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Update

Finding Dahshaa has been shortlisted for the 2010 Aboriginal History Group Prize from the Canadian Historical Association. It is also one of three books short listed for the English-language 2010 Donald Smiley Prize for the best book in Canadian politics from the Canadian Political Science Association. The prizes will be awarded in June at both associations’ annual meetings in Montreal.

“Original and very profound, this book is distinguished by both an engaged and critical point of view and a highly successful style and approach. In counterpoint to a touching personal story relating the author’s gradual initiation into the central components of Dene culture, the book explores the deep misunderstanding that undermines negotiations between First Nations and Canadian public authorities. The methodology is flawless and the reasoning – even though it sometimes makes the reader despair – is absolutely coherent. In a field that has now given us so many books, the publication of a work of such depth and scope should still be widely hailed. Finding Dahshaa may one day be recognized as a classic of political anthropology.” — Jury Remarks, 2010 Donald Smiley Prize

About the Book…

Just as dahshaa — a rare type of dried, rotted spruce wood — is essential to the Dene moosehide-tanning process, self-determination and the alleviation of social suffering are necessary to Indigenous survival in the Northwest Territories. read more…

All author royalties from the book’s sales will be donated to the Délįnę Land Corporation Scholarship Fund.

About the Author…

Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox holds a doctorate in polar studies from Cambridge University and for the past decade has worked for Indigenous peoples on self-government and related political development processes in Canada’s Northwest Territories. read more…