Indigenous Studies

This meditation on the poetics of re-worlding follows the threads of Spiderwoman Theater’s Storyweaving practice back to its Guna and Rappahannock sources to illuminate its history, mechanics, and development for coming generations.

The Spiderwoman Theatre, the longest-running Indigenous theatre company in North America has heralded the revolutionary methodology of Storyweaving for generations of Indigenous artists. Storyweaving is a distinct methodology that governs the dramaturgical structure and performed transmission of the company’s plays on the contemporary stage. The practice of Storyweaving predates written history. It has been (and remains) specific to tribal storytellers across the continent.

The reclamation, then, of this aesthetic legacy by contemporary Indigenous storytellers is a crucial act of recovery. Jill Carter, an Anishinaabe-Ashkenazi theatre-worker and scholar, examines the process and development of Storyweaving. She studies how Storyweaving imagines and architects a functional framework that is being adopted and adapted by artists from myriad nations to create works (on the page and stage) that facilitate the healing, transformation, and survivance of their communities. Between the Layers pays respects to the teachers and visionaries that moulded this practice and encourages future generations to continue its legacy, while making a much-needed contribution to the study of Indigenous theatre and performance.

In its painstaking documentation of the Storyweaving artform, Between the Layers refuses the devaluation, erasure, and suppression of Indigenous culture, while contributing to the dissemination and celebration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

Educator Information

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Spiderwoman Theater: A Performance History

Introduction: Between the Layers

Chapter One:
Persistence of Violent Delights:
“It’s All the Same Bullshit Again”

Chapter Two:
“An Indian is an Idea a Man Has of Himself”

Chapter Three:
An Indian is More than Just an “Idea”:
By Their Acts Ye Shall Know Them

Chapter Four:
Towards a Poetics of Re-Worlding:
Becoming (and then Staging) the New Human Being

Chapter Five:
The Published Texts

Chapter Six:
The Three Sisters from There to Here:
Spiderwoman’s Issue and the Project of Re-worlding

Appendices

Works Cited

Additional Information
376 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 8 illustrations | Hardcover

From adventures in Indigenous futurism to tales of first love, the stories and poems of Beyond the Glittering World proclaim and celebrate a rising generation of Native American storytellers.

Beyond the Glittering World brings together twenty emerging and established Native women writers and writers of marginalized genders, including Moniquill Blackgoose, Heid E. Erdrich, A.J. Eversole, Chelesa Hicks, and D. Daye Hunter. Immersing readers in worlds as varied as their authors, this collection presents an array of singular voices at their genre-bending, boundary-breaking, devastating, and joyous best.

Reviews
"An evocative compilation of voices pondering Indigenous futures and the shape of Indigenous love. Beyond the Glittering World holds a healthy dose of gender-bending, genre-challenging, future-hoping might. This anthology is a welcome addition to the field of Indigenous anthologies.”—DEBORAH JACKSON TAFFA, Whiskey Tender

Additional Information
240 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | Paperback

Teammates, champions, Survivors

In 1951, after winning the Thunder Bay district championship, the Sioux Lookout Black Hawks hockey team from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School embarked on a whirlwind promotional tour through Ottawa and Toronto. They were accompanied by a professional photographer from the National Film Board who documented the experience. The tour was intended to demonstrate the success of the residential school system and introduce the Black Hawks to "civilizing" activities and the "benefits" of assimilating into Canadian society. For some of the boys, it was the beginning of a lifelong love of hockey; for others, it was an escape from the brutal living conditions and abuse at the residential school. 

In Beyond the Rink, Alexandra Giancarlo, Janice Forsyth, and Braden Te Hiwi collaborate with three surviving team members-Kelly Bull, Chris Cromarty, and David Wesley-to share the complex legacy behind the 1951 tour photos. This book reveals the complicated role of sports in residential school histories, commemorating the team's stellar hockey record and athletic prowess while exposing important truths about "Canada's Game" and how it shaped ideas about the nation. By considering their past, these Survivors imagine a better way forward not just for themselves, their families, and their communities, but for Canada as a whole.

