Tracking the Caribou Queen by Margaret Macpherson

Tracking the Caribou Queen is a beautifully written memoir about growing up in Canada’s North. As a young girl, author Margaret Macpherson and her family move to Yellowknife, where her father was a school administrator and her mother a nurse during the 1960s and ‘70s. The move is a culture shock for the family, but Macpherson quickly adjusts and grows up deeply attracted to the land, to Indigenous culture and traditions, and to the people of the NWT. Yet, just as deeply, she remains separate from it. Here, the author navigates through colonial legacies, systemic racism, as well as her own biases and privilege.

This memoir is difficulty to read at times, but many will find it highly relatable. The author recounts pivotal moments from her youth—a first date, confusing encounters with the opposite sex (both wanted and unwanted), finding and losing best friends, discovering and questioning the existence of God—while exposing and exploring deep undercurrents of learned intolerance. Macpherson grapples with what it means to be a good person, sifting through judgment and shame, guarding against being hurt while being mindful of hurting others. Worldviews topple with the realization that while their family often must do without, their experience is not the same as those from “the Old Town”. There is inequity, there is injustice. Events and encounters—which are impeccably rendered and crafted on the page—further define her separateness and her desire to make meaning from what is often befuddling. With the benefits of hindsight, and a developing understanding of colonial impacts, Macpherson unpacks her childhood, her formation into adulthood, and courageously questions her own culpability as she seeks to live in right relationship.

Beyond the commentary, Macpherson’s prose is a joy to read. She is a natural storyteller. I was thoroughly carried away, running through the bush with Lawrence, scared for the author’s sister alone in her basement bedroom, filled with dread when introduced to Padre, filled with tension and exhilaration while gallivanting with Melly and Maryanne. From page one, I was fully engrossed in this daring and compassionate memoir. A must-read.

Thank you NeWest Press for sending me this fabulous book to read and review!

Tracking the Caribou Queen By Margaret MacPherson NeWest Press, 2022, pp. 233 ISBN: 978-177439-061-0