"Honey, if you're not on somebody's shit list, you're no damn good!" -- Rita Moir's mother.

While living in Vallican in the Kootenays, Rita Moir published her first travel diary, Survival Gear in 1994, based on her views and travels from the fishing community of Freeport in Nova Scotia. She had worked as a journalist in Nelson, Prince Rupert, Vancouver and Edmonton. Active in the NDP, she also wrote for The Fisherman and the UFAWU newsletter. She became president of the Federation of B.C. Writers and won the VanCity Book Prize, as well as the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, for her second Canadian travel memoir entitled Buffalo Jump: A Woman's Travels (Coteau). It's a feminist narrative that takes its title from a place called Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump in Alberta. It's a story about taking off into new territory, making a leap of faith and trusting the counsel of her mother. With her trusty 12-year-old dog named Connor, Moir drove to Nova Scotia in a rusty Toyota in search of her female heritage. By finding her past, she opened up her future. Born in Minnesota on January 17, 1952, Moir first arrived in Canada at Brandon, Manitoba in 1966. She came to live in the Kootenays in 1975.