This beautifully designed, full-colour book presents a collection of 150 archaeological and ethnographic objects produced by Canada’s First Peoples – including some that are roughly 12,000 years old – that represent spectacular expressions of creativity and ingenuity.

Jean-Luc Pilon is Curator of Ontario Archaeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University.
Prince Nicholette :

Nicholette Prince is Curator of Plateau Ethnology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and is currently on leave from her doctoral programme in the Institute of Cultural Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture, degree in Cultural Mediations at Carleton University. She was the inaugural Executive Director of the Nisga’a Museum in British Columbia.

Mark Collin Reid:
Brimming with images of the [exhibit’s] artifacts, First Peoples of Canada will delight anyone with an appreciation for Aboriginal history or a love of fine artistic craftsmanship.

David Eller:
‘This beautifully illustrated volume brings to English-speaking audiences some of the most important items from Canada’s national collection of Aboriginal culture and history.’

Allan J. Ryan, New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture, Carleton University:

“The masterworks featured in this book, and the exhibition on which it is based, are a sumptuous feast for the eyes – quilled, tufted, beaded, carved, fringed, and painted in a wondrous array of colours and materials. But they are so much more than this, each being a cultural touchstone and material marker, offering a point of entry into a long overdue healing conversation with the First Peoples of Canada that acknowledges, and belatedly celebrates, their immense contributions to the way we theorize, understand, and articulate the Canadian experience, both past and present, at home and abroad.”

Anthony Shelton, Director, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia:

“This work provides a stunning visual companion to First Nation, Inuit and Metis cultural history whose startling illustrations lay bare native creative genius and chart a journey through the latitudes and longitudes of Canada’s diverse and spectacular geographies. The artifacts pictured here provide a stunning visual essay that clearly reveals the imprint of their materiality – grain, tool marks, application of pigments, evidence of wear, scratched, corroded, or polished paternations, and the mixing and conjunctions of patterns, materials, and weaves – that infuse the objects into the land and its history.”