Up North Again

Everything you wanted to know about Ontario's great outdoors.

Ted Egan was born in Melbourne and spent his first sixteen years there, described in his The Paperboy's War. Since 1949 he has lived and worked in the Northern Territory, now based in Alice Springs, performing, writing, singing and recording his own songs, and collecting those of others. He speaks two Aboriginal languages, and often lectures on Aboriginal language and issues. He is an inaugural Life Member of the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame. In 1991 he was awarded the Order of Australia for 'services to the Aboriginal People, and for an ongoing and significant contribution to Australia's literary heritage through song and verse'. He was at one time a member of the Prime Minister's National Reconciliation Council. Author of numerous books, his last was Justice All Their Own, an account of the clash of cultures when Aboriginals speared a group of Japanese fishermen and a white policeman to death in the early 1930s. Ted Egan, 17, was going to stop over en route to Brazil, but he still lives in the Territory. Sitdown Up North scatters our pre-conceptions of what Territorians are like. Egan's palette goes beyond red ochre and sky blue. There are nut-brown metho-drinking scholars, a white man whose first language is Cantonese, a dusky mother who pursued her 'stolen children' and an ebony-coloured son patiently decorating his revered father's bones in rainbows of intricate design, for starters. A love of song tuned his ear superbly to the vagaries of Territorians' speech. There's the ABC we expect of any good Outback yarn Adventure, Brawls and Close-shaves. But more than that ... The author's work gave him a rare, privileged position from which to watch change coming over the land. His acquaintanceship has been extraordinarily wide and diverse: bums and bureaucrats, elders and activists, publicans and politicians, stockmen and nurses, all hues, young 'uns and flourbags, Lingari, Coombs, Roberts, Whitlam. Good listener, insatiably curious, historian, Ted Egan knows his Territory. Where the record isn't pretty, he doesn't flinch. Commitment to a fair go, quick sympathies for the oppressed, honest recall of youth and his love of the place and all its people make Sitdown ... moving autobiography, refreshing history and an exotic tour of one of the world's least understood places. 'A bloody good yarn ... a rambunctious, insightful and compelling account of Territory frontier life' - Tim Bowden ' ... lucky enough to witness the Territory during one of its most interesting stages. He happened to be in the right place at the right time in some cases the wrong time.' - Les Hiddens

A newly updated and expanded edition of the bestselling Up North books, this is an entertaining guide to Ontario's north for every cottager, camper, and nature lover. Have you ever wondered how porcupines procreate? Or where you can best see the northern lights? Or how many fireflies it takes to equal the light of a 40-watt bulb? The answers to these questions — and many, many more — are in this lively and indispensable field guide to the plants and animals of Ontario's wilderness. Filled with amusing trivia, easy-to-understand natural history, and little-known folklore, The Complete Up North is the perfect introduction and companion to Ontario's great outdoors. Naturalists Doug Bennet and Tim Tiner answer those questions we have always wanted to ask — and many others we wish we'd thought to ask — about plants, mammals, birds, fish, insects, reptiles, clouds, the night sky, the weather, and the ground we walk on. Their infectious curiosity makes Up North as fun and interesting to read as it is useful to pack for a hike into the woods.

An indispensable guide to learning about things that go bump in the night and are forever sucking your blood in the wilderness. Easily carried in a knapsack or coat pocket, "Up North" provides fascinating facts about the flora, fauna and other natural phenomena readers are likely to encounter outdoors in Ontario. Illustrations. color photos.

Opening Up North America, 1497-1800, Revised Edition integrates in a chronological narrative the voyages taken from Florida to Newfoundland, covering the first recorded contact of John Cabot in 1497 through Alexander Mackenzie's journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific in 1793. Through these stories, the geography of northeastern North America is pieced together and the impact European exploration had on Native American society continues to be felt today. Coverage of this title includes: the importance of cod fishing in the North Atlantic; Beaver hats and the role played by the fur trade in exploration of the continent's interior; Spanish, French, and English claims to territory in the southeast in the 16th century; and, exploration by Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, Henry Hudson, Etienne Brule, Rene-Robert Cavaller, Sieur de La Salle, and others.

In 1944, United States troops secured Saipan as Japan fell, Canadian Cameroon Highlanders conquered St-Andre, and Morris Bradburns family traveled over one hundred miles by canoe so he could be born in a hospital near the Hudson Bays fort in northern Canada. It was a different time in an uncertain world as the seventh child joined the Bradburn family. In his memoir Growing Up North, Bradburn shares a fascinating narrative about his memories growing up in the small, isolated community of Oxford House, Manitoba. In a world where Cree was the only spoken language, Bradburn relays details about the fur trade in Canada, the history of the Cree nation, and the lives of the people in his family and the Oxford House community. With freedom to play and study as he wished, Bradburn details how he persevered through challenges, experienced many adventures, and learned independence after he was sent away to attend school. Growing Up North provides an unforgettable glimpse into the life of a little boy who grew up during a time when the air was clean, fish filled the lakes, and everyone shared the joys of living in the great northland.