Indigenous Studies

Carly Butler was a lively, imaginative child being raised by her strong and independent mom, DJ, in 1990s Montana. They were a dynamic duo, working on housing projects and bringing music to the local church. Then, a whisper of a threatened future began to grow louder: Y2K was coming.

Believing every conspiracy theory and Evangelical Christian prediction they encountered to be true, DJ and a young, impressionable Carly set out on a lonely path. Taught to prepare for the worst and to fear her girlhood dreams as warnings from God, Carly and her mother flee to the Canadian wilderness, leaving behind Barbies and Nintendo for chopping wood and shooting empty bottles for target practice. They connected with other Evangelical Christians preparing for doomsday, but were often stranded alone, without electricity, for weeks at a time as the winter—and the apocalypse—approached.

But what happens when the world doesn’t end, after all?

Apocalypse Child is a startling memoir about growing up in a tumultuous home, coming of age in isolation, and trying to figure out how to connect as an adult when your education has consisted of conspiracy theories, survivalist measures, and religious doctrine. From doomsday preparation and ideologies of purity and paranoia to motherhood and explorations of a burgeoning queer, Mexican-Indigenous identity, Carly Butler takes us on a gripping journey of resilience, self-discovery, and searching for community.

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

Honouring the scholarship of Métis matriarchs

While surveying the field of Indigenous studies, Laura Forsythe and Jennifer Markides recognized a critical need for not only a Métis-focused volume, but one focused on the contributions of Métis women. To address this need, they brought together work by new and established scholars, artists, storytellers, and community leaders that reflects the diversity of research created by Métis women as it is lived, considered, conceptualized, and re-imagined.

With writing by Emma LaRocque and other pioneers of Métis studies, Around the Kitchen Table looks beyond the patriarchy to document and celebrate the scholarship of Métis women. Focusing on experiences in post-secondary environments, this collection necessarily traverses a range of methodologies. Spanning disciplines of social work, education, history, health care, urban studies, sociology, archaeology, and governance, contributors bring their own stories to explorations of spirituality, material culture, colonialism, land-based education, sexuality, language, and representation. The result is an expansive, heartfelt, and accessible "community of Métis thought," as articulated by Markides.

Reverent and revelatory, this collection centres the strong aunties and grandmothers who have shaped Métis communities, culture, and identities with teachings shared in classrooms, auditoriums, and around the kitchen table.

Reviews
"Inspiring, healing, and future-facing, this long overdue book gives us valuable new insights into the histories and identities of Métis people." — Kim Anderson

"Around the Kitchen Table is an exciting and thought-provoking contribution to the fields of Métis Studies and Indigenous feminism. Reading this book is like sitting down to visit with a strong cup of tea and your favourite aunties. It will inspire readers to think about matriarchy in new and exciting ways, teaching us what it means to be Métis women, good relatives, and innovative scholars." — Cheryl Troupe

Educator Information
Other contributors: Jennifer Adese, Christi Belcourt, Hannah Bouvier, Rita Bouvier, Vicki Bouvier, Robline Davey, Leah Marie Dorion, Marilyn Dumont, Nicki Ferland, Chantal Fiola, Lucy Fowler, Chelsea Gabel, Janice Cindy Gaudet, Emily Haines, Shalene Jobin, Emma LaRocque, Amanda LaVallee, Lynn Lavallee, Avery Letendre, Kirsten Lindquist, Yvonne Poitras Pratt, Angela Rancourt, Lisa Shepherd, Allyson Stevenson, Kisha Supernant, Caroline Tait, Angie Tucker, Dawn Wambold

Table of Contents

Contributors
Foreword by Caroline Tait
The Work of Métis Women: An Introduction – Jennifer Markides

