In People of Terra Nullius, Boyce Richardson travels across Canada evoking the human richness of aboriginal society as it grows steadily stronger after decades of decline. Richardson journeys among the Mikmaqs of Cape Breton, the Crees and Algonquins of Quebec, the Ojibway of northern Ontario, the Metis of the Prairies, the Gitksan fo BC, the native enclaves of winnipeg and Regina. In each community he meets men and women who are accomplishing nothing less than the cultural and political rebirth of their people: from urban entrepreneurs to spiritual healers, from scholars to legal experts, from local chiefs on reserves to national political figures such as Elijah Harper and Ovide Mercredi.

Into their trials and triumphs, Richardson weaves the "policy tentacles" they must content with: hostile laws and histroic prejudices inherited from the days when the legal fiction of terra nullius ("empty land") was use dot justify seizure of native territory. But Richardson demonstrates that Canada's aboriginal people refuse to be victims and are already regaining control over their lives. From its memorable opening image of the Indigena 500 conference to its final, poignant portrait, People of Terra Nullius is a work of uncommon passion, conscience and eloquence.