Reviews
"These three survivors-Kelly, David, and Chris-inspire us not only for what they have done for their communities in the aftermath of the residential school system but also for how crucial hockey and sports are in bringing Indigenous communities together, like we see in the Little NHL Tournament. Our history and the lessons we've learned are vital, and Beyond the Rink does an excellent job of highlighting this." — Ted Nolan, former NHL Player & Coach, Olympic Coach, and author of Life in Two Worlds: A Coach's Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back

"On its face, Beyond the Rink is a compelling story of a residential school hockey team from northern Ontario touring Ottawa and Toronto in the 1950s. But it is much more than that: with a National Film Board photographer accompanying them every step of the way, the players are props in a public relations exercise meant to obscure the true conditions in residential schools.

This is an unflinching and nuanced look behind the PR veil, a story of loss, triumph, perseverance, tragedy, and memory. It is also a detailed account of the machinery of residential schools and the trauma they inflicted. And it is a revealing look at the power of photographs, which can be used to both illuminate and mislead.

At its heart, Beyond the Rink is the story of twelve Indigenous hockey players, who, like their white counterparts, loved the game for the thrill of competition, but also as an escape from the relentless control and exploitation they faced on a daily basis, even if they were being exploited while doing it. This is the story of twelve boys, told through the lens of three of them, trapped in a world they barely understood, a world that was not the least bit interested in understanding them, and in many ways still isn't." — Gord Miller

"The authors have spent decades working with the Survivors whose stories they share and centre in this book. Beyond the Rink, Behind the Image does not simply tell the story of a hockey team; it demonstrates how sport within the context of residential schools was a tool of colonization." — Karen Froman

"It is difficult to overstate the significance of this book. The scholarship is sound as well as original in context and content, and Survivor testimony is respected and communicated in a theoretically sophisticated way." — Travis Hay

Additional Information
184 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | 36 b&w illustrations, bibliography | Paperback 

Turning a lens on the dark legacy of colonialism in horror film, from Scream to Halloween and beyond.

Horror films, more than any other genre, offer a chilling glimpse—like peering through a creaky attic door—into the brutality of settler colonial violence. While Indigenous peoples continue to struggle against colonization, white settler narratives consistently position them as a threat, depicting the Indigenous Other as an ever-present menace, lurking on the fringes of “civilized” society. Indigenous inclusion or exclusion in horror films tells a larger story about myths, fears, and anxieties that have endured for centuries.

Bloodied Bodies, Bloody Landscapes traces connections between Indigenous representations, gender, and sexuality within iconic horror classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. The savage killer, the romantic and doomed Indian, the feral “mad woman”—no trope or archetype escapes the shadowy influence of settler colonialism. In the end, horror both disrupts and uncovers colonial violence—only to bury its victims once more.

Reviews
“This is the book I’ve waited my whole movie-geek life for.”— Jesse Wente

“Bloody Bodies, Bloody Landscapes is a must read for anyone consuming horror media. Laura Hall masterfully dissects the ways in which settler-colonialism is at the core of sexism, racism, sanism, and white supremacy, and how we see those systems of oppression at work in historical and contemporary horror.”— Jessica Johns

“Expertly foregrounding the most overlooked horror in this film genre—settler colonialism—Bloodies Bodies, Bloody Landscapes is deadly.”— Christine Sy

"Bloodied Bodies, Bloody Landscapes is brilliant scholarship that pinpoints the ugly truth about the treatment of Indigenous people in horror cinema. But Hall is doing much more than examining tropes of mysticism, savagery, and settler colonialism-as savior in horror; she is directing our attention to the recuperative power of certain portrayals, thereby reminding us that an anticolonial lens can produce whole and full human stories—even scary ones.”— Robin R. Means Coleman, author of The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror from Fodder to Oscar

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Introduction

Chapter 1. They’re Here! Settler Colonialism and the Horror Film
Chapter 2. The Bloodsucking Brady Bunch: Gender, the Family and Settler Colonial Horrors
Chapter 3. We All go A Little Mad Sometimes!
Chapter 4. Cowboys in the Antarctic: Settler Colonialism and Nature in Horror
Chapter 5. Jason Voorhees Does a Land Acknowledgement: Indigeneity Lurking in the Woods

Conclusion
Sources

Additional Information
288 pages | 6.02" x 9.01" | Paperback

Blue Corn Tongue is a like mixtape from a thirty-something Diné punk girl. It offers poetry about love, friendship, environmental destruction, and language loss.

