About Merle Massie

Merle Massie. Photo by Michelle Danychuk Photography.

A writer, editor, and farmer in west-central Saskatchewan, I specialize in local, rural, environmental and medical history. I am also the coordinator for undergraduate research at the University of Saskatchewan, my three-time alma mater. 

I am passionate about how place remembers the past, and fascinated by the power of local history. It can transform how people feel about who they are. Small-scale history bolsters pride, and generates incredible community spirit. Local history is deeply rooted in place, and the environment is an important part of that.

The flip side is to recognize when, how, and why history is constructed in a particular way. Which stories are told, which are withheld? Which are forgotten, and why? My work always reflects on the question: why do we tell stories the way that we do?

Storytelling as an act of framing was particularly noticeable while researching my new book A Radiant Life: The Honourable Sylvia Fedoruk, Scientist, Sports Icon and Stateswoman released August 2020 via University of Regina Press. How we tell our own stories can be quite different than what is happening behind the scenes. This book was my first foray into writing biography, and what a story: behind the scenes intrigue, astonishing capability and grit and passion and success, a world-leading figure right here in Saskatchewan.

My first book, 36 Steps on the Road to Medicare, was co-written with C. Stuart Houston, a legend in Saskatchewan medical and ornithological history. It was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and tells the story of the many ‘steps’ that led to Medicare, which came first in Saskatchewan. It is, in keeping with Stuart’s way of doing history, an almost jingoistic endeavour; it is an offering to the larger story of Medicare, but remains slim on critique. Enjoy its gems, though, including some thoughts on fighting cancer, staying within budget, the Red Cross Outpost Hospital experiment, and early mental health facilities.

My second book, Forest Prairie Edge from University of Manitoba Press, is a deep time history of the Paddockwood/Lakeland region north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Deep time is a technique that layers human occupation within this space over thousands of years, to compare and contrast different ways of knowing and using the landscape. Landscape is an active character in the story — always changing, always present, not as the backdrop but as another personae that you must know and understand and plan for. The book explodes the ‘prairie’ myth and tells why a girl can be from Saskatchewan, but most decidedly NOT from the prairie.

As a freelance researcher, writer, and editor, I take contract work, such as writing a history of the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan.  The Centre started as a three-way effort between major Saskatchewan co-operative businesses (the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Federated Co-operatives, and Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan), the Government of Saskatchewan (Department of Co-operatives and Co-operative Development), and the University of Saskatchewan. Writing a corporate/institutional history calls on skills and techniques developed for local history, from document analysis to interviews. Find the serialized history here.

Future projects include a co-authored book with retired conservation officer Les Oystryk on overland freighting in western Canada, and continued work on the south-to-north social and environmental migration during the 1930s in western Canada.

As I settle into authorship, I hold as my motto a suggestion from late Canadian history journalist Pierre Berton: don’t just tell them what happened; tell them what it was like.

[Note: you may reach Merle Massie via email at mass22[@]sasktel.net]