Champlain’s Dream
by David Hackett Fischer
Want to learn about the people who lived on Georgian Bay more than 400 years ago? I highly recommend Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer. This celebrated and exhaustively researched book tells the story of a remarkable man, Samuel de Champlain, who approached the “New World” in a way that was starkly different than the violent conquests of the other European explorers of the day.
Instead, Champlain set out to build a relationship of cooperation, co-existence, harmony and respect with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Fischer gives us a window on the social, cultural, economic and political lives of the Indigenous Peoples of the time, particularly the Huron who lived on the shores of Georgian Bay, with whom he lived, studied, traded and established alliances.
Written by Mark Gwozdecky, PaBIA Director of Indigenous Affairs