Reviews
“This collection describes a life woven together through the topography of the land examining elements of language, love, and family. There is a distinct point of view that encompasses the dialectical nature of belonging. Traveling alongside the poet in tender and sometimes funny moments, I found myself wanting to share these poems with friends.”—Naomi Ortiz, author of Rituals for Climate Change

“McCrary’s collection is one that only she could write. It is a mixtape from a thirty-something Diné punk girl with tracks about love and friendship, but also environmental destruction and language loss.”—Casandra López, author of Brother Bullet

“Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of the Desert is a wonder of a book full of ‘Weaving words with nostalgic tongues, heirloom futures and circular knowledge.’ Multilingual, expansive, and courageously written, these poems are an ecosystem of love and place that moves the reader through a sensory landscape of frank emotion and complex beauty. Lovers ‘maized through the rooms’ of a boarding school exhibit ‘familiar as grandma’s tortillas ‘in one poem and inhabit a space where ‘desert honey pulsates’ in another. Both strikingly original and deeply rooted, this book is a marvel to behold.”—Laura Da’, author of Instruments of the True Measure

“In the middle of the desert, a woman holds a poem. And a river begins to flow. McCray’s stunning poems tell the story of the seed, the root, and the inevitable flower. Anchored in the question ‘How does language open?’ this experimental, brave, and intimate book is a must-read.”—Margarita Pintado Burgos, author of Ojo en Celo / Eye in Heat

“Equal parts tender and defiant, McCrary’s Blue Corn Tongue laps up landscape and love alike. Propelled by a moving sensuousness, this collection reframes relations between poet, lover, relatives, and the history binding them. Through striking visuals, rich carnality, and the occasional unexpected laugh, McCrary’s work celebrates and challenges what it means to dream and desire from within O’odham Jeweḍ and Dinétah.”—Oscar Mancinas, author of To Live and Die in El Valle

“Amber McCrary is a poet of generational talent who has written a masterful work of staggering beauty. One cannot help but read and reread Blue Corn Tongue with a sense of awe and gratitude for having witnessed, for having been gifted with a poetry that does the important work of documenting and honoring the narratives of her rich culture. I am holding something important in my hands, in this time. I am going to be holding this book close to the heart for years to come because it means that much to me.”—Truong Tran, author of Book of the Other

“In Amber McCrary’s poems, the deserts are rich with sweet honey. This sumptuous debut celebrates Indigenous love, the Navajo language, corn kernels grinding on the tongue—lush life upon life. Blue Corn Tongue teaches me to indulge in intimacy, to find it essential, even as it is haunted by loss. I am thankful for this collection, which insists on remaining abundant and unashamed.”—Erin Marie Lynch, author of Removal Acts

"Filled with stylistically innovative poems that embody place and emerge from ‘the mouth of deserts,’ Blue Corn Tongue carries both ‘generational grief’ and reclamation. McCrary’s poetry claims the Diné language and a vibrant matrilineal power through a ‘kin kind of tongue.’ These intimate poems are filled with lush, tactile images and populated with beings and beliefs that have survived colonization. Over and over, they celebrate ‘something laws cannot govern.’”—Kimberly Blaeser, author of Ancient Light and Wisconsin poet laureate, 2015–16

Additional Information
96 pages | 7.00" x 9.00" | 4 Maps | Paperback 

Firsthand narratives from Northern and Indigenous cancer survivors and caregivers offer compassionate advice and insightful analysis about healthcare in rural northern communities.

A cancer diagnosis can be life changing for anyone, bringing new physical and emotional realities, changed relationships, and often frustration when dealing with healthcare systems. But living north of sixty means dealing with a higher level of healthcare inequity. Agnes Pascal compiles firsthand narratives from Northern and Indigenous cancer survivors and caregivers that illuminate the unique challenges of healthcare accessibility in the North.