Part One: Identity

1. Brown Names – Marilyn Dumont
2. We Know Ourselves – Lisa Shepherd
3. Kaa-waakohtoochik: The Ones Who Are Related to Each Other – Vicki Bouvier
4. The Roots Always Remain: Reconnecting to Our Communities in the Twenty-First Century – Angie Tucker
5. For the Love of Place―Not Just Any Place: Selected Metis Writings – Emma Larocque
6. Coming Home through Métis Research – Allyson Stevenson
7. Valuing Métis Identity in the Prairies through a “5 R” Lens: Our Digital Storytelling Journey – Chelsea Gabel and Amanda LaVallee
8. Prenatal/Postpartum Ceremonies and Parenting as Michif Self-Determination – Chantal Fiola
9. Medicine Women – Jennifer Adese
10. Lii Michif – Lisa Shepherd

Part Two: Women in the Academy

11. Metis Women as Contributors to the Academy Despite Colonial Patriarchy – Laura Forsythe
12. Connecting to Our Ancestors Through Archaeology: Stories of Three Métis Women Academics – Kisha Supernant, Dawn Wambold, and Emily Haines
13. Métis Women Educating in the Academy – Yvonne Poitras Pratt and Jennifer Markides
14. Structural and Lateral Violence Toward Metis Women in the Academy – Lynn Lavallee

Part Three: Research Methodology

15. Métis Research and Relationality: Auntie Governance, the Visiting Way, and Kitchen Table Reflections – Kirsten Lindquist, Shalene Jobin, Avery Letendre
16. Lii Taab di Faam Michif/Metis Women’s Kitchen Table: Practicing Our Sovereignty – Cindy Gaudet and Angela Rancourt
17. Wahkotowin: An Approach to Indigenous (Land-Based) Education – Nicki Ferland
18. Kaa-natoonamaan taanshi chi-ishi-natoonikeeyaan: My Search for how to Research Things (in a Queer Métis paradigm) – Lucy Fowler
19. Differentiating Métis Feminism – Robline Davey
20. Celebrating the Wisdom of Our Métis Matriarchs: Sewing Our Wellness All Together—Kood Toot Aansamb – Leah Dorion, Janice Cindy Gaudet, Hannah Bouvier
21. if the land could speak – Rita Bouvier

Bibliography
Art – Christi Belcourt

Additional Information
200 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | index, bibliography | Paperback

In this collection, Shane skillfully takes the readers on a trek through deserts of loneliness, labyrinths of loss, and meadows of healing. The landscapes of our emotions range from the perilous to the serene, and these poems become a companion, a confidant, a source of solace, and a survival guide for the reader.

Shane's unique voice weaves humor and storytelling into his verses. With levity as a setup for power, each poem promises to take you on a zipline of emotions, leaving you both laughing and reflecting on life's miracles. While the freefall through our emotions may at times feel like a hazard, Shane creates a place to land safely without having to sacrifice the impact created by their velocity. These works are flint and tinder, wrestling as a tag team against the cold and dark we sometimes find ourselves lost in.

The works contained within do not tell us where to dig for the buried treasure of our hearts… they remind us that the treasure does in fact exist, and they lay bare what is amazing about what our hearts can endure.

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

Sewing new understandings.

Indigenous beadwork has taken the art world by storm, but it is still sometimes misunderstood as static, anthropological artifact. Today’s prairie artists defy this categorization, demonstrating how beads tell stories and reclaim cultural identity. Whether artists seek out and share techniques through YouTube videos or in-person gatherings, beading fosters traditional methods of teaching and learning and enables intergenerational transmissions of pattern and skill.

In Bead Talk, editors Carmen Robertson, Judy Anderson, and Katherine Boyer gather conversations, interviews, essays, and full-colour reproductions of beadwork from expert and emerging artists, academics, and curators to illustrate the importance of beading in contemporary Indigenous arts. Taken together, the book poses and responds to philosophical questions about beading on the prairies: How do the practices and processes of beading embody reciprocity, respect, and storytelling? How is beading related to Indigenous ways of knowing? How does beading help individuals reconnect with the land? Why do we bead?

Showcasing beaded tumplines, text, masks, regalia, and more, Bead Talk emphasizes that there is no one way to engage with this art. The contributors to this collection invite us all into the beading circle as they reshape how beads are understood and stitch together generations of artists.

