Press Release –
Sage Birchwater’s latest book, Chilcotin Chronicles: Stories of Adventure and Intrigue from British Columbia’s Central Interior, is hot off the press. He will be holding a number of book launches and book signings across the region starting on April 19 in 100 Mile House at Nuthatch Books from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The following evening, Thursday April 20, Birchwater will give a slide show and talk in Williams Lake at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre (the old Fire Hall), starting at 7 p.m.
A week later on Thursday, April 27 in Quesnel, he will give a slideshow and talk at the city council chambers, hosted by Quesnel Museum. Earlier in the day he will sign books at Books and Company in Quesnel from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Birchwater says Chilcotin Chronicles offers a unique historical perspective of the region.
“It puts a human face on what happened in the past,” he says. “It is a history told with Indigenous people sitting at the table.”
The timeline stretches from the first contact between Indigenous inhabitants of the region and Euro-Canadian explorers, Alexander Mackenzie and Simon Fraser, to the present day.
Birchwater draws on his two dozen years in the Chilcotin living on a trapline and working as a rural correspondent and cultural researcher for several indigenous communities.
“Many people still lived the old time way without modern conveniences like running water, electricity, or telephones,” he says. “Many people were still cutting their hay with horses.”
In 1988, Birchwater began researching the life of Tsilhqot’in recluse Chiwid and conducting interviews across the region. The book Chiwid was published in 1995 by New Star Books, but a significant volume of material he gathered remained untold.
Three years ago, Birchwater started submitting articles to The Stew Magazine and eventually had enough material for a book. He started melding and expanding the stories into a regional perspective and Caitlin Press publisher Vici Johnstone was eager to publish it.