In this rare volume, more than thirty voices offer compassionate advice and insightful analysis born from experience. With courage and dignity, they discuss fear, grief, and death; the logistics of medical travel for treatment; Indigenous and Western medicine; structural determinants of health, including industrial pollution and environmental racism; and the impacts of residential schools and “Indian hospitals” on northern communities. In these pages people share that hope comes from building healing communities.

This book is for people with cancer and their caregivers; health policy makers and advocates; scholars and practitioners of healthcare, Indigenous governance, or environmental racism; and anyone interested grassroots, community-based peer support.

Reviews
“This book is a chorus of bravery, one every health practitioner should read so they can understand that as devastating as a cancer diagnosis is to the patient, it also affects the patient’s family, extended family and community. Thankfully, there is hope once diagnosed and the stories from these survivors is a testimony to the power of compassion, technology, teamwork, follow up and after care. I am in awe of the humility, courage, insight and gratitude in every story here. Mahsi cho.”- Richard Van Camp, author of Gather: Richard Van Camp on the Joy of Storytelling

“Prioritizing the voices of northern and Indigenous cancer patients, especially those from small communities, is critical for ensuring positive change within the Northwest Territories healthcare system. The inner strength of patients and the insights they share, are a gift to us all. ”- Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, scientific director at Hotıì ts’eeda

Additional Information
192 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 30 Contributor Photos | Paperback

A tenth anniversary bilingual edition in English and Cree of Rosanna Deerchild’s stunning collection about the intergenerational impacts of the Canadian residential school system.

you want me to
share my story

ok then
here it is
here in the unwritten
here in the broken lines
of my body that can never forget

In Calling Down the Sky, poet Rosanna Deerchild viscerally evokes her mother’s experience within the residential school system, the Canadian government’s system of violently removing Indigenous children from their homes, families, and languages in an explicit attempt to destroy Indigenous cultures and identities. With precise and intricate poetry, Deerchild weaves together the story of her mother’s childhood and Deerchild’s memories of her mother: her love of country music, her attempts to talk about what happened to her, how tightly she braided her daughter’s hair on the first day of school. In doing so, Deerchild illustrates the disruptive and devastating impacts of the residential school system on generations of families while also celebrating the life and culture of her mother and other survivors.

Published for the first time in a bilingual edition of Cree and English, in time for the tenth anniversary of the original publication, Calling Down the Sky is an intimate and gorgeously evoked reckoning with a horrifying part of North American history.

Reviews
“Rosanna Deerchild’s poems roll off the tongue as easy as old country songs. With her deft hand, Deerchild finely tunes every word and weaves them together as intimately as she braids her girls’ hair. Together, these poems create a story that sings with beautiful tension, amazing resilience, and love as big as the sky." - Katherena Vermette, Métis Writer

"The poetry collection, called calling down the sky, describes personal experiences with the residential school system in the 1950s and the generational effects it had." - CBC 

"This poetry collection is fierce, raw and candid. It is also visceral, intricate and, above all, illuminating. By recounting her mother’s residential school experience in a powerfully poetic narrative, Deerchild expertly illustrates the heartbreaking trauma of that tragic saga and how it complicates relationships over generations. By beautifully and elaborately exploring those relationships and that devastating history, she finds and celebrates the resilient and hopeful spirit that many residential school survivors, like her mother, have managed to retain in the face of horror and torment. As a result, calling down the sky is an essential read in understanding the true modern history of this land and in honouring the people who survived it.” - Waubgeshig Rice

Educator Information
Bilingual: English and Cree

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

A Métis girl is adopted by a Mennonite family in this breathtaking memoir about family lost and found—for those who loved From the Ashes and Educated.

By the time Brittany Penner is seven years old, she has loved and lost twenty-one foster siblings who have come into her family and left—all of them Indigenous like her. "When will it be my turn?" she asks her mother time and time again. "When will I be taken away?" You won't be, she is told. You're adopted. You're here to stay. You're the lucky one.

