Aqueduct

This remarkably compact history of the water network of Winnipeg, Manitoba, serves as a microcosm for Canadian policies of land dispossession, residential schools, broken promises, and other injustices committed against the continent’s First Peoples, all of which continue to resonate more than a century after this story began. In this instance, the success of a major prairie city was built on the misery of nearby Anishinaabe neighbors at Shoal Lake, where residents have not had access to clean water for decades. The construction of the aqueduct that drains away their water also left them stranded without all-weather access to the mainland. Despite occasionally drifting into academic cant, historian Perry (Colonial Relations) manages an accessible synthesis of a huge body of material, including a fascinating overview of the social and economic conditions that led to the waterworks’ 1919 construction. It also explores how history is remembered and filtered through selective public commemoration; Perry’s examination of plaques and related landmarks reveals how the aqueduct is celebrated as a heroic conquest and technical triumph while the people at Shoal Lake are either misremembered or completely written out of the history of what is, ironically, Canada’s city with the highest indigenous population. (Apr.)