centre $22.99) present with mystique. plement his watercolours, archi- has validated this forgettable Fred and Florence Lindsay in Unlike some of Kluckner’s val photos and Union scene as a link to a soon-forgot- the 1950s? After incorporating Jack Hodgins looks worried. Doug earlier work, Vanishing British Steamships memorabilia. ten era. In this way, ghosts are excerpts from a Barry Broadfoot Coupland looks sideways. P.K. Page Columbia doesn’t feel commercial, Kluckner’s paintings of hum- redeemed and we are not column, Kluckner quotes a looks stoney. Robert Kroetsch looks stern. and perhaps that’s the result of ble sites such as ‘the Brilliant trapped in Anywheresville, USA. Quesnel obituary that notes Marilyn Bowering looks professorial. more tasteful packaging, in- bridge’, ‘the Dunster store,’ Amid architectural details, Fred Lindsay was a self-pub- Patrick Lane looks impatient. Esta Spalding looks creased maturity or else more ‘Wong’s Market,’ ‘the Rolla thumbnail biographies and his- lished author of gold rush tales resolute. Brian Brett remote subject matter. After a torical summaries, Kluckner in- Pub’ or ‘the Union Bay Station’ who had “a few enemies and a looks suspicious. string of ‘Vanishing’ books in were all started out-of-doors, on cludes human punctuation hell of a lot of friends.” Perhaps Possibly all this the 1980s, the heritage activist location, and completed in his marks. While discussing two this is what they mean by magic seriousness is in- has refined his peculiar histori- studio. Kluckner’s subjects are paintings of residential schools realism. Poof. Fred Lindsay had tended to reso- cal bent that merges academic devoid of drama, dignified, at since converted to Aboriginal vanished, but Kluckner, as an nate through the precision with folksy reportage. rest, almost invisible unless we centres (St. Mike’s at Alert Bay artist/magician/historian, has ages in Don The end result is at once are stationary with them. Hu- and St. Eugene’s north of succeeded in plucking him out Denton’s second charming and useful—a rarity mans are eerily absent. Cranbrook), Kluckner recalls a of a huge hat called history. Jack Hodgins collection of au- thor pix, Second for an art book. Engaging Mark The image of Maquinna Av local woman saying to him, “This 0-7748-1125-0 Chapter, but for now the lack of anima- tion makes for a glum-looking gang. WE INVITE YOU TO SEND YOUR OWN REVIEW TO www.abcbookworld.com Denton, who lives in Sooke, has gath- ered about one-third B.C. writers among the 50 represented, including Genni Gunn, Maria Coffey, Kevin Chong, bill bissett, Lorna Crozier, Lane, John Gould, ABORTION STRUGGLE ENDS IN VICTORY Fiona Lam, Aislinn Hunter and Anne Fleming. Hunter and Fleming almost Winning Choice on Abortion: How British Columbian the evolution of the struggle to gain smile. 1-894773-11-X and Canadian Feminists Won the Battles of the 1970s and 1980s abortion access in B.C. by Ann Thomson (Trafford $31.45) “I think readers will see that the anti- abortionists are less concerned with FINDERS KEEPERS he struggle for women to gain unfettered and the ‘unborn’ than with controlling Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock timely access to abortion services in British women’s lives as closely as the Taliban (Raincoast $26.95) TColumbia—abortion on demand—is a long and in Afghanistan,” she writes. “Beyond courageous one. that, they want to impose an In much the same way sampling in the It goes back to a Quebec prison in 1975 when Dr. evangelical Christian dictatorship on music industry has become legit for re- Henry Morgentaler was thrown naked into a solitary our multi-cultural, multi-faith Canada.” cording artists and poets can publish ‘found poems’, computer technology confinement cell and suffered a heart attack. Risking Thomson cites the many individuals has enabled the easy borrowing of im- life imprisonment, Morgentaler, an Auschwitz survivor, who gave their money and time to win agery for rejuvenated art by graphic spent a fortune on lawyers and on opening clinics to the right of women to control their own designers. Lost ‘n’ serve as an inspiration to the pro-choice movement bodies—including B.C. authors Helen founder Nick across Canada. He had begun performing abortions Potrebenko and Cynthia Flood, and Bantock provides in Montreal after a woman he turned away from his bookseller Margo Dunn—and she examples for clinic tried to abort herself with a bicycle pump—and retrieves the details of various protests, “creating curious died. campaigns and initiatives such as the collage, dubious “Parliament remained stony to the last,” writes PHOTO Abortion Caravan to Ottawa in 1970. documents and Ann Thomson in Winning Choice on Abortion: How That same year Dr. Robert Makaroff was other art from British Columbian and Canadian Feminists Won the TWIGG sentenced to three months in Oakalla ephemera” in his Battles of the 1970s and 1980s, “and would not alter Mirthful Ann Thomson: fight was worthwhile prison, fined $15,000 and prevented Nick Bantock Urgent 2nd Class, the 1969 abortion law.” The abortion law (allowing from resuming his practice. including techni- for therapeutic abortions only) was ultimately struck down in 1988 Ann Thomson believes women and the likes of Makaroff and cal advise on how to photocopy flow- by a decision of the Canadian Supreme Court and that year the Morgentaler might have to return to the barricades again if anti- ers. “Urgent 2nd Class,” he says, “pays Everywoman’s Health Centre opened in Vancouver. abortionists continue to gain strength within the fundamentalist homage to the gentle art of embellish- But with the Bush regime in the White House, and Liberals teetering Christian movement. While history culminates in a happy ending, ing the foxed and creased leftovers of in Ottawa, Thomson is anxious about neo-conservative politicians who it also serves as a wake-up call to all who take access to abortion bygone eras.” Theft or recycling; it’s all in the eye of the purloiner. would like to turn back the clock. That’s why she has fully documented on demand in Canada for granted. 1-41204247-X 1-55192-723-3 2 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 1-5 2005 reviews NON-FICTION BOTH FISHING WITH DENNIS “Reaching into the invisible and pulling out the beautiful. SIDES NOW This is fishing’s greatest appeal. It is magic, and art form.” BY LORNE FINLAYSON -- D.C. REID Salmon Wars: The Battle for the West Coast Salmon Fishery by Dennis Brown Fishing for Dreams: Notes from the laptops, no reminders of respon- (Harbour $25.95) Water’s Edge by D.C. Reid sibilities that wait.” (Heritage $16.95) There’s also a confessional t takes two sides to make a s a self-proclaimed story about 35 years of driving war.