Insatiable Hunger

The European Wars of Religion of the 16th century set the stage for a mass migration. Insatiable Hunger compares and contrasts European historical accounts and Indigenous stories of Contact to illustrate the wide cultural chasm that separated the two civilizations. The scale of the mutual incomprehension and its unbalanced consequences—experienced by both settlers and Indigenous Peoples—is the subject of Joseph Graham’s historical exposition.

Insatiable Hunger is about the boiling over of religious differences in Europe and the desperate need Europeans had to escape, carrying their wars along with them, to protect their models of religion and freedom. It is about religiously obsessed Europeans pouring onto the continent, consuming everything in their path. It is about the attempts Indigenous Peoples made to reason with the hungry newcomers. Tracing events from Jacques Cartier’s first visits in the 16th century to the end of war of 1812, Insatiable Hunger delves back to examine the foundational stories of two very different civilizations to find the root causes of the mutual incomprehension. It describes the collapse of stable Indigenous communities in the face of disease, and their inability to understand the Christian incapacity to share.

Joseph Graham, a historian from the Laurentians, is the author of the best-selling Naming the Laurentians. He has worked for decades to encourage people to know and value their history. Together, he and his partner grow their own food, inspired by Indigenous farming methods.