Gold Rush: The untold story of the First Nations woman who started the Klondike Gold Rush

By Author / Illustrator

Flora Delargy

Genre

Non Fiction

Age range(s)

Publisher

Wide Eyed Editions

ISBN

9780711263871

Format

Hardback

Published

17-10-2024

Synopsis

A powerful illustrated book that tells, for the very first time, the story of the courageous women of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Written and illustrated by Northern Irish artist Flora Delargy, the award-winning illustrator of Rescuing Titanic, this exquisitely illustrated story of quiet bravery tells, in rich detail, how Shaaw Tlaa (Kate Cormack), a First Nations woman, discovered the gold that led 100,000 gold diggers to descend on the region.

Set against the powerful backdrop of the Yukon valley, with forbidding mountains and rickety railway tracks cutting through the snow, this stunning book shows young children how gold was discovered and how it possessed the popular imagination. It explores the towns that popped up overnight, the treacherous journeys people made to cross the forbidding Yukon landscape, the building of epic railways, and the resilience and injustices experienced by the First Nations people whose towns became inundated by gold-diggers and the legacy of the Gold Rush.

Flora Delargy's style takes in minute and exhilarating non-fiction details, from the beautifully rendered train tickets and maps of the mountains, diagrams of railway bridges and a step-by-step look at how to pan for gold, to breathtaking illustrations of the Yukon mountains.

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Reviews

Sue

In this extraordinary book, author/ illustrator, Flora Delargy, explores the stories of not only Shaaw Tlaa, the woman who discovered gold in Yukon Territory, but of other brave women who ignored the declaration that the gold fields were 'no place for women', seeking riches and adventure. Gold Rush is a fascinating introduction to the area and the First Nations people who lived there, and sets the scene for the events which followed the discovery of gold in the region.

This information is presented with great respect for these people and their way of life, clearly showing the negative ways in which colonisation affected them. The reader is then introduced to Shaaw Tlaa, who either adopted or was given the name Kate and who is thought to be the first person to discover the gold in the region. However, due to being a woman and of First Nations origin, it was her husband, George’s name in which this was registered, not hers.

Exploring the fascination of gold through history, the book then offers some background as to why the lure of gold prospecting was so great for so many people. The following three sections are then devoted to the experiences of three other women: Martha Black, Belinda Mulrooney and Nellie Cashman. Their stories are sensitively explored, reflecting the hardships, prejudices and limitations they faced as they fought to find their place in what was undeniably a man’s world.

The book also reflects on how these women gave back to the community after the devastating consequences of the gold rush - and its sudden ending. Finally, the book returns to pick up the story of Shaaw Tlaa or Kate Carmack, explaining how she was cruelly rejected by her husband and lost custody of her daughter before returning home to discover that her village has been displaced.

The book is both fascinating and inspirational. Always mindful of the need to enrich the curriculum and broaden understanding, Gold Rush would make an excellent guided reading text to share with students, to use when considering explorers or as inspiration for an assembly about courage and perseverance. Beautifully illustrated, there is much to notice and enjoy on each page. Not only is there a glossary, but also a list of the sources used, helping readers to understand how authors research their subject and possibly generate questions about the need to check the credibility of these.

80 pages / Reviewed by Sue Wilsher, teacher