Sightings

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

Hildebrandt is a Winnipeg historian, editor, and poet, and a historical
researcher with Parks Canada. In this delightful book, he attempts to
explore the 1885 North-West Rebellion through a collage of past and
present narratives, historical documents, poetry, and visual material,
while at the same time re-examining the role played by such principals
of the “Rebellion” as Major-General Frederick Middleton, Louis Riel,
and the Chief Big Bear. What the book triumphantly manages to do is to
release the events that took place in 1885 from their historical strait
jacket and give them new meaning and immediacy. The process, of course,
is wonderfully subversive: not only are the events looked at from a new
perspective, but more often than not that perspective is diametrically
opposed to the official “line” and a healthy skepticism is
generated. In a sense, one is reminded of Michael Ondaatje’s The
Collected Works of Billy the Kid, but in the case of Sightings, the
vibrant and evocative watercolors by Lobchuk give the book an added
visual dimension that is both pleasing and apposite. Perhaps above
everything else, this excellent book proves the truth of Walter
Benjamin’s statement that “there is no cultural document that is not
at the same time a record of barbarism.” A delightful read.