Description
James Raffan is one of Canada's most authoritative voices on canoes and wilderness travel. The author has written this book with the full support and input from People of Bear Island First Nation and the Temagami Community Foundation.
James Raffan's biography of Craig Macdonald and how the Historical Map of Temagami came to be is a remarkable tale. In the mid-1960s, Macdonald began interviewing and travelling with Indigenous trappers and travellers. He became familiar with Anishinaabemowin and built a lasting bond with the traditional knowledge holders. Returning year after year to map the land, Macdonald painstakingly plotted traditional placenames, original shorelines, elevations, and traditional summer and winter travel routes - including the documentation of more than twelve hundred canoe portages and winter snowshoe trails. His map is unique in the Canadian cartographic canon, and its genesis is a story that has never been told, until now. This book contains 23 Black and White illustrations, 5 Maps, notes.