Nancy “Nan” Shipley née Sommerville was born in Scotland in 1904 and immigrated to Canada with her parents at an early age. [1] In 1925, she married George Shipley who worked for the Canadian National Railway, and in 1930, they moved to The Pas. [2] This marked the beginning of Shipley’s fascination with northern Manitoba, an interest that became the focus of her long career as an author. Living in northern Manitoba and interacting with the residents of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation (located across from the town) stirred Shipley to realize that “this country was wonderfully rich in Indian history and my urge to write was very strong.” [3] Quickly, a trend of Indigenous themes appeared in Shipley’s work as, she argued, “it is impossible to write about Western Canada without an awareness of the Indians’ 25,000 years or longer presence, and acknowledge their contribution to our early tranquil existence on their land.” [4] Throughout her career, Shipley published thirteen books and hundreds of stories and articles, most of which were set in northern Manitoba, and produced a television program in which Indigenous legends were presented to viewers. [5]
Shipley’s first books, Anna and the Indians in 1955 and Frances and the Crees in 1957, centred on the experiences of white women in the untamed land of northern Manitoba. [6] Her research for these books inspired her interest in the experiences of Indigenous communities in Manitoba, particularly the Cree. As Shipley’s career as a writer continued, her stories shifted to a focus on Indigenous cultures, traditions, and history. Throughout her books, Shipley acknowledged the impact that encounter had on Indigenous peoples, and its destruction of their traditions and cultures, particularly in her later writing, such as Return to the River in 1963 and Wild Drums in 1972. Her primary motives were to preserve the history and traditions for the benefit of the non-Indigenous peoples of Manitoba, to educate the public, and to change negative perceptions of the Indigenous peoples of the province.