On the day of her birth in 1989, near the end of the Sixties Scoop, Brittany was relinquished into the care of the government and adopted by a white Mennonite family in a small prairie town. Her name and where she came from are hidden from her; all she is told is that she is Métis. Her childhood is shaped by church, family, service and silence. Her family is continuously shifting as siblings arrive and depart, one by one. She knows that to stay, she has to force herself into the mold created for her. She must be obedient. Quiet. Good. No matter what.

Whenever she looks in the mirror, she searches her features, wondering if they've been passed down to her by her biological mother. She thinks, if she can find her mother, she'll find all the answers she's looking for. As Brittany moves into adulthood, she will uncover answers—but they will be more tangled than she could have imagined.

Children Like Us asks difficult questions about family, identity, belonging and cultural continuity. What happens when you find what you're looking for, but it can't offer you everything you need? How do you reckon with the truth of your own story when you've always been told you're lucky and should be grateful? What does it mean to belong when you feel torn between cultures? And how does a person learn to hold the pain and the grief, as well as the triumphs, the joys and the beauty, allowing none to eclipse the others?

Reviews
"Children Like Us is a luminous memoir about identity, loss and belonging. Adopted at birth by a white Mennonite family, Brittany Penner grows up straddling two worlds—one she knows and one that remains just out of reach. As she pieces together her origins, she reckons with the complexities of family, love and cultural displacement. Both intimate and unflinching, Children Like Us is a powerful exploration of what it means to know where you come from—and what it costs when that knowledge is withheld." —Adrienne Brodeur, nationally bestselling author of Wild Game

"An absolutely mesmerizing debut. It was a privilege to bear witness to Brittany Penner's story about intergenerational trauma, identity, and belonging. The kinds of complicated grief we so often experience in life are born out of the complexity of human relationships and our fierce ability to both hurt and heal one another. Penner explores this truth deftly, with wisdom, compassion and grace. I hope everyone reads this book." —Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance

Additional Information
384 pages | 5.62" x 8.25" | Paperback

Culinary Claims explores the complex relationships between wild plants and introduced animals, Indigenous foodways, and Canadian regulations. Blending food studies with environmental history, the book examines how cuisines reflect social and political issues related to cultural representation, restaurants, and food sovereignty.

L. Sasha Gora chronicles the rise of Indigenous restaurants and their influence on Canadian food culture, engaging with questions about how shifts in appetite reflect broader shifts in imaginations of local environments and identities. Drawing on a diverse range of sources – from recipes and menus to artworks and television shows – the book discusses both historical and contemporary representations of Indigenous foodways and how they are changing amid the relocalization of food systems.

Culinary Claims tells a new story of settler colonialism and Indigenous resistance, emphasizing the critical role that restaurants play in Canada’s cultural landscape. It investigates how food shapes our understanding of place and the politics that underpin this relationship. Ultimately, the book asks, What insights can historians gain from restaurants – and their legacies – as reflections of Indigenous and settler negotiations over cultural claims to land?

Educator Information
Subjects: Business; History / Canadian History; History / Business & Economic History; Food Studies / Food in History; Indigenous Studies / Indigenous History

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface

Introduction: You Are Welcome
1. Agricultural Flagpoles
2. From Trains to Tundra
3. Restaurants and Representation
4. An Edible Exhibition
5. One Address, Three Restaurants
6. A Meal for a Chief
7. Culinary Resurgence
8. Seal Tartare
9. Where the Beaver and Buffalo Roam
10. Salmon and the F-Word
Conclusion: The North

Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Additional Information
392 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 34 illustrations | Paperback

A singular collection of responses to the still life paintings of acclaimed artist David Garneau

Dark Chapters brings together 17 poets, fiction writers, curators, and critics to engage with the works of David Garneau, the Governor General’s Award-winning Métis artist. Featuring paintings from Garneau’s still life series “Dark Chapters” alongside poetry, fiction, critical analysis, and autotheory, the book includes contributions from Fred Wah, Paul Seesequasis, Jesse Wente, Lillian Allen, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Larissa Lai, Susan Musgrave, and more.

