Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now

by George Abbott

242 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2025

About the author

American theatrical producer and playwright George Abbott cowrote and directed many productions, including Fiorello! , which won a Pulitzer Prize of 1959.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...

Reviews

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched, well-written book, so four stars on that count. But I found it a laborious trudge through a blow-by-blow account of all the ways the BC gov't, most notoriously Joseph Trutch, obstructed and connived to defeat indigenous land entitlements, so two stars on that end. While in the last 30 years (thanks mainly to Supreme Court rulings) these rights appear to have turned the corner, there's still a long way to go on a slow-moving train.

What would have made it more interesting to me is if the author had included greater cultural and political context. For example, at the time of joining Canada, BC had 4x the number of indigenous people vs European settlers. So why did they not put up more resistance to all the underhanded actions of government? Why over the course of 150 years has there never been an uprising in the face of all the oppressive measures and treachery they confronted? And why have so many successive gov'ts during that lengthy period continued their tyranny? Answers to those questions, or at least posing them, would have added considerably to my appreciation for this book. So I think this book would appeal more to students of BC history, politics and/or indigenous rights rather than the general reader.