Temagami's Tangled Wild

Book excerpt: Temagami’s Tangled Wild traces the processes and power relationships through which the Temagami area of northeastern Ontario has become emblematic of Canadian wilderness. In this sophisticated analysis, Jocelyn Thorpe uncovers how struggles over meaning, racialized and gendered identities, and land have made Temagami a site of wild Canadian nature. Despite the fact that the Teme-Augama Anishnabai have for many generations understood the region as their homeland rather than as a wilderness, the forestry and tourism industries, as well as Canadian law, have refused to acknowledge this claim. Instead, the concept of wilderness has been employed to aid in Aboriginal dispossession and to create a home for non-Aboriginal Canadians on Native land. An eloquent critique and engaging history, Temagami’s Tangled Wild challenges readers to acknowledge how colonial relations are embedded in our notions of wilderness, and to reconsider our understanding of the wilderness ideal.