By: Kel Morin-Parsons, Manager of ASPP
Michel Lavoie’s C’est ma seigneurie que je réclame : la lutte des Hurons de Lorette pour la seigneurie de Sillery,1650-1900, is the winner of the 2010 Governor General’s Award for French-language non-fiction. The jury had this to say about this work, published by Les Éditions du Boréal: “Supported by an enormous amount of archival research, this historical work by Michel Lavoie retraces the claims of the Huron of Sillery for the restitution of the only concession ever granted to a group of Aboriginal people, in 1651. The consequences of their failure to win this restitution – from the trusteeship of the Jesuits to their petition before the courts in the 19th century – shape the colonial history of Canada in a fascinating way.”
The ASPP has supported a number of key works on the matters of aboriginal history and rights, including Patrick Macklem’s Indigenous Difference and the Constitution of Canada, past winner of the ASPP’s Harold Adams Innis Prize, and Citizens Plus. Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State, past short-lister for the Innis Prize and a runner-up for the Donner Prize. Professor Lavoie’s is the latest in a long and distinguished line of these studies. We are proud to have supported this work, congratulate Professor Lavoie, and wish him continued good fortune in his future scholarship.