Dammed - Book Review
Dammed by Brittany Luby
One of my favourite books that I read last year was Brittany Luby’s Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory (2020). Luby - an assistant professor in the Department of History at Guelph University - uses archival sources, oral histories, and environmental studies to examine the complex impacts of hydroelectric generating stations in Ontario’s Lake of the Woods area on Anishinabeg communities along the Winnipeg River.
I enjoyed this book because, not only is it an excellent example of postcolonial historical research that recentres relationships between settler and Indigenous communities through Indigenous narratives and knowledge systems, but it does so while still being easy to read and understand. Moreover, Luby’s analysis of the environmental, economic, social and cultural repercussions of Canada’s settler population’s craze for hydroelectric power expands into territory that I would not have initially considered - including pre- and post-natal care, milk medicine and infant care - adding considerable depth, nuance and intensity to this text.
Dammed was one of the texts on Professor Brownlie’s reading list for the History of Aboriginal Rights seminar (Fall 2020-Winter 2021) and, the week that we were scheduled to discuss the book, he arranged for Luby to visit the class virtually. She discussed how Dammed was a culmination of years of academic and archival research, community work with the Dalles 38C Indian Reserve (from which she traces her paternal ancestry), and engagement with Elders from the Anishinaabe Custom Council. As an undergraduate university student, Luby had been asked by Elders in her community to undertake this research in hopes that the eventual publication of a text like Dammed would help Dalles 38C and neighbouring Indigenous communities in their various legal battles over treaty rights and hydroelectric generation on Treaty 3 territory. In fact, Luby’s access to the records of Ontario Power Generation, as well as educational support for her research, were part of a private legal settlement with band members of Dalles 38C Indian Reserve. Multiple students in the seminar discussed how Luby’s connection to her research translated positively through the text and created a refreshing read over academic texts from scholars with little or no relationship to their subject matter.
I heartily endorse anyone interested in environmental and health studies, economic, oral, and women’s histories, Indigenous and treaty rights, and water sustainability read Dammed. You won’t be disappointed!
- Olivia
