Adult Interest Books - Indigenous

Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition critiques ways of approaching Indigenous texts that are informed by the Western academic tradition and offers instead a new way of theorizing Indigenous literature based on the Indigenous practice of life writing. Since the 1970s non-Indigenous scholars have perpetrated the notion that Indigenous people were disinclined to talk about their lives and underscored the assumption that autobiography is a European invention. Deanna Reder challenges such long held assumptions by calling attention to longstanding autobiographical practices that are engrained in Cree and Métis, or nêhiyawak, culture and examining a series of examples of Indigenous life writing. Blended with family stories and drawing on original historical research, Reder examines censored and suppressed writing by nêhiyawak intellectuals such as Maria Campbell, Edward Ahenakew, and James Brady. Grounded in nêhiyawak ontologies and epistemologies that consider life stories to be an intergenerational conduit to pass on knowledge about a shared world, this study encourages a widespread re-evaluation of past and present engagement with Indigenous storytelling forms across scholarly disciplines.

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"A new commemorative edition of Theodore Fontaine's powerful, groundbreaking memoir of survival and healing after years of residential school abuse. Originally published in 2010, Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools chronicles the impact of Theodore Fontaine's harrowing experiences at Fort Alexander and Assiniboia Indian Residential Schools, including psychological, emotional, and sexual abuse; disconnection from his language and culture; and the loss of his family and community. Told as remembrances infused with insights gained through his long healing process, Fontaine goes beyond the details of the abuse that he suffered to relate a unique understanding of why most residential school survivors have post-traumatic stress disorders and why succeeding generations of Indigenous children suffer from this dark chapter in history. With a new foreword by Andrew Woolford, professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Manitoba, this commemorative edition will continue to serve as a powerful testament to survival, self-discovery, and healing."-- Provided by publisher.

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Told in a series of voices, this novel takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face myriad obstacles including the constant resettlement of the family, and the legacy of centuries of injustice all intensify Ever's bottled-up rage. Once an adult, Ever must take the strength given to him by his relatives to save not only himself but also the next generation of family.

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Abandoned at a desolate Arctic outpost and haunted by memories of forbidden desire, Constable Will Grant preserves his sanity by investigating the mysterious deaths of two troubled Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers. Set in 1924 at a desolate police outpost on Devon Island in Canada's far north, this is a story of murder, mystery, and love - intensified by a clash of cultures between Inuit guides and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who live and work alongside them.

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"From Pulitzer Prize winner and celebrated American master N. Scott Momaday, a collection of 100 new prose poems, rooted in Native American oral tradition, along with 5-7 pieces of art by the author"-- Provided by publisher.

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"In this poetic, poignant memoir, Dene artist and social activist Antoine Mountain paints an unforgettable picture of his journey from residential school to art school--and his path to healing. In 1949, Antoine Mountain was born on the land near Radelie Koe, Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. At the tender age of seven, he was stolen away from his home and sent to a residential school--run by the Roman Catholic Church in collusion with the Government of Canada--three hundred kilometres away. Over the next twelve years, the three residential schools Mountain was forced to attend systematically worked to erase his language and culture, the very roots of his identity. While reconnecting to that which had been taken from him, he had a disturbing and painful revelation of the bitter depths of colonialism and its legacy of cultural genocide. Canada has its own holocaust, Mountain argues. As a celebrated artist and social activist today, Mountain shares this moving, personal story of healing and the reclamation of his Dene identity."-- Provided by publisher.

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This compact book records a quest for understanding, to find the story behind the Snayackstx (Sinixt) First Nation. Known in the United States as the Arrow Lakes Indians of the Colville Confederated Tribes, the tribe lived along the upper Columbia River and its tributaries for thousands of years. In a story unique to First Nations in Canada, the Canadian federal government declared them "extinct" in 1956, eliminating with the stroke of a pen this tribe's ability to legally access 80 per cent of their trans-boundary traditional territory. Part travelogue, part cultural history, the book details the culture, place names, practices, and landscape features of this lost tribe of British Columbia, through a contemporary lens that presents all readers with an opportunity to participate in reconciliation.

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Francine Cunningham's debut collection God Isn't Here Today ricochets between form and genre, taking readers on a dark, irreverent, yet poignant journey led by a unique and powerful new voice. Driven by desperation into moments of transformation, Cunningham's characters are presented with moments of choice--some for the better and some for the worse. Even as they flirt with the fantastic, Cunningham's stories unfold with the innate elegance of a spring fern, reminding us of the inherent dualities in human nature--and that redemption can arise where we least expect it.