Reviews
“An evocative, aesthetically gorgeous book that is rich in knowledge, relationality, and experience. Curated with care, rooted in artistic practice and lived experience, and embodying a polyvocal, collaborative spirit, it immerses the reader in the world of Indigenous beadwork on the prairies. Bead Talk carries teachings about decolonial love, healing and medicine, cultural knowledges, political and theoretical modes of action, gendered experience, and more. I can’t think of any other book like this—it is a gift!” — Aubrey Hanson

Educator Information
Contributors: Ruth Cuthand, Dayna Danger, Sherry Farrell Racette, Marcy Friesen, Felicia Gay, Franchesca [Fran] Hebert-Spence, Audie Murray, Cathy Mattes.

Table of Contents

Foreword – Brenda Macdougall

Who We Are

Introduction – Carmen Robertson, Judy Anderson, and Katherine Boyer

Part I: Conversations

1. Mentoring/Beading – Ruth Cuthand and Marcy Friesen

2. mîkisistahêwin (bead medicine) – Judy Anderson and Audie Murray

3. Parallel Lines Move Along Together: A Beaded Line that Connects Me to You – Katherine Boyer and Dayna Danger

4. The Power of Gathering: Revisiting the Seeds of Ziigimineshin – Franchesca Hebert-Spence and Carmen Robertson

5. Beads, Blood, and Curating Ruth Cuthand’s Art – Felicia Gay and Carmen Robertson

Part II: Essays

6. “Until We Bead Again”: The BU Beading Babe and Embodying Lateral Love and Generous Reciprocity – Cathy Mattes

7. Visiting Kin: Indigenous Flatland Beading Aesthetics – Carmen Robertson

8. If the Needles Don’t Break and the Thread Doesn’t Tangle: Beading Utopia – Sherry Farrell Racette

Afterword: Spreading the Bead Love Far and Wide

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | 62 colour illustrations | Paperback 

When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space.

Helen Knott’s bestselling debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, with her highly anticipated second book, Knott exceeds the highest of expectations with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy. Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was.

Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.

Through writing, reflecting, and dreaming I found my way to the real lessons.
I found permission to become whoever I needed to be.
I found permission to live a life and not just endure it.
I found permission to belong deeply to myself.
I found permission to lay to rest the sorrow of the women before me and to cultivate joy for us in its place.

Awards

• 2024 BC Book Awards - The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature winner

Reviews
“In enchantingly vivid language and with a compelling narrative arc, Helen Knott’s new masterpiece is a memoir of grief and joy, loss and rediscovery, flight and return and, above all, a paean to the beautiful, eternal, soothing and all-encompassing power of matriarchy.” —Gabor Maté MD, author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

“Knott lays out that which all Indigenous women know and feel on a cellular level—we are only here because of the women, the matriarchs, the warriors, the survivors, the courageous ones, the fierce ones, the loving ones who came before us. Beautifully, tenderly Knott maps out for the reader the intrinsic way Indigenous women lift up, celebrate and support one another. Even when no one else does. We always have each other. We see each other. We are each other’s medicine. And there is no greater gift. These are the stories Indigenous women must tell—the journeys, reclamation and place of matriarchs. Present in Knott’s words are paths to reconciliation for everyone.” —Nahanni Fontaine, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

“Becoming a Matriarch is a vivid, lyrical exploration of womanhood, loss, grief, and eventually, self-love, braided together with radiance and wisdom. Knott brilliantly uses memory as a tool for self-exploration and growth. The land, dreams and body are in constant communication: ‘My body knows the mountains and rivers and berry bushes that it comes from.’ Throughout the book you can’t help but ask yourself, what does it mean to come from strong women and still allow yourself space to be loved? Becoming a Matriarch teaches us that joy can exist inside the cracks of the most tumultuous times in our lives and love can still bloom if we let it.” —Chelene Knight, author of Dear Current Occupant and Junie

“Becoming a Matriarch is a feast of remarkable, colourful, deep and profoundly raw storytelling. Helen Knott is one of the greatest Indigenous literary artists of our time.” —Brandi Morin, author of Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising

Additional Information
224 pages | 5.18" x 8.00" | Paperback

Growing up in Montana, Chris La Tray always identified as Indian. Despite the fact that his father fiercely denied any connection, he found Indigenous people alluring, often recalling his grandmother’s consistent mention of their Chippewa heritage.

