First Nations

Garry Gottfriedson's Clinging to Bone digs into the marrow, heart and soul of the human condition. Looking deeply into the Secwepemc (Shuswap) world of today, he examines betrayal, grief, love and survival. He states, "the broken winged sparrows are lost in flight, surviving starvation in the empty belly of wind." In "Foreigner" he describes how "my skin is the scent of Secwepemcúlucw / a rez Indian, a foreigner / in my own homeland / can you imagine that?" (where "Secwepemcúlucw" means land of the Shuswap). But he also sees humour in the very mechanics of surviving as an Indigenous individual in the Canada of today. His poetry will draw you into love, laughter and sorrow, but leave you contemplating your own survival. A glossary of Secwepemc words is included.

Reviews
"Secwepemc poet, rancher, and teacher Garry Gottfriedson brings themes of identity, environment, and politics in his newest work Clinging to Bone. This collection of poems emerges from Gottfriedson’s journey as a Secwepemc man growing up in his traditional territory. Throughout the work are many beautiful and colourful images of nature. His work explores how land shapes one’s identity and how concepts of home have been altered by settlement and colonialism. Gottfriedson also touches upon many difficult intersections including Residential Schools, church abuses, and environmental destruction. In the end, his work is a (re)affirmation of
Secwepemc sovereignty through narratives of caregiving and relationship to place. Thought-provoking and accessible for high school students, this work is valuable in our schools today." - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 11 and 12 for English, Creativie Writing, Literary Studies and Social Justice.  Also a useful for Teacher Resource.

Additional Information
100 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

From the author: I cannot let the story of Crow Gulch — the story of my family and, subsequently, my own story — go untold. This book is my attempt to resurrect dialogue and story, to honour who and where I come from, to remind Corner Brook of the glaring omission in its social history.

"These deeply engaging poems — courageous, shrewdly observed, disillusioned — give sharp, prsonal expression to the harsh-beautiful landscape of western Newfoundland, and the human community precariously, stubbornly rooted there." — John Steffler

In his debut poetry collection, Douglas Walbourne-Gough reflects on the legacy of a community that sat on the shore of the Bay of Islands, less than two kilometres west of downtown Corner Brook.

Crow Gulch began as a temporary shack town to house migrant workers in the 1920s during the construction of the pulp and paper mill. After the mill was complete, some of the residents, many of Indigenous ancestry, settled there permanently — including the poet's great-grandmother Amelia Campbell and her daughter, Ella — and those the locals called the "jackytars," a derogatory epithet used to describe someone of mixed French and Mi'kmaq descent. Many remained there until the late 1970s, when the settlement was forcibly abandoned and largely forgotten.

Walbourne-Gough lyrically sifts through archival memory and family accounts, resurrecting story and conversation, to patch together a history of a people and place. Here he finds his own identity within the legacy of Crow Gulch and reminds those who have forgotten of a glaring omission in history.

Reviews
"These deeply engaging poems — courageous, shrewdly observed, disillusioned — give sharp, personal expression to the harsh-beautiful landscape of western Newfoundland and the human community precariously, stubbornly rooted there. A sense of conflict drives through this work, a reflection of the traditional struggle to gain a living from the sea and rocky land but also a raw exploration of the conflict between poverty and privilege, honesty and propriety." — John Steffler, April 2019

"Crow Gulch announces an important poet. The differences Douglas Walbourne-Gough explores between class and ethnicities are as hard as Newfoundland's rock, as shifting as the foundations of a forcibly resettled Crow Gulch. This book is a conversation between a rude landscape, the displaced or dispossessed, and a narrator searching for belonging." — Stephanie McKenzie, April 2019

"Bent low and clund to a coast, Walbourne-Gough lets the land shape him. Brilliant and weathered observation interlaces family and archive to render present and necessary the memory of Crow Gulch. Here is a day's labour, a fretting walk along the tracks, a house 'that lets in snow at the seams,' grandmother's kitchen. Hear still 'her peals of laughter against the far shore and all that lives on in this book.'" — Cecily Nicholson, April 2019

Additional Information
80 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Nanabush. A name that has a certain weight on the tongue—a taste. Like lit sage in a windowless room or aluminum foil on a metal filling.

Trickster. Storyteller. Shape-shifter. An ancient troublemaker with the power to do great things, only he doesn’t want to put in the work.

