Chronicles of Pride: A Journey of Discovery

Jean Free, a library consultant, was an elementary-school teacher and
librarian in Whitby, Ontario.

In 1984, Patricia Richardson Logie acted on a suggestion from British
Columbia’s Native Indian Youth Advisory Committee to create a series
of paintings of West Coast First Nations people, both “well-known and
not so well-known.” This coffee-table book showcases 31 moving
paintings of Native people who have made significant contributions to
community and cultural life in the province.

Subjects include Senator Len Marchand, Daphne Odjig, Margo Kane, and
others, less well-known, from the fields of education, law, and the
arts. An introduction by Georges Erasmus comments that young First
Nations people need to learn from their elders. The splendid paintings
focus on their subjects’ strength, pride, and dignity.

Mildred Gottfriedson, a fashion designer who was the first Native to
receive the Order of Canada, is quoted as saying “a lot of the Indian
people blame the government, but it is up to the Indian people to change
some of the things that are happening. . . . I think the Indian people
are their own worst enemy.”

The occasionally repetitive text provides biographical data on each
subject and commentaries by the artist on each painting.

Chronicles of Pride is an excellent resource book for intermediate- and
senior-school students as well as adults. It will promote a better
understanding of the contributions made to Canadian life by the
aboriginal peoples.