A nod to the Reports of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which Justice Murray Sinclair describes the residential school system as “one of the darkest, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history,” Garneau’s still life paintings combine common objects (books, bones, teacups, mirrors) and less familiar ones (a Métis sash, a stone hammer, a braid of sweetgrass) to reflect the complexity of contemporary Indigenous experiences. Provocative titles like “Métis in the Academy” and “Smudge Before Reading” invite consideration of the mixed influences and loyalties faced by Indigenous students and scholars. Other paintings explore colonialism, vertical and lateral violence, Christian influence on traditional knowledge, and museum treatment of Indigenous belongings.

Rooted in Garneau’s life-long engagement at the intersections of visual art and writing, Dark Chapters presents a multifaceted reflection on the work of an inimitable, unparalleled artist.

Includes contributions from Arin Fay, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Cecily Nicholson, David Howes, Dick Averns, Fred Wah, Jeff Derksen, Jesse Wente, John G. Hampton, Larissa Lai, Lillian Allen, Paul Seesequasis, Peter Morin, Rita Bouvier, Susan Musgrave, Tarene Thomas, and Trevor Herriot.

Reviews
“A smart collection of art and essays, Dark Chapters activates deep conversations about art, resistance, and sovereignty. Visiting with paintings by Métis artist David Garneau, seventeen poets, curators, and thinkers offer complex provocations that trouble and activate new forms of communities and relationships.” —Dr. Carmen Robertson, Canada Research Chair in North American Indigenous Visual and Material Culture
 
“Provocative, probing, and precarious, Dark Chapters pairs the poetic, literary, political, and critical responses of seventeen authors with the deceptively uncluttered yet gravid and combustible still lifes of David Garneau. This collection of pictures and words undertakes a necessary examination of the uncanny oppositions and disquieting literal and symbolic inversions that signify and animate the Indigenous history of Canada.” —Bonnie Devine
 
“Dark Chapters is a lesson in relationality and innovation. Built through conversations between Garneau’s work and artists/writers, the intergenerational contributors to this book come together in relation to Garneau and his still lives to explore the important contribution the artist has made to Canadian, Indigenous, and International art.” —Erin Sutherland

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Foreword
Nic Wilson

Still Life
John G. Hampton

Stone and Rock: I Have Failed You
Peter Morin

Wander Carried
Cecily Nicholson

On Kinship
Paul Seesequasis

Learning from Indigenous Academic Solidarity
Jeff Derksen

Knock Knock
Lillian Allen

Unsettling the Colonial Gaze
Trevor Herriot

Smudge Before Reading and The Land Does Not Forget
Tarene Thomas

Confession (after David Garneau) by Rita Bouvier

Fuse and Formal and Informal Education
Jesse Wente

The Problem with Pleasure
Billy-Ray Belcourt

Métis Realism: On the Materiality of Smoke and Relationality of Rocks
David Howes

Allies (after Hsieh and Montano)
Larissa Lai

Ally Tear Reliquary
Arin Fay

Understanding Attempted Enlightening: Between Language as Power…and Light as Life
Dick Averns

Spine
Fred Wah

The Resting Heartbeat of a Wounded Bird
Susan Musgrave

Gallery
About the Artist
About the Curator
About the Editor
About the Contributors
List of Artworks
Index

Additional Information
160 pages | 6.50" x 9.50" | 58 colour illustrations | Paperback 

This book invites readers to step into a space of reflection on your personal relationship with truth, reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day.

Written in response to the increase of residential school denialism, Phyllis Webstad and Kristy McLeod have collaborated to create a book that encourages readers to face their own biases. This book challenges readers through a series of sensitive conversations that explore decolonization, Indigenization, healing, and every person’s individual responsibility to truth and reconciliation. Centered around the Orange Shirt Day movement, and a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, these conversations encourage readers to unpack and reckon with denialism, biases, privilege, and the journey forward, on both a personal and national level.

