Radically re-examines Emily Carr's achievement in representing Native life on the Northwest Coast in her painting and writing. By reconstructing a neglected body of Carr's work that was central in shaping her vision and career, it makes possible a new assessment of her significance as a leading figure in early-twentieth-century North American modernism.

Contexts for a colonial artist. The legendary Emily Carr -- Drawing and insubordination -- Missionary in reverse -- Among ethnographers and Indian agents -- A pictorial record of native villages and totem poles, 1899-1913. They named me Klee Wyck -- The despised and joyous way of painting -- Old mythological legends : Gitöxsan villages in 1912 -- A great dignity : Haida Gwaii in 1912 -- Unchanged by fashion and civilization : Kwakwöaköa'wakw villages in 1912 -- The largest collection yet made : Carr's 1913 exhibition in Vancouver and its aftermath -- Plates -- Homesick for Indian. Out of the wilderness and into the National Gallery -- What they are trying to forget : sketching trips from 1928 -- The big thing that means Canada herself -- Retrospect.