Since 1997, Daniel Coleman has put down roots in Hamilton, teaching Canadian literature at McMaster University.
His new book, Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place, pulls together diverse strands of knowledge about a very specific plot of land (his backyard), that will surprise, delight, and inform readers — whether they are interested in wildlife, plant life, geology, water management, genealogy, history, or Indigenous issues.
“This book came from two trajectories. One trajectory was from my book on reading,” Coleman said, referring to the 2009 In Bed With the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics.
Coleman said he asked himself: “Can I read something else? Can I read something like the land and the environment around me, starting from my own backyard?”
The other trajectory was from White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada, published in 2006. The book was about Canada being based on bulldozing other forms of civilization.
In the nine years Coleman researched Yardwork, he had access to storytellers, scholars, and historians in the Six Nations’ Haudenosaunee community.
He describes the creation stories of the Haudenosaunee and gives references and sources. In writing about the white pine (the Haudenosaunee tree of peace), he describes the early Dish With One Spoon peace treaty about sharing hunting grounds in the important crossroads at the head of Lake Ontario.
But peace is fragile, and Coleman’s discovery in 2006 of police using the McMaster parking lot by his house for policing the Haudenosaunee occupation of Caledonia was a turning point.
Coleman also describes the recent agreement allowing the Haudenosaunee to hunt deer within city limits, and talks about the need for people to learn to live together.
His next book will be about Living the Two Row, a treaty describing how the Haudenosaunee and settlers can live together.
“Our settler society has some major learning to do, and it is about land,” said Coleman. “It is about valuing each others’ knowledge without appropriation.”
His parting words: “How does abused land become sacred again? It is a kind of prayer.”
Since 1997, Daniel Coleman has put down roots in Hamilton, teaching Canadian literature at McMaster University.
His new book, Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place, pulls together diverse strands of knowledge about a very specific plot of land (his backyard), that will surprise, delight, and inform readers — whether they are interested in wildlife, plant life, geology, water management, genealogy, history, or Indigenous issues.
“This book came from two trajectories. One trajectory was from my book on reading,” Coleman said, referring to the 2009 In Bed With the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics.
Coleman said he asked himself: “Can I read something else? Can I read something like the land and the environment around me, starting from my own backyard?”
The other trajectory was from White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada, published in 2006. The book was about Canada being based on bulldozing other forms of civilization.
In the nine years Coleman researched Yardwork, he had access to storytellers, scholars, and historians in the Six Nations’ Haudenosaunee community.
He describes the creation stories of the Haudenosaunee and gives references and sources. In writing about the white pine (the Haudenosaunee tree of peace), he describes the early Dish With One Spoon peace treaty about sharing hunting grounds in the important crossroads at the head of Lake Ontario.
But peace is fragile, and Coleman’s discovery in 2006 of police using the McMaster parking lot by his house for policing the Haudenosaunee occupation of Caledonia was a turning point.
Coleman also describes the recent agreement allowing the Haudenosaunee to hunt deer within city limits, and talks about the need for people to learn to live together.
His next book will be about Living the Two Row, a treaty describing how the Haudenosaunee and settlers can live together.
“Our settler society has some major learning to do, and it is about land,” said Coleman. “It is about valuing each others’ knowledge without appropriation.”
His parting words: “How does abused land become sacred again? It is a kind of prayer.”
Since 1997, Daniel Coleman has put down roots in Hamilton, teaching Canadian literature at McMaster University.
His new book, Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place, pulls together diverse strands of knowledge about a very specific plot of land (his backyard), that will surprise, delight, and inform readers — whether they are interested in wildlife, plant life, geology, water management, genealogy, history, or Indigenous issues.
“This book came from two trajectories. One trajectory was from my book on reading,” Coleman said, referring to the 2009 In Bed With the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics.
Coleman said he asked himself: “Can I read something else? Can I read something like the land and the environment around me, starting from my own backyard?”
The other trajectory was from White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada, published in 2006. The book was about Canada being based on bulldozing other forms of civilization.
In the nine years Coleman researched Yardwork, he had access to storytellers, scholars, and historians in the Six Nations’ Haudenosaunee community.
He describes the creation stories of the Haudenosaunee and gives references and sources. In writing about the white pine (the Haudenosaunee tree of peace), he describes the early Dish With One Spoon peace treaty about sharing hunting grounds in the important crossroads at the head of Lake Ontario.
But peace is fragile, and Coleman’s discovery in 2006 of police using the McMaster parking lot by his house for policing the Haudenosaunee occupation of Caledonia was a turning point.
Coleman also describes the recent agreement allowing the Haudenosaunee to hunt deer within city limits, and talks about the need for people to learn to live together.
His next book will be about Living the Two Row, a treaty describing how the Haudenosaunee and settlers can live together.
“Our settler society has some major learning to do, and it is about land,” said Coleman. “It is about valuing each others’ knowledge without appropriation.”
His parting words: “How does abused land become sacred again? It is a kind of prayer.”