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Title: |
The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country |
| Sub-title: |
A Facsimile Edition & Translation of a Prayer Book in Cree Syllabics by Father Émile Grouard, OMI, Prepared and Printed at Lac La Biche in 1883 with an Introduction by Patricia Demers |
Search Result:
| Translated by: |
Patricia Demers, Naomi L. McIlwraith, Dorothy Thunder |
| ISBN10-13: |
0888645155 : 9780888645159 |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Size: |
254x276x34mm |
| Pages: |
488 |
| Weight: |
2.800 Kg. |
| Published: |
University of Alberta Press - June 2010 |
| List Price: |
84.99 Pounds Sterling |
| Availability: |
In Stock
Qty Available: 2 |
| Subjects: |
Christianity : Algonkian (Algonquin) languages |
| Front Flap: This book was a very long time in the making: it began in 1883 as one of the earliest documents ever printed in northern Alberta and evolved into the book you now hold, 126 years later. Its appearance is testament to dedicated work and study conducted at two very different periods of time in the history of western Canada. But these two periods of time, and the two works encompassed within these pages, for all their differences, share common ground. This book's existence is testament to the importance of the Cree language, in both the late nineteenth century and today. -Arok Wolvengrey, Foreword Back Cover: The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country is a rare gift to our society and a tangible piece of history. Anyone interested in language, culture, the making of books, the history of publishing, and the process of settlement in western Canada will find in these pages a wealth of information to feed the soul. Father à mile Grouard was a man of many talents, among them an aptitude for languages. During his long life in western Canada, he learned to speak several First Nations languages fluently, keeping meticulous notes of his work. When, after an initial decade at Fort Chipewyan and a brief convalescence, he returned to the Canadian West, he brought with him a small hand printing press. As was the case with many nineteenth-century missionaries, Father Grouard set out to print in the language of his mission almost as soon as he arrived. Among the first fruits of his endeavours was the Prayer Book reproduced in these pages. The Cree Prayer Book reprinted here is one of the first books ever to emerge from western Canada. It is a singular carrier of the region's history. The Syllabic script used in the original represents a unique writing system developed specifically for use in western Canada. The Cree Syllabary was later replaced by a romanized alphabet, which is transcribed here as a parallel version of the text. The modern Standard Roman Orthography presented alongside the Syllabics and nineteenth-century transcriptions of the Cree shows just how far we have come in our understanding of the language-and how far we still need to go. The literal English translation of the prayers provides readers with a fascinating glimpse of how Father Grouard learned the language as well as the culture of the people he came to serve. In this way, The Beginning of Print Culture is a vivid reflection of the intricate exchanges involved in translation. Patricia Demers's introductory essay offers a perceptive overview of the development of a print culture in Athabasca country, while the afterword by Demers, Naomi McIlwraith, and Dorothy Thunder provides us with new insights into the challenges inherent in translating, transcribing, and preserving Canada's distinct cultural resources. Back Flap: Patricia Demers, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, has received numerous awards for her research and teaching. The author or editor of fourteen books and over fifty articles, Patricia Demers has served in senior positions with SSHRC and the Royal Society of Canada. Naomi McIlwraith is Advisor to Aboriginal Students at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton. Dorothy Thunder is a Cree Instructor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Arok Wolvengrey is Department Head, Associate Professor, and Linguistics Program Co-ordinator at the First Nations University in Regina. |
| Awards / Prizes: |
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Alberta Book Awards - Scholarly and Academic Book Award
2011
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| Reviews: |
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"The judges felt [The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country] was an important undertaking. The volume opens up history in an accessible yet rigorous way. Given the highly specialized content, the publisher took a risk to ensure that the material was well presented; the choice to use print (rather than digital publication) demonstrates a commitment to high-quality scholarship and dissemination. The physical book was thoughtfully produced: the various texts are clear and cleanly presented, and the translation and transliterations will help readers appreciate the subject and context of Alberta's early print culture. This is an all-around excellent book, worthy of this award." Winner of Scholarly and Academic Book Award, 2011 Alberta Book Publishing Awards Jury comments
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Winner of a Scholarly and Academic Book Award at the Alberta Book Awards
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"Compared to its eastern equivalents, the history of printing in the Canadian Northwest has garnered meagre critical attention. This is a pity, since its inception promises to be as interesting to linguists and cultural historians as to bibliographers and textual scholars. The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country is, therefore, a pioneer endeavour in two senses: not only does it open wide a previously under-explored chapter in Canadian print history, but it does so by interpreting a species of text uniquely representative of its time and place of origin.... Its author--Father Émile Grouard--is as much an object of the translators' interest as the text itself, for it is in the life of this 'forgotten pioneer of print culture' (xv) that we witness an extraordinary confluence of European and Aboriginal thought.... The result is a uniquely hybrid text: a prayer book whose fundamentally Western modes of teaching and thought are shaped by the linguistic parameters of Aboriginal speech.... By offering these multiple avenues into the text, the book provide readers with a unique opportunity to examine the transformations and subtle shifts of meaning that occur at the 'interface of oral culture and textual representation' (445)." - Sarah Mead-Willis, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, Spring 2011
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“This book is a unique contribution to sociocultural history and to Aboriginal language studies. It introduces the reader to a forgotten document and calls attention to an often neglected dimension of early missionary work—its attention to language
. The authors, having positioned themselves at the interface of oral culture and textual representation, engage in a cultural linguistic analysis of the challenges they encountered in the process of transcription, transliteration, and translation. This book represents a major milestone in Aboriginal studies.” Rosa Bruno-ofré, Catholic Historical Review, January 2012
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“Demers, McIlwraith, and Thunder have openly noted the various cultural glasses we look through today, and warned us that, while we know some things of that moment and place, we should not assume that we know everything that transpired. Indeed the moment itself may well have been conflicted in its way of seeing itself.” - Earle Waugh, Equinox Press, 2011
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“Perhaps the best way to see this restored book is as a collaboration, a conversation between cultures, the matrix on which the province was formed. Think of the epic journey these sacred, powerful words have made -- from their original ancient Hebrew and Greek, to Medieval Latin, to 19th century French, to Cree, old and new, and now to English.” - Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal, February 5, 2012
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"[Grouard's] arrival at Lac La Biche in 1876 marks the beginning of the important linguistic, cultural, religious and bibliographic moment delineated in rich detail by this critical edition of one of Grouard’s major liturgical publications.... The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country opens important new dimensions for study for modern scholars of mission, linguists, and Cree-language students. Historians of the Canadian Northwest are deeply indebted to these scholars and their Cree Elder collaborators for their work..." Richard Mammana, Anglicans Online, September 10, 2012 [Full review at http://bit.ly/TTVhzq]
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"This volume contains a facsimile of a prayer book written in Cree syllabics by Father Emile Grouard and originally printed in 1883.... The syllabics are translated both into Cree and English, and include discussions of the problems encountered by the priest in preparing the book." Alberta History, Autumn 2010
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