ducks two years in the oil sands by kate beaton

And now they are tangled up economically in these industries that are polluting their land, and leaving them with higher rates of cancer. Beaton said when the companies first came in to the area, the First Nations people in the area weren't given much say. The moment coalesces the books themes of complicity and complicity and agency and power. They don't care how many of us they kill off.

'At the cost of our lives - as long as they get their money.

'Everything's ruined, our lives around our lands are ruined, our water, the air, everything,' Harpe says. a Cree elder talking about the impacts the oil companies have had on their community. There's a scene late in the book when an increasingly tired Beaton watches this interview with Celina Harpe. So the island started sending its people out to wherever jobs were.īeaton's new book follows her journey as she deals with her own sense of isolation, while having to put up with constant sexism and misogyny. For a while it was home to various industries – steel, coal, fishing. It's a beautiful place that's long been economically disadvantaged. The book starts over on the east coast, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where Beaton is from. 'I lived in the camps, and that was hard. 'I didn't have a good time there,' said Beaton. Specifically the years she spent working at the oil sands of Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada.

But while her comic is known for its funny and exuberant takes on historical figures, with Ducks, Beaton uses her talents to examine her own life. It's from Kate Beaton, author of the popular webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, as well as a number of children's books. The new book, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, is about the latter. And then there are jobs you take for the money. There are jobs you take because you might find them fulfilling, or they're a stepping stone to a career you see for yourself. Kate Beaton's new graphic memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, focuses on her time working at the oil sands of Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada.

Ducks two years in the oil sands by kate beaton