Description
Olive Patricia Dickason was a Métis Canadian historian and journalist. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1996 and was the recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award (now the Indspire Awards), in 1997. Olive Patricia Dickason has also been the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates throughout the years.
For six decades, Olive Dickason was a remarkable contributor to Canadian public life. An award-winning journalist, influential academic, and respected human rights advocate, her life was a triumph over seemingly impossible obstacles. These many impediments include having a childhood marked by poverty; being forced, as a single working mother, to place her three daughters in foster care for several years; working as a female journalist in the sexist, “Mad Men” era of the 1950s and ‘60s; giving up a successful journalism career to obtain a doctorate in Indigenous history; arguing successfully with the university establishment on whether or not Indigenous peoples had history; and taking her fight against mandatory retirement all the way to the Supreme Court. Olive Dickason faced these challenges with determination and dignity and was an inspiration for all who knew her. Changing Canadian History: The Life and Works of Olive Patricia Dickason is the first full-length biography of this trailblazing icon who forever changed how Indigenous history is viewed in Canada.
“Olive Dickason pushed the boundaries of sexism, racism, and ageism, defying colonial narratives upheld by patriarchal systems.”
—Dr. Cindy Gaudet, Campus Saint-Jean, University of Alberta
“A biography of a brilliant woman who forged entry into Canadian cultural and intellectual institutions by sheer force of determination.”
—Dr. Allyson Stevenson, Gabriel Dumont Institute Chair, Métis Studies