Since coming home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, Hazel Ellis has been dreaming of an old crow. He tells her he’s here to help her, save her. From what, exactly? Sure, her dad’s been dead for almost two years and she hasn’t quite reconciled that grief, but is that worth the time of an Algonquin demigod?

Soon Hazel learns that there’s more at play than just her own sadness and doubt. The quarry that’s been lying unsullied for over a century on her father’s property is stirring the old magic that crosses the boundaries between this world and the next. With the aid of Nanabush, Hazel must unravel a web of deceit that, if left untouched, could destroy her family and her home on both sides of the Medicine Wheel.

Reviews
“Full of spirit, love, mystery and good medicine, Crow Winter tells the story of Hazel and one very tricky little crow. Karen McBride’s debut novel ambitiously and successfully balances all these things creating a world and story that will stay with you after you have turned that last page.” - Katherena Vermette, award-winning author of The Break

"Algonquin Anishinaabe writer Karen McBride's debut is about a young woman who moves home to her First Nation reserve after losing her father. Dealing with grief and while memories are flooding her thoughts, Hazel's dreams are disturbed by her trickster kin, a crow, Nanabush. 

As she starts to unravel her father's history with a local quarry, the crow is a constant companion and guides her to find the truth. The physical and spiritual worlds are seamlessly woven together, and we are taken inside the experience Hazel is having reconciling her truth with her father's and the imposing facts of the real world.

A lovely story full of spirit and imagery that stays with you long after the final page. Karen is a writer to watch." - Sandy, indieCHOICE

Additional Information
352 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Indigenous protectors use language revitalization to save the Earth from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches.

Ts’ür’i and Aghay are the Dakwäkãda Warriors protecting Nän from their nemesis Cyber Nà’į and Space Kwäday Dän. Flying in their spaceship, can they prevent the Sha being stolen from Cyber Nà’į and Space Kwäday Dän?!

As a young person growing up in Haines Junction YT, artist Cole Pauls performed in a traditional song and dance group called the Dakwäkãda Dancers. During that time, Pauls encountered the ancestral language of Southern Tutchone. Driven by a desire to help revitalize the language, he created Dakwäkãda Warriors, a bilingual comic about two earth protectors saving the world from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches.

Pauls’ Elders supported him throughout the creation process by offering consultation and translation. The resulting work is a whimsical young adult graphic novel that offers an accessible allegory of colonialism. Dakwäkãda Warriors also includes a behind-the-scenes view into the making of the comic and a full-colour insert featuring character illustrations by guest Indigenous Canadian artists.

Awards

• 2020 Indigenous Voices Awards Winner for Works in an Indigenous Language
  

Reviews
From the publisher, an interview with Cole Pauls: 

1. Why did you decide to create this comic? 
I wanted to create a sense of identity and strength for the youth from my hometown and the Yukon. To be portrayed in a heroic but also realistic way, where culture is power and the community is stronger because of that. I made Dakwäkãda Warriors to keep Southern Tutchone language and culture alive.

2. What do you hope your work will bring to the Canadian comics canon?
A proper portrayal of Yukon Indigenous culture, we don't live in igloos, ya know!! I want to show the world what Southern Tutchone culture really is and how strong Indigenous culture can be when properly portrayed by someone who lives and practices it.

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 8 to 16

Language revitalization in an allegory of colonialization.
Artist Cole Pauls wanted to reclaim the Southern Tutchone language he had learned as a youth while performing in a traditional song and dance group. So, he created a comic about two Earth Protectors saving the Earth from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches. But he also went to his elders and asked them to translate his comic into the two dialects of Southern Tutchone. The resulting work is an allegory of colonialization done in an accessible format, a whimsical young adult graphic novel which helps to revitalize language. Pauls includes a "making of" postscript to give context to the project, and invites guest Indigenous Canadian artists to provide "pin-ups" of his characters.

Additional Information
112 pages | 6.50" x 10.00" | 112 illustrations

A collection of letter and prayer poems in which an Indigenous speaker engages with non-Indigenous famous Canadians.

D.A. Lockhart's stunning and subversive fourth collection gives us the words, thoughts, and experiences of an Anishinaabe guy from Central Ontario and the manner in which he interacts with central aspects and icons of settler Canadian culture. Riffing off Richard Hugo's 31 Letters and 13 Dreams, the work utilizes contemporary Indigenous poetics to carve out space for often ignored voices in dominant Canadian discourse (and in particular for a response to this dominance through the cultural background of an Indigenous person living on land that has been fundamentally changed by settler culture).

