A Number of Things
Stories of Canada Told Through Fifty Objects
By Jan Urquhart
Harper Collins Publisher Ltd.
Hard Cover, 223 Pages
www.harpercollins.ca
Canadian author Jan Urquhart was surprised when she was asked to write a book about 50 objects that signify Canada to help celebrate the country’s 2017 sesquicentennial.
She claims serendipity played a role in her choices of objects that range from a Nobel Peace Prize medal to a barn.
While some choices are fairly straight forward, others have great historical depth, like the whale bucket. The whale bucket was decorated with charms and carvings and brought along as a talisman by ancestors of the Canadian Inuit.
The whale was and still is considered a sacred mammal. As the final act of respect and to ensure subsequent successful hunting seasons, the newly killed whale was offered a drink of fresh water from the ceremonial bucket as it was believed that the whale, which is dependent on oxygen, could never therefore quench its thirst with the salt water it inhabits.
It’s an interested and enlightening read chock full of tidbits about the objects that make us who we are as Canadians.