Within each chapter, Phyllis Webstad draws on her decade of experience (sharing her Orange Shirt Story on a global level and advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples) to offer insights on these topics and stories from her personal journey, which co-author and Métis scholar, Kristy McLeod, helps readers to further navigate. Each section includes real denialist comments taken from social media and Kristy's analysis and response to them. Through empathy-driven truth-telling, this book offers an opportunity to witness, reflect, heal, and be intentional about the seeds we hope to plant for the future, together.

Additional Information
350 pages | 5.70" x 8.25" | Hardcover

The groundbreaking Indigenous style guide every writer needs.

The first published guide to common questions and issues of Indigenous style and process for those who work in words and other media is back in an updated new edition. This trusted resource offers crucial guidance to anyone who works in words or other media on how to work accurately, collaboratively, and ethically on projects involving Indigenous Peoples.

Editor Warren Cariou (Métis) and contributing editors Jordan Abel (Nisga’a), Lorena Fontaine (Cree-Anishinaabe), and Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) continue the conversation started by the late Gregory Younging in his foundational first edition. This second conversation reflects changes in the publishing industry, Indigenous-led best practices, and society at large, including new chapters on author-editor relationships, identity and community affiliation, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer identities, sensitivity reading, emerging issues in the digital world, and more.

This guide features:

• Twenty-two succinct style principles.
• Advice on culturally appropriate publishing practices, including how to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, when and how to seek the advice of Elders, and how to respect Indigenous Oral Traditions and Traditional Knowledge.
• Terminology to use and to avoid.
• Advice on specific editing issues, such as biased language, capitalization, citation, accurately representing Indigenous languages, and quoting from historical sources and archives.
• Examples of projects that illustrate best practices.

Additional Information
208 pages | 5.50" x 7.50" | Paperback

Discover the rich tapestry of human emotion and divine wisdom with the First Nations Version Psalms and Proverbs. The latest volume from the critically acclaimed First Nations Version translation brings the ancient Sacred Songs and Wise Sayings of the Hebrew Scriptures to life through the vibrant, poetic imagery of Native American oral storytelling.

Discover Psalms and Proverbs Reimagined Through the Poetic Language of Native Storytellers:

Father Sky is telling us the story of the shining-greatness of the One Above Us All. The starry tent above us shows the beauty that Creator’s hands have made. Day after day, the story is told, and night after night, their wisdom fills the sky. Even though the skies above have no spoken words, all creation has heard their message.Psalm 19:1-3

From the strength of your heart, put all your trust in Grandfather, and do not hold yourself up with weak human thinking. As you walk the road of life, make every step a prayer. Grandfather will then make your eyes straight and your paths safe.Proverbs 3:5-6

Whether you're seeking solace, strength, or spiritual insight, the First Nations Version Psalms and Proverbs will guide you with its profound expressions of praise and trust in the Creator. Step into the harmonious blend of ancient wisdom and indigenous tradition to discover a spiritual experience that speaks directly to your heart.

Reviews
"The First Nations Version is far and away the most creative Bible translation I've ever read. It's an exciting alternative to the boring, stodgy renderings that have dominated the English market for centuries. All readers can open the FNV and experience old passages in new lights. Talk about it with your kids. Study it in churches and classrooms. Use it in worship. The Bible becomes alive!"— Matthew Schlimm, professor of Old Testament at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary

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

Growing up on the Nipissing First Nation reserve in Northern Ontario, Christian Allaire wanted to work in the fashion industry, a future that seemed like a remote, and unlikely, dream

He was first introduced to style and design through his culture’s traditional Ojibwe powwow regalia—ribbon skirts, beaded belts, elaborate headdresses. But as a teenager, he became transfixed by the high-fashion designs and runway shows that he saw on Fashion Television and in the pages of Vogue.

His unwavering interest in fashion led him to complete a journalism degree so he could pursue his goal of becoming a full-time fashion writer. After landing his first big magazine job in New York City, Allaire found himself working at the epicentre of the international fashion industry. His dream had come true. Yet he soon realized the fashion world—and his place in it—wasn’t always quite as glamorous as he imagined it would be.

