Towards a Prairie Atonement - (Regina Collection) by Trevor Herriot (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In the wake of colonization, in a landscape of loss and dispossession, can we rediscover ways to share the land with other creatures and one another?

When the government recently tried to abandon its responsibility to protect what little remains of the natural prairie, Trevor Herriot pushed back, only to discover an injustice haunting the lands he was trying to defend. In 1938, when the Métis of Ste. Madeleine returned from working away, they found their homes burnt to the ground and their animals shot. The land they held in common was no longer theirs, but was now controlled by the federal government.

Facing his own responsibility as a descendent of settlers, he connects today's ecological disarray to the legacy of Metis dispossession and the loss of their community lands. With Indigenous and settler people alienated from one another and from the grassland itself, hope and courage are in short supply. This book offers both by proposing an atonement that could again bring people and prairie together.

Review Quotes

"Towards a Prairie Atonement is ultimately a call to action and a testimonial to the power of amends."-- "Toronto Star"

"[A] profound and moving journey over our wild, fragile planet."--Margaret Atwood

"Herriot walks slowly, mindfully. Every stand of aspen and mycorrhizal fungi sends him on a rewarding, lyrical detour... he pushes beyond the symbiotic beauty of biological processes to see our entire existence--body and soul--as a reflection of forces that we can never possess."--Dan Rubenstein "Globe and Mail"

"Herriot's writing sweeps across the page with the same breadth of the prairie he loves....By book's end, Towards a Prairie Atonement becomes an important call to action for increased prairie conservation and more communal land use."-- "Foreword Reviews"

"[Herriot] has a strong naturalist bent and writes in illuminating detail about what he sees and hears on the ground, and about what has been lost."--Dennis Gruending "The Catalyst"

About the Author

Trevor Herriot is an award-winning author and a naturalist. Married with four children, Trevor and his wife, Karen, have a home in Regina, Saskatchewan, and a small cabin in the Aspen Parkland prairie south of Indian Head.