An examination of the lives of women who influenced, and were influenced by, northern Ontario.

The editors of Changing Lives: Women in Northern Ontario are both members of the Laurentian University faculty. Margaret Kechnie is an associate professor teaching Women's Studies and is the past coordinator of the Women's Studies Programme. Her research interest is in the area of Ontario farm women. Marge Reitsma-Street is an associate professor in the School of Social Work and an activist researcher focusing on poverty and women's contributions to community life.

This book provides a glimpse of Aboriginal women in Northern Ontario and it reflects primarily the impact of the European churches and systems on Aboridinal peoples' way of life. The words of the Aboriginal women are gentle, but these words convey the displacement of their way of life in the most powerful way. The power of this book is not only in the stories and history that are told, but also in how all women in Northern Ontario share a respectful life together in a way that I have not witnessed or felt anywhere else. Susan Hare, Ojibwe lawer, who practices out of the West Bay First Nation, Manitoulin Island.