Echo Maker: Craig MacDonald and the Lives That Produced One of Canada's Most Significant Historical Maps - Paperback

by James Raffan (Author)

In an example of truth and reconciliation put into practice, Craig Macdonald spent decades creating a unique map of Temagami, developed through trust and experience, in partnership with the Teme-Augama Anishnabai.

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.

Author Biography

James Raffan, a friend and travelling companion of Craig Macdonald for more than forty years, is a bestselling author and one of Canada's most authoritative voices on canoes, wilderness travel, and the North. He lives in Eastern Ontario.