When La Tray attended his grandfather’s funeral as a young man, he finally found himself surrounded by relatives who obviously were Indigenous. “Who were they?” he wondered, and “Why was I never allowed to know them?” Combining diligent research and compelling conversations with authors, activists, elders, and historians, La Tray embarks on a journey into his family’s past, discovering along the way a larger story of the complicated history of Indigenous communities—as well as the devastating effects of colonialism that continue to ripple through surviving generations. And as he comes to embrace his full identity, he eventually seeks enrollment with the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, joining their 158-year-long struggle for federal recognition.

Both personal and historical, Becoming Little Shell is a testament to the power of storytelling, to family and legacy, and to finding home. Infused with candor, heart, wisdom, and an abiding love for a place and a people, Chris La Tray’s remarkable journey is both revelatory and redemptive.

Reviews
“La Tray’s pride and conviction will have readers eager not only to learn more, but to take action. A brilliant contribution to the canon of Native American literature.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“[A] gripping debut memoir. [. . .]  La Tray’s crystalline prose and palpable passion for spreading Indigenous history bolster his account. Readers will be fascinated.”—Publishers Weekly

"Heartbreaking, infuriating, and remarkable, Becoming Little Shell is a memoir that’s packed with historical details,transcending and amplifying a personal quest to understand a family’s past."—Foreword Reviews, starred review 

“Smart, emotional, and bracingly honest, La Tray is a powerful storyteller who should have significant appeal.”—Booklist

“I’m in awe of Chris La Tray’s storytelling. Becoming Little Shell creates a multilayered narrative from threads of personal, family, community, tribal, and national histories. Together they make a story as strong and beautiful as a Metis sash—a story of identity, kinship, and the journey toward justice.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

“Chris La Tray is a powerful voice—a force of nature, really—to guide us through the swirling confluence of Native and white worlds, both past and present. Becoming Little Shell is the American story of our era—tracing the arc of its author brought up in the white world before discovering his roots as an original inhabitant of this continent.”—Peter Stark, author of Gallop Toward the Sun

“Indigenous identity can be complicated, and Becoming Little Shell compels us into the thick of it—Native people dispossessed of not just land but recognition; blood quantum laws originally crafted to complete a genocide and still wreaking havoc in identity debates today; racism that drove many Native people to disassociate from their families; and descendants, like La Tray, who have found their way back, fighting for the reconnection of their communities and for the observance of their very existence. La Tray is a loving, discerning, curious, funny, and generous guide. This is a beautiful, big-hearted book.”—Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird

“Becoming Little Shell is a moving, deeply felt, and incredibly detailed account of Chris La Tray’s search for his origins among the Métis, Pembina, and Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Combining memoir, history, interviews, and travel, La Tray gives us nothing less than the history of a people in the form of an absorbing and emotionally searing memoir. This book will, without a doubt, become a classic in Native American literature. Must read.”—David Treuer, author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

“What I appreciate so much about Chris La Tray’s writing on Indigenous identity and history is the wit, clarity, and integrity embodied in every word. Becoming Little Shell beautifully encompasses a journey that we can all learn from, a journey toward asking better questions about land, belonging, and connection, and through this book La Tray epitomizes historian, poet, and teacher. Full of Indigenous history, personal stories, and the complex dance between the two, La Tray reminds us that the journey of finding ourselves and making sense of the way colonialism plays out around us is an essential part of being human. Please read this book. You’ll be so glad you did.”—Kaitlin B. Curtice, author of Living Resistance

Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover

Residential school life through the eyes of a child.

Enos Montour's Brown Tom's Schooldays, self-published in 1985, tells the story of a young boy's life at residential school. Drawn from Montour's first-hand experiences at Mount Elgin Indian Residential School between 1910 and 1915, the book is an ironic play on "the school novel," namely 1857's Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes.

