With weeks to live, Elaine Dewar finished her most personal book
Elaine Dewar, a veteran journalist and author, completed her final book, Oblivious, shortly before her death from stage four cancer at age 77. The book investigates systemic abuses against Indigenous peoples in Canada, including non-consensual medical experiments and segregated healthcare, while reflecting on her personal journey toward recognizing these injustices as genocide. Published posthumously by Biblioasis, the work underscores Dewar’s commitment to confronting historical truths and challenging national denial.
- ▪Elaine Dewar died on September 18 at age 77, weeks after being diagnosed with stage four cancer.
- ▪Her final book, Oblivious, was published posthumously by Biblioasis and explores medical abuses against Indigenous peoples in Canada.
- ▪Dewar uncovered links between a northern Canadian doctor and Nazi-era racist medical practices.
- ▪She evolved in her understanding of Canadian history, ultimately concluding that genocide was perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.
- ▪Donald Worme, lead counsel for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, praised Dewar’s work as a vital contribution to national reckoning.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Open this photo in gallery:Author Elaine Dewar.Danielle Dewar/SuppliedShareSave for laterPlease log in to bookmark this story.Log InCreate Free AccountElaine Dewar spent her career as a journalist and author dismantling the artifice of convenient stories. Her new book, Oblivious, published posthumously, is a natural extension of that. In it, she seeks to unpack not just the horrors experienced by 20th-century Indigenous peoples in segregated hospitals, and as subjects of non-consensual experiments, but also to investigate how easily governments and institutions allowed this to happen – in ways that encouraged settler Canadians to remain ignorant.When she discovered last August that she had stage four cancer and might only have weeks to live, she made finishing the book an imperative.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Globe and Mail.
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