The letter poems comprise a large portion of this collection and are each addressed to specific key public figures--from Sarah Polley to Pierre Berton, k.d. lang to Robertson Davies, Don Cherry to Emily Carr. The second portion of the pieces are prayer poems, which tenderly illustrate hybrid notions of faith that have developed in contemporary Indigenous societies in response to modern and historical realities of life in Canada. Together, these poems act as a lyric whole to push back against the dominant view of Canadian political and pop-culture history and offer a view of a decolonized nation.

Because free double-doubles...
tease us like bureaucratic promises
of medical coverage and housing
not given to black mold and torn-
off siding. Oh Lord, let us sing anew,
in this pre-dawn light, a chorus
that shall not repeat Please Play Again. (from "Roll Up the Rim Prayer")

Reviews
"Rock-solid... full of heartfelt grit and conviction. D.A. Lockhart conjures the world through a catalogue of vivid particulars and a cast of inimitable characters, from Edna Puskamoose, a locally famous Pow-Wow dancer, to James Bond, that internationally notorious 'colonial trickster'. THis is poetry that follows the 'right crooked path' through 'the medicine smoke of history". - Campbell McGrath

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grade 12 for English Language Arts and Social Studies.

Caution: Mature, foul language used throughout. The term "Indian" is also used throughout.

Additional Information
72 pages | 6.00" x 8.75"

Set in contemporary times, a young Mi'kmaw drum singer and a Euro-Nova Scotian biologist meet at dusk each day to count a population of endangered Chimney Swifts (kaktukopnji'jk). They quickly struggle with their differing views of the world. Through humour and story, the characters must come to terms with their own gifts and challenges as they dedicate efforts to the birds. Each "count night" reveals a deeper complexity of connection to land and history on a personal level.

Inspired by real-life species at risk work, shalan joudry originally wrote this story for an outdoor performance.

Elapultiek calls on all of us to take a step back from our routine lives and question how we may get to understand our past and work better together. The ideal of weaving between Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds involves taking turns to speak and to listen, even through the most painful of stories, in order for us all to heal. We are in a time when sharing cultural, ecological, and personal stories is vital in working towards a peaceful shared territory, co-existing between peoples and nature.

"It's a crucial time to have these conversations," offers joudry. "The power of story can engage audience and readers in ways that moves them to ask more questions about the past and future."

Additional Information
96 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Indigenous Peoples in Canada are continuing to assert their right to self-determination in this era of reconciliation. While dozens of Indigenous communities have signed varying forms of self-government agreements with the federal government, Indigenous Nations still face many obstacles along the path to true self-determination.

As a former Chief of Siksika Nation in southern Alberta, Leroy Wolf Collar dealt with many of the same problems other Indigenous Nations face across the country. From serious housing shortages to the lack of opportunities for youth, Chief Wolf Collar experienced the challenges and frustrations that come from operating in a colonial system still constrained by the Indian Act.

How do Indigenous Peoples move on from this defective system? Chief Wolf Collar identifies 17 issues that currently hinder Indigenous Nations—including broken treaty promises, problems with common forms of band administration, and the intrusion of provincial governments—along with potential solutions to overcome them.

This guide is for current and aspiring Indigenous leaders who want to increase their understanding of good governance, management, and leadership, as well as those who want to explore issues around Indigenous self-determination in Canada.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 11 and 12 for use in these areas: Law, English Language Arts, and Social Studies.

Additional Information
128 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

“This night in Oppenheimer Park Dan asked me to shit-kick this chick in the face as she owed money and I said no because I didn’t know who she was and I wasn’t about to play with fire so he sat on the bench then stood up and did a flying kick twice to her chin and she convulsed and passed out he said he didn’t want to spill blood because she had HIV…”—“Tales”

Dissecting herself and the life she once knew living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as a bonafide drug addict, Blanchard writes plainly about violence, drug use and sex work in Fresh Pack of Smokes, offering insight into an often overlooked or misunderstood world.

Reviews
 “Reading Cassandra Blanchard’s debut poetry collection Fresh Pack of Smokes feels like, to borrow a phrase from her work, someone “poured a bucket of blood” on your head. Such visceral images flood the pages of Blanchard’s autobiographical stories, pulling readers in with humanizing force.” - Emma Cooper, The Tyee

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grade 12 students for the following subjects: English Language Arts, Social Justice.  

Contains foul and sexual language, graphic content, violence, interpersonal abuse, and drug use, which may be disturbing to some readers.

