The History and Ethnography of Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian Northwest

Greg Marchildon interviews historian and ethnographer Jennifer Brown on her two most recent books. The first,Ojibwe Stories from the Upper Berens River: A Irving Hallowell and Adam Bigmouth in Conversation(U of Nebraska Press, 2018) concerns the interactions of American anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell with the Berens River band on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. The second book,An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land: Unfinished Conversations(Athabasca UP, 2017), is a compilation of Professor Brown’s most influential articles– essays that have reshaped the historiography of Indigenous-settler relations and the role of women. From 1983 until 2008, Jennifer Brown was a professor as well as Director of the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Since retirement, she has continued to research and write.

This interview was produced with the support ofThe Champlain Society. The mission of The Champlain Society is to increase public awareness of, and accessibility to, Canada’s rich store of historical records.

Gregory P. Marchildonis the Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.