An accomplished literary text and uncommon chronicle of federal Indian schooling in the early twentieth century, Brown Tom's Schooldays positions Brown Tom and his schoolmates as citizens of three worlds: the reserve, the "white man's world," and the school in between. It follows Tom leaving his family home, making friends, witnessing ill health and death, and enduring constant hunger.

Born at Six Nations of the Grand River in 1899, Montour earned degrees in Arts and Divinity at McGill University and served as a United Church minister for more than thirty years, honing his writing in newspapers and magazines and publishing two books of family history. Brown Tom's Schooldays reflects Montour's intelligence and skill as well as his love of history, parody, and literature.

This critical edition includes a foreword by the book's original editor, Elizabeth Graham, and an afterword by Montour's granddaughters, Mary Anderson and Margaret McKenzie. In her introduction, historian Mary Jane Logan McCallum documents Montour's life and work, details Brown Tom's Schooldays's publication history, and offers further insight into the operations of Mount Elgin. Entertaining and emotionally riveting, Montour's book opens a unique window into a key period in Canada's residential school history.

Reviews
"A fantastic read. People need more books like this, which are directly related to the TRC but are also a testament to the strength and creativity of Indigenous literature." — Crystal Fraser, University of Alberta

"Brown Tom's Schooldays is a literary artifact from the residential school era. In this fictionalized coming of age account, Enos Montour captures the youthful hopes, dreams, and disappointments of his real life upbringing at Mount Elgin, one of Canada's earliest and longest running residential schools. Unique in style, tone, and perspective, Schooldays is an important read for anyone interested in understanding the residential school system and for all of us who call the lower Great Lakes home." — Thomas Peace, Huron at Western University

Educator Information
This book is part of the First Voices, First Texts series.

Table of Contents

Foreword: On A Personal Note, The Making of Brown Tom’s Schooldays, 1982–1984 by Elizabeth Graham

Introduction: Enos Montour, Brown Tom, and “Ontario Indian” Literature by Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Brown Tom’s Schooldays by Enos Montour

Chapter 1: Salad Days

Chapter 2: Brown Tom Arrives

Chapter 3: Brown Tom's Three Worlds

Chapter 4: The Milling Herd

Chapter 5: Loaf 'n' Lard

Chapter 6: Brown Tom Makes a Deal

Chapter 7: Too Big for Santa Claus

Chapter 8: Brown Tom's Happy Days

Chapter 9: Trial By Fire

Chapter 10: Brown Tom "Has It Bad"

Chapter 11: Brown Tom Gets Religion

Chapter 12: The Roar of Mighty Waters

Chapter 13: Happy Hunting Ground for Noah

Chapter 14: War Clouds Over Mt. Elgin

Chapter 15: Brown Tom "Arrives"

Afterword by Mary Anderson and Margaret McKenzie

Appendix 1: Glossary of Idioms and References in Brown Tom’s Schooldays

Appendix 2: Bibliography of Works by Enos Montour

Endnotes

Bibliography

Additional Information
216 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 20 b&w illustrations, 3 maps | Paperback

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 

A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the ‘90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later.

Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples. That changed on July 9, 2020, when a high-profile Supreme Court case—which originated with a small-town murder two decades earlier—affirmed the reservation of Muscogee Nation. The ruling resulted in the largest restoration of tribal land in U.S. history, merely because the Court chose to follow the law.

In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was create on top of their land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, when a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen, his defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma argued that reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court said: no more; a ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation.

Here Rebecca Nagle tells the story of the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed in its long history of greed, corruption and lawlessness, and the Native battle for the right to be here that has shaped our country.

Educator Information
By the Fire We Carry is hard-hitting American history that expands on the nation's story. It tells of the treatment of Native Americans, their removal and displacement, and the genocide committed against them by the US government from their viewpoint. 

Additional Information
352 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 23 b/w photographs and maps | Hardcover

Colonialism endures in Canada today. Dismantling it requires an understanding of how colonialism operated across the British Empire and why Canada’s colonial experience was unique.

Whereas colonies such as India were ruled through despotism and violence, Canada’s white settler population governed itself while oppressing the Indigenous peoples whose lands they were on. Canada and Colonialism shows that Canadians’ support for colonial rule – both at home and abroad – is the reason colonialism remains entrenched in Canadian law and society today.