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

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.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 9 to 12 in the following subject areas: English Language Arts, Social Studies.

Included in this story are personal stories of residential school and addiction.

Additional Information
272 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

An Indigenous leader who has dedicated her life to Indigenous Rights, Jody Wilson-Raybould has represented both First Nations and the Crown at the highest levels. And she is not afraid to give Canadians what they need most – straight talk on what has to be done to deconstruct the colonial legacy and achieve true reconciliation in Canada.

In this powerful book, drawn from Wilson-Raybould’s speeches and other writings, she urges us all – governments, Indigenous Nations, everyone – to build upon the momentum already gained in the reconciliation process or risk hard-won progress being lost. The choice is stark: support Indigenous-led initiatives for Nation rebuilding or revert to governments just managing “the problem.” Frank and impassioned, she also argues that true reconciliation will never occur so long as governments deny Indigenous Peoples their rights and the Indian Act continues to exist. Until then, we’ll be stuck in the status quo – mired in conflicts and expensive court cases that do nothing to improve people’s lives or heal the country.

The good news is that Indigenous Nations already have the solutions. Now it is time to act and build a shared future based on the foundations of trust, cooperation, good governance, and recognition. Removing the barriers that are keeping these solutions from being put into effect will not only empower Indigenous Peoples – it will enrich all Canadians and make Canada stronger.

From Where I Stand is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the reconciliation process and know what they can do to make a difference, from engaged citizens and students to leaders and policy-makers, educators and academics, and lawyers and consultants.

Reviews
"From Where I Stand is a must-read book for all Canadians. Puglaas shares a clear understanding of where we have come from, the issues we must address, and the pathways to a transformed future. Having witnessed her remarkable courage and capacity as Canada’s attorney general and her determination to do what is right without succumbing to unrelenting political pressure, Puglaas stands tall among Canadians as a person for whom truth, thoughtfulness, and principle are not mere words – but values to sustain a different kind of policy and politics." - Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (Aki-Kwe), Professor of Law, Allard Law School UBC, and Director of the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre

"Jody Wilson-Raybould's quest for justice has long driven her work. I first saw this when she was a law student and this commitment to justice has only been deepened by subsequent public service. Her unwavering commitment to reconciliation, balance, and good governance springs off every page of this book." - John Borrows, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law, University of Victoria Law School

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction

Moving through the Postcolonial Door
We Truly Have Come a Long Way ...
Idle No More and Recapturing the Spirit and Intent of the Two Row Wampum
On the Parallels, and Differences, between Canada and South Africa
Our Shared Histories and the Path of Reconciliation

Rights and Recognition
Self-Determination and the Inherent Right of Self-Government
Translating Hard-Fought-For Rights into Practical and Meaningful Benefits
UNDRIP Is the Start Not the Finishing Line
Defining the Path of Reconciliation through Section 35
Indigenous Rights Are Human Rights
Implementing UNDRIP

Governance in the Post-Indian Act World
Toppling the Indian Act Tree
First Nations Jurisdiction over Citizenship
Holding and Managing Our Lands
On Accountability and Transparency
Developing a New Fiscal Relationship
The Governance Toolkit and Building on Our Success

Building Business Relationships and the Duty to Consult
Economic Development Depends on Self-Government
First Nations Are Not a Box to Tick Off
Who Owns and Is Responsible for the Water?
On Certainty and Why It’s Elusive

Restoring Balance, Correcting Injustices, and Remaining Vigilant
A Litmus Test for Reconciliation Is the Status of Women
Preventing First Contacts with the Criminal Justice System
On Sticking Our Necks Out
On Obstruction, Denial, and Canada’s Failure to Uphold the Rule of Law
Each of Us, In Our Own Way, Is a Hiligaxste’

Acknowledgments
A Note on Terminology and the Speeches
Index

Additional Information
264 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Two grown sisters face off over their mother's deathbed. Together they confront one another, their own identities, and what will remain when their mom leaves this world. A contemporary look at the significance of faith and family, Honour Beat evokes both laughter and tears as three women grapple with one of life's most difficult inevitabilities.

Reviews
"Honour Beat is an important work of art...It celebrates -- honours --women as the givers and sustainers of life...The ending is extraordinary." -Globe & Mail

"The final uplifting, spiritual moments of Honour Beat will linger with you long after you've left the theatre...the beautiful sentiments at the heart of the play." -Calgary Herald

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 10 to 12 for English Language Arts, Acting, Drama, and Social Studies.

