The first comprehensive study of Indian residential schools in the North.

In this ground-breaking book, Crystal Gail Fraser draws on Dinjii Zhuh (Gwich'in) concepts of individual and collective strength to illuminate student experiences in northern residential schools, revealing the many ways Indigenous communities resisted the institutionalization of their children.

After 1945, federal bureaucrats and politicians increasingly sought to assimilate Indigenous northerners--who had remained comparatively outside of their control--into broader Canadian society through policies that were designed to destroy Indigenous ways of life. Foremost among these was an aggressive new schooling policy that mandated the construction of Grollier and Stringer Halls: massive residential schools that opened in Inuvik in 1959, eleven years after a special joint committee of the House of Commons and the Senate recommended that all residential schools in Canada be closed.

By Strength, We Are Still Here shares the lived experiences of Indigenous northerners from 1959 until 1982, when the territorial government published a comprehensive plan for educational reform. Led by Survivor testimony, Fraser shows the roles both students and their families played in disrupting state agendas, including questioning and changing the system to protect their cultures and communities.

Centring the expertise of Knowledge Keepers, By Strength, We Are Still Here makes a crucial contribution to Indigenous research methodologies and to understandings of Canadian and Indigenous histories during the second half of the twentieth century.

Reviews
"By Strength, We Are Still Here demonstrates an intergenerational process of love and strength. Fraser's methodology, theory work, and incredibly thorough research are in and of themselves lifegiving, vital, and serve as an example to all other scholars." — Omeasoo Wahpasiw

"By integrating survivor testimony with archives, Fraser points towards the Indigenous resistance revealed in the ellipses and gaps in the colonial record. This is very important work." — Chris Trott

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Glossary

A Note on Region and Terminology

Introduction—By Strength, We Are Still Here.

Chapter One—“If anyone is going to jail for this, I’m taking it”: Our Relatives Speak

• Education in Nanhkak Thak Before the Arrival of Settlers
• Indian Day and Residential Schools
• The Construction of Inuvik

Chapter Two—Calls Grow. “Listen! It’s louder now. From here, from there. Indian voices, Métis voices, demanding attention, demanding equality!"

Chapter Three—“The long process of tearing our family apart”

Chapter Four—“Making us into nice white kids.”

Chapter Five—“The hazards that can result from too permissive or undisciplined sexual behaviour.”

Chapter Six—“To find that inner peace, it was so important for us all.”

Chapter Seven—“These are our children and they are very precious to us.”

Conclusion—“We knew the value of strength.”

Appendix A

Endnotes

Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 69 b&w illustrations, index, bibliography | Paperback 

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Indigenous Voices Awards, an anthology consisting of selected works by finalists over the past five years, edited by Jordan Abel, Carleigh Baker, and Madeleine Reddon.

For five years, the Indigenous Voices Awards have nurtured the work of Indigenous writers in lands claimed by Canada. Established in 2017 initially through a crowd-funded campaign by lawyer Robin Parker and author Silvia Moreno-Garcia that set an initial fundraising goal of $10,000, the initiative raised over $116,000 in just four months.

Through generous support from organizations such as Penguin Random House Canada, CELA, and others, the award has grown and have helped usher in a new and dynamic generation of Indigenous writers. Past IVA recipients include Billy-Ray Belcourt, Tanya Tagaq, and Jesse Thistle. The IVAs also help promote the works of unpublished writers, helping launch the careers of Smokii Sumac, Cody Caetano, and Samantha Martin-Bird.

For the first time, a selection of standout works over the past five years of the Indigenous Voices Award will be collected in an anthology that will highlight some of the most groundbreaking Indigenous writing across poetry, prose, and theatre in English, French, and in an Indigenous language. Curated by award-winning and critically acclaimed writers Carleigh Baker, Jordan Abel, and Indigenous scholar Madeleine Reddon, this anthology will be a true celebration of Indigenous storytelling that will both introduce readers to emerging luminaries as well as return them to treasured favourites.