From grinding as an unpaid intern, to becoming a glitzy (but overworked) fashion editor, Allaire writes with feeling about the struggle to find his place—and community—in the highly exclusive world of fashion. And he recounts, with great candour, the difficulty of balancing his ambitions with the often-inaccurate perceptions—including his own—of his culture’s place in the realm of fashion.

Full of joy, honesty, adversity, and great clothes, From the Rez to the Runway is a gripping memoir about how to achieve your dreams—and elevate others—while always remaining true to yourself.

Reviews
“Christian is a gift. He embodies the precious intersection between arts and advocacy, and is a truly grounded and inspired human being. In having such a curated, unique and sharp eye for both classic and cutting edge design, coupled with an unshakable commitment to elevating Indigenous designers, he has carved a necessary space which elevates Indian Country and the world of fashion as a whole. A true game changer whose impact will be seen and felt for generations.” — Lily Gladstone, Oscar-nominated actor

Funny, honest and utterly charming, From the Rez to the Runway lends the cliche fashion editor origin story a refreshing new perspective. With a true sense of passion and wide-eyed wonder, Christian Allaire pursues his personal quest for creativity, purpose and self-discovery and finds that staying true to one’s self brings the greatest rewards. Brimming with moving family memories from the reservation and hilarious fashion misadventures alike, the book is a must-read for all the so-called outsiders and misfits who’ve ever dared to follow their dreams. — Chioma Nnadi, Head of Editorial Content, British Vogue

From beadwork to Burberry, Christian Allaire is a force in fashion. He paints a portrait of a complicated industry rarely seen behind the scenes — let alone traversed by Indigenous writers. In this compelling and inspiring memoir, Allaire details how he carries community with him through every glass ceiling he shatters. His work, and this memoir, are a triumph. After all, ‘Don’t mess with a rez kid.’  — Devery Jacobs, Filmmaker and Actor, Reservation Dogs

There is a new generation of Fashion Transformers and Christian Allaire is leading the movement. Allaire has been chosen by spirit to shine a light on Indigenous Fashion and Art, and he has done so at the highest levels, from New York to Paris, and all around the world. He is a door opener for the truth, power, and beauty of true fashion and its creators. — Kelly Cutrone, founder of People’s Revolution and New York Times bestselling author

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

“To know ourselves is the most profound and difficult endeavor. Though we are all made of the same questions, we have individual routes to the answers, or to reframing the questions. Why is there evil in the world? Why do people suffer, and some more than others? Why are we here? What are we doing here? What happens after death? Does anything mean anything at all? Who am I and what does it matter?” writes Joy Harjo, renowned poet and activist, in this profound work about the struggles, challenges, and joys of coming of age.

In her best-selling memoir Poet Warrior, Harjo led readers through her lifelong process of artistic evolution. In Girl Warrior, she speaks directly to Native girls and women, sharing stories about her own coming of age to bring renewed attention to the pivotal moments of becoming including forgiveness, failure, falling, rising up, and honoring our vast family of beings.

Informed by her own experiences and those of her ancestors, Harjo offers inspiration and insight for navigating the many challenges of maturation. She grapples with parents, friendships, love, and loss. She guides young readers toward painting, poetry, and music as powerful tools for developing their own ethical sensibility. As Harjo demonstrates, the act of making is an essential part of who we are, a means of inviting the past into the present and a critical tool young women can use to shape a more just future. Lyrical and compassionate, Harjo’s call for creativity and empathy is an urgent and necessary work.

Reviews
"Joy Harjo combines the wisdom that was here long before Europeans showed up with the challenges of a woman’s life in the present. The result is inspired by the past and a personal preparation for the future."— Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and author

"What a beautiful and brilliant call to arms. I wish I had Joy Harjo’s words when I was young. This book is a lovely ode to her own bravery and by extension, all of ours. Girl Warrior gives possibility to young people (and all people) through Joy Harjo’s own coming-of-age narrative. More than about having waded through tumultuous waters and survived to not only tell the story but thrive inside the people we become on the other side. This book is simply a balm."— Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award winner

Additional Information
176 pages | 5.37" x 8.00" | Hardcover