The first-ever biography written about a woman of the Northwest Coast's
Kwakwakawakw people, Paddling to Where I Stand presents the memoirs of
Agnes Alfred (c.1890-1992), a non-literate noble Qwiqwasutinuxw woman of
the Kwakwakawakw Nation and one of the last great storytellers among her
peers in the classic oral tradition. Agnes Alfred documents through
myths, historical accounts, and personal reminiscences the foundations
and the enduring pulse of her living culture. But this is more than
another anthropological interpretation; it is the first-hand account of
the greatest period of change the Kwakwaka'wakw people experienced since
first contact with Europeans, and Alfred's memoirs flow from her urgent
desire to pass on her knowledge to younger generations.