Walking in the Woods: A Matis Memoir (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781927366714)

An updated edition of Herb Belcourt's remarkable life story with a brand-new foreword by the author.

The eldest of ten children, Belcourt grew up in a small log home near the M tis settlement of Lac Ste. Anne during the Depression. His father purchased furs from local First Nations and M tis trappers and, with arduous work, began a family fur trading business that survives to this day. When Belcourt left home at 15 to become a labourer in coal mines and sawmills, his father told him to save his money so he could work for himself. Over the next three decades, Belcourt began a number of small Alberta businesses that prospered and eventually enabled him to make significant contributions to the M tis community in Alberta.

Belcourt has devoted over 30 years of his life to improving access to affordable housing and further education for Aboriginal Albertans. In 1971, he co-founded CanNative Housing Corporation, a nonprofit agency charged with providing homes for urban Aboriginal people who confronted housing discrimination in Edmonton and Calgary. In 2004, Belcourt and his colleagues established the Belcourt Brosseau M tis Awards Fund, a $13-million endowment with a mandate to support the educational dreams of M tis youth and mature students in Alberta and to make a permanent difference in the lives of M tis Albertans.