Educator Information
Carving Space: The Indigenous Voices Awards Anthology: A collection of prose and poetry from emerging Indigenous writers in lands claimed by Canada includes a selection of standout work from the first five years of the Indigenous Voices Awards.

Additional Information
400 pages | 5.50" x 8.25" | Paperback

Orange Shirt Day, observed annually on September 30th, is also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is an official day to honour Residential School Survivors and their families, and to remember the children who did not come home. What was initially envisioned as a way to keep the conversations going about all aspects of Residential Schools in Williams Lake and the Cariboo Region of British Columbia, Canada, has now expanded into a movement across Turtle Island and beyond. Orange Shirt Day: September 30th aims to create champions who will walk a path of reconciliation and promote the message that 'Every Child Matters'. This award-winning book explores a number of important topics including the historical, generational, and continual impacts of Residential Schools on Indigenous Peoples, the journey of the Orange Shirt Day movement, and how you can effectively participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. With end of chapter reflection questions and a series of student art submissions, readers are guided to explore how they, and others, view and participate in Residential School reconciliation.

Awards

• 2021 First Nation Communities Read 2021 Winner 

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 10+

Orange Shirt Day was inspired by the story of a survivor named Phyllis Webstad. When Phyllis was 6 years old she went to residential school for the first time wearing a brand new shiny orange shirt. When she arrived at the school her shirt was taken away and never to be seen again. To Phyllis the colour orange was a symbol that she did not matter. Today she has learned to accept the colour and even have fun with it and now the orange shirt has become a symbol of hope and reconciliation. By wearing an orange shirt on Orange Shirt Day, you make a powerful statement that residential schools were wrong and commit to the concept that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

The Orange Shirt Society is a non-profit organization with its home in Williams Lake, BC where Orange Shirt Day began in 2013. The society has both Indigenous and non-Indigenous board members, and one of the editors of this book, Phyllis Webstad, is Indigenous.  Therefore, the Authentic Indigenous Text label has been applied. It is up to readers to determine if this book is authentic for their purposes.

This is the Revised 2023, 2nd Edition

Additional Information
156 pages | 8.23" x 11.06" | Revised, 2nd Edition

A resource guide for the Righting Canada’s Wrongs Indigenous Studies set that provides lessons in historical thinking.

The Righting Canada's Wrongs Indigenous Studies set series is devoted to the exploration of racist and discriminatory government policies and actions against Indigenous peoples through our history, the fight for acknowledgement and justice and the eventual apologies and restitution of subsequent governments. The books in this series make a valuable addition to any classroom or library looking for kid-friendly and appealing resources on Indigenous Studies and equal rights in Canada. The engaging and curriculum-based lessons in this Resource Guide will help students to further understand some of the important events in Canada's history that helped shape our current multicultural society. Educators will find support for teaching about Canada's past and ongoing treatment of Indigenous Peoples and how to approach the topic of, colonization, racism and discrimination. As well, students will learn about the important cultures and traditions that have continued in the face of colonization.

Educator Information
Recommended for use with ages 13+

This resource guide provides lessons in historical thinking for the Righting Canada’s Wrongs Indigenous Studies set: 

• Righting Canada's Wrongs: Inuit Relocations: Colonial Policies and Practices, Inuit Resilience and Resistance
• Righting Canada's Wrongs: Residential Schools: The Devastating Impact on Canada's Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Findings and Calls for Action (PB) - 2nd Edition
• Righting Canada's Wrongs: The Sixties Scoop and the Stolen Lives of Indigenous Children

Additional Information
120 Pages | 8.5" x 11" | Paperback

Teaching Where You Are offers a guide for non-Indigenous educators to work in good ways with Indigenous students and provides resources across curricular areas to support all students. In this book, two seasoned educators, one Indigenous and one settler, bring to bear their years of experience teaching in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary contexts to explore the ways in which Indigenous and Slow approaches to teaching and learning mirror and complement one another.