Includes mature subject matter with references to trauma, rape, and sexual and physical abuse.

Additional Information
80 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Hope Matters, written by multiple award-winner Lee Maracle, in collaboration with her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter, focuses on the journey of Indigenous people from colonial beginnings to reconciliation.

Maracle states that the book, "is also about the journey of myself and my two daughters." During their youth, Bobb and Carter wrote poetry with their mother, and eventually they all decided that one day they would write a book together. This book is the result of that dream. Written collaboratively by all three women, the poems in Hope Matters blend their voices together into a shared song of hope and reconciliation.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 10 to 12 in the areas of Creative Writing, English Language Arts, Media Studies, and Social Studies.

This poetry contains some mature language/subject matter.

Additional Information
104 pages | 5.25" x 8.00"

I Am a Body of Land by Shannon Webb-Campbell explores poetic responsibility and accountability, and frames poetry as a form of revisioning. In these poems, Webb-Campbell returns to her own text Who Took My Sister?, to examine her self and to decolonize, unlearn, and undo harm. By reconsidering individual poems and letters, Webb-Campbell's confessional writing circles back upon itself to ask questions of her own settler-Indigenous identity and belonging to cry out for community, and call in with love.

With an introduction by multiple award-winning writer and activist Lee Maracle.

Reviews
“Shannon Webb-Campbell’s work forces readers out of polite conversation and into a realm where despair and hard truths are being told, being heard and finding the emotional strength to learn from it, find our way out and embrace our beauty as Indigenous women.”—Carol Rose Daniels, author of Hiraeth and Bearskin Diary, winner of the First Nations Communities READ Award and the Aboriginal Literature Award.

“Poetry awake with the winds from the Four Directions, poetry that crosses borders, margins, treaties, yellow tape warning: Police Line. Do Not Cross. Poetry whose traditional territory, through colonization, has become trauma and shame. Unceded poetry. Read. Respect. Weep.”—Susan Musgrave, author of Origami Dove

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 10 to 12 in the areas of Media Studies, Social Studies, and English Language Arts.

Additional Information
74 pages | 5.25" x 8.00"

Combining graphic fiction and non-fiction, this young adult graphic novel serves as a window into one of the unique dangers of being an Indigenous teen in Canada today. The text of the book is derived from excerpts of a letter written to the Winnipeg Chief of Police by fourteen-year-old Brianna Jonnie — a letter that went viral and was also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to "not treat me as the Indigenous person I am proud to be," if she were to be reported missing.

Indigenous artist Neal Shannacappo provides the artwork for the book. Through his illustrations he imagines a situation in which a young Indigenous woman does disappear, portraying the reaction of her community, her friends, the police and media.

An author's note at the end of the book provides context for young readers about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada.

Awards

• 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards winner for Published Graphic Novels, Comics, and Illustrated Books in any Language.

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 12 - 18. 

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 7 to 12 for use in these areas: English Language Arts, Social Justice, and Social Studies.

This book is available in French: Si je disparais

Additional Information
64 pages | 8.50" x 9.50" | 100+ 2-colour illustrations

Indigenous Relations: Your Guide to Working Effectively with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.

A timely sequel to the bestselling 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act - and an invaluable guide for anyone seeking to work more effectively with Indigenous Peoples.

We are all treaty people. But what are the everyday impacts of treaties, and how can we effectively work toward reconciliation if we're worried our words and actions will unintentionally cause harm?

Hereditary chief and leading Indigenous relations trainer Bob Joseph is your guide to respecting cultural differences and improving your personal relationships and business interactions with Indigenous Peoples. Practical and inclusive, Indigenous Relations interprets the difference between hereditary and elected leadership, and why it matters; explains the intricacies of Aboriginal Rights and Title, and the treaty process; and demonstrates the lasting impact of the Indian Act, including the barriers that Indigenous communities face and the truth behind common myths and stereotypes perpetuated since Confederation.

Indigenous Relations equips you with the necessary knowledge to respectfully avoid missteps in your work and daily life, and offers an eight-part process to help business and government work more effectively with Indigenous Peoples - benefitting workplace culture as well as the bottom line. Indigenous Relations is an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to improve their cultural competency and undo the legacy of the Indian Act. 

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 11 and 12 in these areas: Social Studies, Law, English Language Arts, and Social Justice.

Additional Information
200 pages | 8.00" x 5.00"