\s mYevtew ELECTRONIC ADDITION - University of British Columbia

BOOKS IN REVIEWwho are part of and thus support thedominant ideology.Beatrice Culleton is a Métis. Shemissed "rezzy" but experienced fosterhomes. Pemmican Publishers have notimposed an academic editor on eitherThe Search For April Raintree or the revisedApril Raintree. The result is a bookthat comes from the heart and from theguts, a book full of gentleness, love, trust,and hope, a book full of anger at theblind stupidity of the past, a book full ofpain because of the precious lives wastedand lost as a result of bigotry and abuse.Academics will have much to criticize.The structure is flawed, the writing uneven,there are grammatical errors, andmuch of the dialogue is preachy andpolemic. It is the work of an apprenticingwriter, it is the work of a person whohas much to learn of her chosen craft.The improvement in writing skill from InSearch of April Raintree to the revisedApril Raintree shows that this writer ismore than willing to pay her dues andimprove her skills.The story is incredible and has thesame stark and unapologetic honesty asMaria Campbell's excellent autobiographyHalfbreed. Beatrice Culleton hasnot wasted her time writing this book,and you won't waste your time readingit, and re-reading it. This is what we'veall been claiming we have been workingto find and perfect, this is the voice ofour country, this is part of that CanadianIdentity we all claim to cherish.This is a book that dares us to think, toconsider our past ignorance and move totake responsibility for our personal andnational inaction. "Those who will nottake responsibility for and learn from themistakes of the past are doomed to repeatthem."We are a culture which places littlevalue on the lives of our children; wepay lip service to ideals while ignoringreality. This book is a result of that dishonesty,and should be required readingfor everyone who will ever, in any way,deal with the education and well-beingof children. I suppose it is too much tohope that the schools of social work anddepartments of education will use thisbook as a text, but even if the administratorsprefer to ignore it, those who arein teaching positions should recommendit to their students. Beatrice Culleton'stwo older sisters, raised in foster homes,committed suicide. Beatrice has writtena fine book.Spirit of The White Bison is a children'sstory which outlines, through theeyes of and in the lifetime of one buffalo,the decimation caused when, for politicalreasons, the great herds were annihilated.At a time when the B.C. government ispaying wildlife biologists to ride aroundin helicopters shooting wolves from theair, at a time when acid rain is killingour lakes and pesticide and herbicideoveruse is rampant, at a time when boththe Atlantic and Pacific coast fishingfleets are in serious trouble and our fishstocks are seriously endangered, this bookchallenges us to examine our past andrethink our future.Are we to sit complacent and stupidwhile everything follows the buffalo?Will we unthinkingly accept the idea theprofessional foresters can be trusted withthe last of the trees in the country? Willwe wait to see if Meares Island can survivethe logging companies, will we doand say nothing while poison is sprayedon our food, or will we wake up beforethe nightmare has moved on to its ownillogical and insane conclusion.Little children will be quite upset bythis book; older children will probablysee more clearly than adults what ourchoices must be. Again, there are flawsin the structure and grammar; but assomeone once said, there will always beroom in the world for someone with agood story.165