This innovative, richly illustrated book shows how English-speaking colonists in Montreal appropriated French Canadian and indigenous sports traditions to forge a new, “Canadian” identity that ultimately marginalized French Canadians and Aboriginal peoples in their own land.

How did British colonists in Victorian Montreal come to think of themselves as “native Canadian”? This incisive, richly illustrated work reveals that colonists adopted Aboriginal and French Canadian activities – hunting, lacrosse, snowshoeing, and tobogganing – and appropriated them while imposing British ideologies of order, discipline, and fair play. In the process, they constructed visual icons that were recognized at home and abroad as distinctly “Canadian” national symbols. The new Canadian nationality mimicked indigenous characteristics but ultimately rejected indigenous players, instead championing the interests of white, middle-class, Protestant males who used their newly acquired identity to dominate the political realm.

Becoming Native in a Foreign Land demonstrates that English Canadian identity was not formed solely by emulating what was British. In fact, it gained enormous ground by usurping what was indigenous in the fertile landscape of a foreign land. A vital and original study, it will appeal to scholars and enthusiasts of Canadian history, identity, and culture.

"It is a rare pleasure to have to wait until the final half-dozen pages to find anything to quibble about. The quality of poulter’s writing is uniformly excellent and jargon-free." - H-Canada