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The Caetanos move into a doomed house in the highway village of Happyland before an inevitable divorce pulls Cody's parents in separate directions. His mom, having discovered her Anishinaabe birth family and Sixties Scoop origin story, embarks on a series of fraught relationships and fresh starts. His dad, a Portuguese immigrant and drifter, falls back into "big do, little think" behaviour. Capturing the chaos and wonder of a precarious childhood, Cody Caetano delivers a fever dream coming-of-age that unspools a tangled family history with warmth, humour, and deep generosity.

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Knowledge Within: Treasures of the Northwest Coast looks into seventeen of the numerous sites in the Pacific Northwest region with major collections of Northwest Coast Indigenous material culture, bringing attention to a wide range of approaches to caring for and exhibiting such treasures. Each chapter is written by one or more people who work or worked in the organization they write about. Each chapter takes a different approach to the invitation to reflect upon their institution: some narrate a history of the institution, some focus on particular pieces in the collection, and some consider the significance of the work currently being done for the present and future. They do more than fill in the gaps and background of an already existing discussion. They show that these are places and moments in a much longer story, still ongoing, with many characters--individuals, institutions, communities, artworks, treasures--on different, although often parallel or intersecting, journeys.

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The inspiring biography of Muriel Stanley Venne, a lifelong activist, community leader, and tireless advocate for Indigenous and women's rights, set within the context of landmark legislative and national movements towards truth and reconciliation over the past three decades. Written over the course of four years of interviews and research, this is the first authorized biography of this remarkable Métis matriarch and community leader. This book places Venne's life in the context of these issues, and highlights recent groundbreaking legislation that her work has contributed to. Residence: Edmonton, AB.

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We all share a common humanity. No matter how long or difficult the path ahead, we are all one.Reconciliation belongs to everyone. In this profound book, Chief Robert Joseph, globally recognized peacebuilder and Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk People, traces his journey from his childhood surviving residential school to his present-day role as a leader who inspires individual hope, collective change, and global transformation.Before we get to know where we are going, we need to know where we came from. Reconciliation represents a long way forward, but it is a pathway toward our higher humanity, our highest selves, and an understanding that everybody matters. In Namwayut, Chief Joseph teaches us to transform our relationships with ourselves and each other. As we learn about, honour, and respect the truth of the stories we tell, we can also discover how to dismantle the walls of discrimination, hatred, and racism in our society.Chief Joseph is known as one of the leading voices on peacebuilding in our time, and his dedication to reconciliation has been recognized with multiple honorary degrees and awards. As one of the remaining first-language speakers of Kwak'wala, his wisdom is grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing while making space for something bigger and better for all of us.

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Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty-with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight-breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family's unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.

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When much of the world entered pandemic lockdown in spring 2020, Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson began writing each other letters -- a gesture sparked by friendship and solidarity, and by a desire for kinship and connection in a world shattering under the intersecting crises of pandemic, police killings, and climate catastrophe. Their letters soon grew into a powerful exchange on the subject of where we go from here. Rehearsals is a captivating book, part debate, part dialogue, part lively and detailed familial correspondence between two razor-sharp writers convening on what it means to get free as the world spins into some new orbit.

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Candy Palmater loved to connect with people. She lived for the stage, her effervescent presence on television and radio ignited and inspired audiences, touching them with her warm, often spicy humour as well as her positive message about love and kindness. Candy described herself as a queer Mi'kmaw lawyer-turned-comic raised by bikers in rural New Brunswick and on the surface, she met with enormous success, but she is the first to tell you she made all kinds of mistakes and experienced all kinds of failure along the way.

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"In parcels and particles, letters, images, repetitive themes, rhythms and sounds, 'Spirit Matters' invites views into shadow spheres, of creative memory, reinvention of storied characters and place, as reminders of how poetry might turn longing, back to the very sound memory makes as we honor the imaginative lives of people and place. A collection of poetry, informed by irretrievable letters of loss, love, trauma, forged by musing on imagined relatives, living, dead, yet to be, shaped by spirit of places of we can never return to without understanding the living power of memory, story and song"-- Provided by publisher.

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The 'Micmac Indian Craftsmen' of Elsipogtog rose to national prominence in the early 1960s. Inspired by traditional Wabanaki stories, they created an eclectic range of original work that appeared on prints, silkscreened notecards, tapestries, jewellery, and porcelain. Now, for the first time, the story of this ground-breaking co-operative of modern Indigenous artists is told in full.

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Running on empty, even for a worthy cause, only sets you up for failure in the long run. Drawing inspiration from Native American philosophy and tradition, D.J. Vanas outlines a new model for personal power in the face of overwhelming chaos. A true warrior is committed to self-mastery, knows how to navigate change and disruption, transforms setbacks into opportunities for achievement, refuses to quit, and most importantly, always fights for something bigger than the self. Vanas shows how to apply these principles to transform how you show up both for yourself and those around you.

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