Using the holistic framework of the Medicine Wheel, Shannon Leddy and Lorrie Miller illustrate the ways in which interdisciplinary thinking, a focus on experiential learning, and the thoughtful application of the 4Rs – Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility – can bring us back to the principle of teaching people, not subjects. Bringing forth the ways in which colonialism and cognitive imperialism have shaped Canadian curriculum and consciousness, the book offers avenues for the development of decolonial literacy to support the work of Indigenizing education. In considering the importance of engaging in decolonizing and Indigenizing approaches to education through Slow and Indigenous pedagogies using the lens of place-based and land-based education, Teaching Where You Are presents a text useful for teachers and educators grappling with the ongoing impacts of colonialism and the soul-work of how to decolonize and rehumanize education in meaningful ways.

Reviews
"Shannon Leddy and Lorrie Miller weave a beautiful metaphorical tapestry of Slow and Indigenous ways of knowing and being that simultaneously honours each framework’s distinct features and identifies complementary principles, teachings, and pedagogies to create exciting new educational possibilities. In this era of truth and reconciliation, holistic pedagogies are needed to offer hope, love, care, and deep ways of feeling, being, knowing, and doing, which this book offers, and so much more." — Jo-ann Archibald, Professor Emeritus of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia

"Teaching Where You Are is a must-read for educators and preservice teachers who are dedicated to responsibly providing for Indigenous ways and perspectives in their professional practice. With recognition of the discomfort educators might feel approaching Indigeneity in their work, Leddy and Miller acknowledge and help us, as settlers, to activate the process of unpacking and unlearning colonizing perspectives. This book offers a pathway of knowledge for teachers to develop the self and nurture authentic, human approaches to walking alongside Indigenous wisdom and cross-cultural understanding in their classrooms.” — Sheryl Smith-Gilman, Associate Dean of Academics, Faculty of Education, McGill University

Educator Information
Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Foreword: Weaving and Reweaving Indigenous Education in New Ways through the Timelessness of Transformative Thought, Teaching, and Learning xvii
Herman Michell
Preface
Acknowledgements

1. Tawâw
Bringing Indigenous Knowledge and Pedagogies into the Class
Indigenous Ways and Reconciliation
The Medicine Wheel Framework, Our Loom
Warp and Weft: Connecting Slow to Indigenous Ways

2. Building Decolonial Literacy for Indigenous Education
Historically Rooted Thought: We Are All Colonized People
It Is Not about the Lesson Plans
Ontologies
Identity
Place
Relationship
Weaving
Sourcing and Preparing Materials

3. Slow Ways and Indigenous Ways
Disconnecting from the Clock and Caring Deeply
Experiential
Land Conscious/Place Conscious
Deeply Relational
Internal Connection
Spinning

4. East – Spiritual – Respect
August on the Salish Sea: Tucked into a Bay
Dyeing the Yarn before the Weave

5. South – Emotional – Relevance
Why Emotion Matters
Decolonizing Is a Slow and Careful Business
Taking Trauma into Account
Developing Effective Practices
Circle Pedagogy
Winding the Wool

6. West – Physical – Reciprocity
The Unseen
The Visible, Physical, Material World
In the Classroom
Pedagogy that Nurtures
Relational Place-Conscious Pedagogy
Setting up the Loom

7. North – Intellectual – Responsibility
What Counts as Knowledge? How Much Knowledge Counts?
It Really Isn’t about the Lesson Plans
Adding an Indigenous Lens
Developing Effective Practices
    Kendomang Zhagodenamonon Lodge
    Button Blankets and Starblankets
    Tiny Orange Sweater Project
Summing Up
Weaving and Finishing

8. Pimoteh (Walking)

References
Index

Additional Information
192 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 15 colour illustrations and 2 b&w figures | Paperback

How educators can respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action

Educators have a special role in furthering truth and reconciliation practices in education, but many struggle to understand exactly what that means and how to accomplish it. Reconciliation through education is grounded in the amplification of Indigenous voices as the spark of authentic reconciliatory practices, as well as the understanding that everyone can gain insights through reconciliation practices and relationships.

