Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories: Alexandra Pratt

  

Cath at Read-Warbler recommended Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories to me. The subtitle of the book is "A Woman's Journey into the Heart of Labrador." Alexandra Pratt tells her story of an ambitious trip on a river that not many have traveled.

I purchased this book in July 2020, during the pandemic. Like many of the books I bought that year, I had plans to read the book soon but put it on a shelf and it did not surface again until four years later when I decided to participate in the Canadian Reading Challenge again. 

I know very little about Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada; it is made up of the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador. Per Wikipedia, Labrador "constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its population. It is separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle." Reading Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories was a small step towards understanding more about Labrador, and I do think it gave a better picture of that area. But I have a long way to go.

In 1903 two men, Leonidas Hubbard and Dillon Wallace, attempted to travel 600 miles through the interior of Labrador with a native guide, George Elson. None of them made it to their destination; Hubbard died but Wallace and Elson survived, although Wallace suffered from frostbite and gangrene. Two years later, Mina Hubbard, Leonidas's wife, and Dillon Wallace went on separate expeditions to try to accomplish the original goal of reaching Ungava Bay at the mouth of the George River. Both Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace succeeded but they took different routes and Wallace took 60 days longer to complete the trip.

In 1997, Alexandra Pratt read excerpts of Mina Hubbard's diary in an issue of National Geographic magazine and was inspired to attempt to recreate the trip. In this book, Pratt describes the harrowing canoe trip that she and her Innu guide took down some of the same rivers that Mina traveled. Not only did Pratt have to prepare physically to be able to survive such a demanding trip, she spent a lot of time up front acquiring funding and gathering information about supplies and support that such a trip would require.  

In the intervening years between Mina's expedition and Pratt's trip, there had been changes to the terrain along the rivers. The Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant was constructed which caused the water level to be lowered in the rivers. It seemed to me that this had both positive and negative impacts on Pratt's trip compared to Mina's.

The team that Mina Hubbard took had two canoes and four native guides, so that Mina had to bear less of the physical burden of rowing the huge canoes that they used. Pratt's trip involved only two persons, herself and Jean Pierre Ashini, thus there was no backup if either of them was injured. Once I realized how many dangers they could encounter along the way, it seemed to be a terrifying trip to attempt. 

The details of ending the day by setting up camp on the riverbank, building a shelter, and preparing food were impressive as was the stamina and determination necessary to keep paddling the canoe steadily day after day. When they were in camp at night, Pratt's guide, Jean Pierre Ashini, would tell her stories about his life and experiences. This was one of the most interesting parts for me. He was forty when they went on this expedition. He had lived almost thirty years of his life living in the traditional ways as a hunter. He told of the ways the Innu have had to change just within his lifetime and the effect on their culture. 

Pratt tells the story of her adventures and struggles very well, and describes the beauty of the landscape along their route. She mingles descriptions of Mina Hubbard's original trip with her own, and that added depth to the story. This is a fascinating book and I learned a lot about Labrador, but I would have liked to have maps and more photos to help me visualize the trip. I read the paperback edition and the original hardback had a map on the end papers.