An enthusiastic audience packed Trent University’s Alumni House on Thursday, July 21, braving the hottest day of the year to celebrate the launch of Jodi Aoki’s new book, Revisiting “Our Forest Home”: The Immigrant Letters of Frances Stewart.

Sixty or so guests were on hand as Ms. Aoki signed copies of the work and read passages.

Revisiting “Our Forest Home” weaves the story of one of the area’s earliest settlers, chronicling Frances Stewart’s captivating life in her own words through correspondence. 

The book captures three important stages of Frances Stewart’s life: her childhood years in Ireland; her voyage to Canada and settlement in the Peterborough area in 1823; and the period of her widowhood, leading to her death in 1872.

Key passages extracted from letters written by others further the story of the nineteenth-century immigrant’s life.

“These letters are a valuable contribution to the history of the area and to the study of the female immigrant experience,” explained Ms. Aoki. “For many years I’ve been interested in Frances’s representation of her experience in the Canadian bush. Her letters provide a tremendous opportunity to examine a nineteenth-century life and to consider it in the larger context of a nation’s expansion during its formative years.”

Ms. Aoki attended Trent, both as an undergraduate in the Anthropology Department and as a graduate student in the Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies program. She is an archivist at Trent University Archives and has worked there since 1990.

The book launch was supported by the Trent Alumni Affairs Office, the Trent University Alumni Association, the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, and the Trent University Bookstore.

“It’s wonderful to welcome so many of Jodi's friends and supporters to Alumni House for the launch of her new book,” announced Trent’s new director of Alumni Affairs, Lee Hays.

“We are proud of Jodi for her accomplishments and are excited to add her book to the Alumni Association's Hall of Fame at Alumni House. In recognition of this achievement, we present Jodi with the "key to Alumni House".

“This book exemplifies Jodi’s commitment to local history as well her outstanding service to Trent University and the Peterborough community through her work at the Trent University Archives,” said Adam Guzkowski, president of the Alumni Association, who has worked closely with Ms. Aoki for several years.

Revisiting “Our Forest Home” is published by Dundurn Press and available at most major bookstores.

Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2011.