Changing Canadian History

In this biography, Darren R. Prefontaine documents the remarkable life of historian Olive Patricia Dickason (1920–2011). He credits her time spent on the trapline as a child, where the use of common sense and determination was an important factor in success, and he tells a story of Dickason’s professional journey over the course of six decades that were marked by adaptation and courage. 

From her time working as a journalist who contributed to so-called “women’s pages” to her opposing the University of Alberta at the Supreme Court of Canada regarding its mandatory- retirement provisions, Dickason pushed boundaries and challenged the status quo — both professionally and personally. 

In 1970, Dickason entered graduate school at the age of fifty with a unique proposal: a Ph.D. dissertation on Indigenous history within a historical field that had ignored the importance of Indigenous peoples. Completed in 1977, her work laid the foundation for what was to come — a series of books that changed how Indigenous-settler relations were studied in Canada by centring oral histories as evidence of rich Indigenous histories stretching back to time immemorial on the lands known as Canada. 

Dickason’s biography is the story of a person of remarkable grit and courage who, quite literally, changed the history of Canada. It’s a worthy read for students of Canadian public life.