Adrift in the suburbs with her young family, Carmen Gilmore starts researching the history of a local ravine, soon realizing that when you go looking for others’ stories, you can’t help but find your own.

What is the story of a place? Intrigued by the absence of documented history about a local ravine, Carmen Gilmore sought to uncover more about its reclusive namesake, Mr. Petursson, and began piecing together his kaleidoscopic history. What started off as curiosity about a quiet ravine became a profound personal exploration into how storytelling is connected to the land.

Carmen and her children explored the ravine, foraging salvage materials that she then transformed into inks for a series of maps — tiny topographies that she created to connect the stories she was reconstructing, such as the one about the chemical dump that contaminated the ravine’s waters yet preserved the wild space. In the course of her work, she found evidence of pre-colonial Métis river lots, deepening her personal journey toward Indigenous Reconciliation and her understanding of the land she now calls home.

Written as a series of braided essays, Field Notes from the Ravine weaves together Mr. Petursson’s history and Carmen’s own unfurling connection to place, uncovering her family’s long connection to Indigenous sovereignty and developing a nuanced understanding of how we all belong.