We couldn’t think of a better book to exemplify what Forget-Me-Not is trying to do: in the “glory days” of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, publisher Talonbooks released The Lil’wat World of Charlie Mack, a collection of stories told by Lil’wat Elder Charlie Mack and a series of interviews conducted between him and anthropologists Dorothy Kennedy and Randy Bouchard. This book, highlighting the Elder’s moral code, deep understanding of the environment, and wisdom on Lil’wat history released the same time that Olympic skiing carved through Whistler, unceded Lil’wat territory.
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To celebrate Canada150, we’re turning the page on the most celebrated historical moments and highlighting the footnotes for a change. Take a trip down literary lane with us as we share books on aspects of Canadian history and notable people that don’t always get due attention.Former Talonbooks publisher Carl Siegler kindly answered our questions about The Lil’wat World of Charlie Mack, below.ALU: What brought you to publish The Lil’wat World of Charlie Mack?CS: Charlie Mack was one of the earliest, most important, and definitely most inspirational informants of the anthropologists Dorothy Kennedy and Randy Bouchard, who founded the BC Indian Languages Project, and in the course of their careers have made such a tremendous contribution to recording, preserving and disseminating BC Indigenous languages and cultures, culminating in their internationally celebrated annotations and elaborations of Franz Boas’ field work in the Pacific Northwest (“Indian Myths & Legends…”). ALU: What impact do you think this work has on Canadian culture/history?CS: It was vital to publish this book in the spring of 2010, as we did, because the Canadian winter Olympics were, in part, hosted on the unceded land of the Lil’wat Nation (Whistler-Blackcomb), a fact that was largely ignored by Canada’s federal, provincial and municipal governments (with the exception of the usual minimalist token gestures, of course). What lasting impact this publication will have on Canadian culture/history as a whole remains to be seen, as Canada and British Columbia continue their negotiations with its First Nations that have not ceded their lands, in the vast majority of cases.* * *Thanks to Carl Siegler, previous publisher of Talonbooks for answering our questions on The Lil’wat World of Charlie Mack, and to Spencer Williams of Talonbooks who facilitated. Buying a copy of this seminal work gets you a free #ALUneverforget 2017 wall calendar.And, be sure to follow along with the rest of our #ALUneverforget picks on the blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as we book-hop through the centuries, and check out our history timeline showcasing still more books that tell Canadian history like it is, or should we say, was.