Springing from a master’s certificate program at the University of Calgary called Indigenous Education: A Call to Action, this book explores stories from alumni, program designers, and instructors who have taken a deliberate and active role in responding to the TRC’s Calls to Action through education. Section I contains useful chapters on program design and concepts, while section II presents a collection of inspirational and thought-provoking personal stories and reflections from Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators.

This is a resource written by educators for educators wishing to embark on their own journeys of truth and reconciliation in their personal and professional lives. Join the reconciliatory education community in courageously teaching, learning, and acting, just as the educators in this collected volume are doing.

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

How can Indigenous knowledge systems inform our teaching practices and enhance education? How do we create an education system that embodies an anti-racist approach and equity for all learners?

This powerful and engaging resource is for non-Indigenous educators who want to learn more, are new to these conversations, or want to deepen their learning.

Some educators may come to this work with some trepidation. You may feel that you are not equipped to engage in Indigenous education, reconciliation, or anti-racism work. You may be anxious about perpetuating misconceptions or stereotypes, making mistakes, or giving offence. In these chapters, I invite you to take a walk and have a conversation with a good mind and a good heart.

With over two decades in Indigenous education, author Jo Chrona encourages readers to acknowledge and challenge assumptions, reflect on their own experiences, and envision a more equitable education system for all. Each chapter includes:

• reflection questions to help process the ideas in each chapter
  suggestions for taking action in both personal and professional spheres of influence
• recommended resources to read, watch, or listen to for further learning
• personal reflections and anecdotes from the author on her own learning journey
• voices of non-Indigenous educators who share their learning and model how to move into, and sit, in places of unknowing and discomfort, so we can examine our own biases and engage in this work in a good way

Grounded in the First Peoples Principles of Learning, this comprehensive guide builds on Chrona’s own experiences in British Columbia’s education system to explore how to shape anti-racist and equitable education systems for all.

Perfect for reading on your own or with your professional learning community!

Educator Information
Table of Contents

1 Where Do We Begin? Setting Up Our Space in A Good Way

• Situating Ourselves
• An Invitation
• Some Structural Guidance as You Read
• Discomfort: Moving Through the Fear of Making Mistakes
• Taking Responsibility

2 Indigenous Education Is Not Multicultural Education

• Defining Indigenous Education
• Culturally Responsive Education and Beyond

3 Yes, You Have a Role: Reconciliation Through Education

• Our Collective Responsibility
• This Is Not “Just History”; This Is Now
• Colonization Past and Present
• Reconciliation Through Education
• A Vision of a System

4 So, Let’s Talk About the R Word

• Begin With Honesty
• Becoming Anti-Racist in Canada
• Investigating Our Own Biases and Assumptions
• How We Define Racism Matters
• Relational Racism
• Systemic Racism
• Learning and Growing

5 An Indigenous-Informed Pedagogy: The First Peoples Principles of Learning

• Moving From “Learning About” to “Learning From”
• How Were the FPPL Identified?
• What Is Important to Know About the FPPL?
• A Closer Look at Each Principle
• Current Contexts

6 Authentic Indigenous Resources

• Voice and Representation
• Authentic Resource Evaluation Criteria
• Collaborative Development of Local First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Resources

7 A Story of One System: Indigenous Education in British Columbia

• On a Learning Journey
• The Power of Indigenous Advocacy and United Voice
• Government Commitments and Obligations
• Bumpy Paths

8 Now What?

• Next Steps
• Final Thoughts: Working in Relation

References

Additional Information
232 pages | 7.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

In a highly visual and appealing format for young readers, this book explores the many forced relocation of Inuit families and communities in the Canadian Arctic from the 1950s to the 1990s. Governments promoted and forced relocation based on misinformation and racist attitudes. These actions changed Inuit lives forever. This book documents the Inuit experience and the resilience and strength they displayed in the face of these measures. Years afterwards, there have been multiple apologies by the Canadian government for its actions, and some measure of restitution for the harms caused.

