A motley group’s long trek across the prairies, witnessing the land, reflecting on the past, and creating new paths for the future

Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and manifesto, The Good Walk recounts the adventures of settler and Indigenous ramblers who together retrace the earliest historical trails and pathways of the prairies. Readers will share the experience of trekking thousands of kilometres on swollen feet along the Traders' Road, the Battleford Trail, and the Frenchman Trail - prairie paths that haven't been trod for over a century.

The story is steeped in Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 history and is edged with Canadian, nêhiyaw, and Métis stories, politics, and poetry. It braids Indigenous and settler perspectives together along routes increasingly emptied of the family farms and small towns that once defined a province and doesn't shy away from the 1870s and 1880s clearing of the plains nor the 2016 killing of Colton Boushie.

Travel with the group of dreamers who instigated these annual prairie pilgrimages through prairie storms, small-town welcomes, and humorous chance encounters, all while bearing witness to the evolving politics of land ownership and the racialization of access.

Matthew R. Anderson was born to settlers on Treaty 4 territory near the Cypress Hills area. He now teaches part-time at both St. Francis Xavier and Concordia universities. Anderson is the author of several books, including Our Home and Treaty Land (with Raymond Aldred). His pilgrimage podcast is “Pilgrimage Stories from Up and Down the Staircase,” and more of his work can be found at SomethingGrand.ca and UnsettledWords.com.

Matthew R. Anderson's profile page

"Anderson has corrected his blindness of Indigenous historical presence of the land of his childhood – and taken strong steps towards sharing that knowledge...on the trail and in this book. Here is a story that deserves many readers – and many new trail walkers."—The Miramichi Reader

“The Good Walk may change the perceptions of those it reaches by telling new stories about what Anderson calls “the repressed histories of the trails.” … [Anderson] frames his project as a small step in persuading Canadian society to live up to its obligations under Treaties 4 and 6 . . . It had that effect on me.”—The Literary Review of Canada

“Powerful and comprehensive, The Good Walk traverses and sits with the history, land, people, and iconic pathways of rural Canada.”—Foreword Reviews

"Anderson observes and savors all the spirits and souls of life." —Louise B. Halfe, author of Sky Dancer
"Unsettles all our precious notions of a peaceable history with wisdom, erudition, and such good grace." —Trevor Herriot, author of Towards a Prairie Atonement
"Step by thoughtful step, The Good Walk guides us through the minefield of western Canada history."—Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood
“This book is a powerful meditation on land, history, and reconciliation.” —Kristin Enns-Kavanagh, Executive Director, Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society