Included in the book are accounts of a community forced to move to the High Arctic where they found themselves with little food and almost no shelter, of children suddenly taken away from their families and communities to be transported to hospitals for treatment for tuberculosis, and of the notorious slaughter by RCMP officers of hundreds of sled dogs in Arctic settlements.

Though apologies have been made, Inuit in northern Canada still face conditions of inadequate housing, schools that fail to teach their language, and epidemics of infectious diseases like TB. Yet still, the Inuit have achieved a measure of self-government, control over resource development, while they enrich cultural life through music, film, art and literature.

This book enables readers to understand the colonialism and racism that remain embedded in Canadian society today, and the successful resistance of Inuit to assimilation and loss of cultural identity.

Like other volumes in the Righting Canada’s Wrongs series, this book uses a variety of visuals, first-person accounts, short texts and extracts from documents to appeal to a wide range of young readers.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Righting Canada's Wrongs series.

Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

This book is available in French: Réinstallation d'Inuit: Politiques et pratiques coloniales, résilience et résistance d'un peuple.

Additional Information
144 pages | 9.01" x 11.02" | Hardcover 

Over more than 100 years, the Canadian government took 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children from their families and placed them in residential schools. In these schools, young people were assigned a number, forced to wear European-style clothes, forbidden to speak their native language, required to work, and often subjected to physical and psychological abuse. If they tried to leave the schools to return to their families, they were captured by the RCMP and forced back. Run by churches, the schools were paid for by the federal government. The last residential school closed in 1996.

It took decades for people to speak out in public about the devastating impact of residential schools. School Survivors eventually came together and launched court actions against the federal government and the churches. In 2008 the Canadian government apologized for the historic wrongs committed by the residential school system. The survivors’ lawsuits led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, and the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission spent six years gathering testimony and discovering the facts about residential schools.

This book includes the text of the government’s apology and summarizes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, which offer the basis for a new relationship between the Canadian government, Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people.

Reviews
"If I were purchasing materials for a high school library, I would buy at least 2 copies, and I would urge Social Studies and Aboriginal Studies classroom teachers to have at least one copy on their bookselves. Perhaps the strongest work to date in the Righting Canada's Wrongs series, Residential Schools underscores the importance of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work... Highly Recommended." — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Righting Canada's Wrongs series.

Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

This book is available in French: Les pensionnats indiens: Effets dévastateurs sur les peuples autochtones du Canada et appels à l'action de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation.

Additional Information
128 pages | 8.50" x 11.53" | Paperback | 2nd, Updated Edition

This book for students examines a child welfare policy in Canada that began in 1951 in which Indigenous children were taken from their homes and put into the care of non-Indigenous families. These children grew up without their birth families, cultural roots and language. Many tried to run away and some died in the attempt. The taking of the children became known as the Sixties Scoop. The term “Sixties Scoop” makes explicit reference to the 1960s, but the policies and practices started before the 1960s and lasted long after. Today, Indigenous children are over-represented in the Child Welfare System across Canada in shocking numbers.

Indigenous communities got organized and fought back for their children. In 1985, the Kimelman Report was released, condemning the practice of adopting Indigenous children into non-Indigenous families and for taking so many children out of their communities.

In the 1990s, lawsuits were filed against the governments who had supported taking the children. In 2018 and 2019, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba apologized for their roles in supporting the adoption programs. In 2020, the Canadian government agreed to a settlement for survivors of the Scoop.

Through hundreds of photos and primary documents, readers will meet many survivors of the Scoop. They’ll also learn how Indigenous communities fought back to save their children and won, and how Indigenous communities across Canada are working towards healing today.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Righting Canada's Wrongs series.

Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

This book is available in French: La rafle des années 1960: et enfance volée aux jeunes Autochtones.

Additional Information
104 pages | 9.01" x 11.02" | 300 Photographs | Hardcover