Author Jim Reynolds presents a truly compelling account of Canada’s colonial coming of age and its impacts on Indigenous peoples, including the settler-led internal colonialism behind the Indian Act and those who enforced it. As one of the nation’s leading experts in Aboriginal law, Reynolds provides a vital accounting of the historical underpinnings and contemporary challenges the nation must address to reconcile with Indigenous peoples and move toward decolonization.

Reviews
"Jim Reynolds makes a significant, original contribution to our understanding of contemporary Canada by situating its colonization within the broader British imperial project. Canada and Colonialism should be read by anyone seeking a deeper understand of the Crown’s historical and ongoing relationship with Indigenous peoples."— Kent McNeil, professor emeritus, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Educator Information
This must-read book provides a comprehensive understanding of Canada’s unique colonial history and the decolonization challenges facing the nation. Canada and Colonialism belongs in classrooms, living rooms, boardrooms, and government chambers.

Table of Contents
Introduction

1 Historical Overview

2 The Essentials of the Empire

3 Self-Rule and Despotism

4 The Rulers and Their Rule

5 Canadian Participation in the Empire

6 Internal Colonialism in Canada

7 Independence, Self-Government, and Reconciliation

Conclusion

Notes; Suggestions for Further Reading; Index

Additional Information
328 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 35 b&w photos, 23 illustrations | Paperback

Rediscovering, valuing, and embracing Indigenous spirituality and wisdom is critical for humanity to survive in the future.

Civilization is a western, Eurocentric construct borne from a distrust of nature, a desire to endlessly exploit it and profit from it. Despite being a relatively recent development, civilization’s inherent logic has resulted in over-population, inequality, poverty, misery, war, and climate change and now threatens humanity’s very survival. How can humanity expect to survive if it continues to look for solutions from the very structures and ideologies that have brought it to the brink of extinction?

In this final book of his trilogy, Dr. Blair Stonechild deftly illustrates how Indigenous spirituality, wisdom, and land-based knowledge is critical to human survival in the face of environmental destruction and human-induced climate change. Reinterpreting world history from an Indigenous perspective, Stonechild’s solution to this unfolding catastrophe is “ecolization,” a state in which humans recognize they are not the central purpose of creation and a way of existing harmoniously with the natural and spiritual worlds.

Beautifully written, urgent, and critical, Challenge to Civilization reminds us that it is not Earth that is in danger of extinction, but ourselves, and Indigenous spiritual wisdom can be the guiding light through what will otherwise be humanity’s final, ever-darkening days.

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

A collection of intersecting stories about Indigenous love and loneliness from one of contemporary literature’s most boundless minds.

Across the prairies and Canada’s west coast, on reserves and university campuses, at literary festivals and existential crossroads, the characters in Coexistence are searching for connection. They’re learning to live with and understand one another, to see beauty and terror side by side, and to accept that the past, present, and future can inhabit a single moment.

An aging mother confides in her son about an intimate friendship from her distant girlhood. A middling poet is haunted by the cliché his life has become. A chorus of anonymous gay men dispense unvarnished truths about their sex lives. A man freshly released from prison finds that life on the outside has sinister strictures of its own. A PhD student dog-sits for his parents at what was once a lodging for nuns operating a residential school—a house where the spectre of Catholicism comes to feel eerily literal.

Bearing the compression, crystalline sentences, and emotional potency that have characterized his earlier books, Coexistence is a testament to Belcourt’s mastery of and playfulness in any literary form. A vital addition to an already rich catalogue, this is a must-read collection and the work of an author at the height of his powers.

Reviews
“Belcourt is one of the finest and most sublime writers at work today. This book is a feat of beauty and compression, every sentence reinventing the reader. It’s like entering a quiet room or a secret lake. It’s about our coexistence with lovers, kin, enemies, but also our coexistence with desire, solitude, and an intelligence that in itself is a form of hunger—language as solace, language as light. Belcourt is the rare writer who composes from, to, and because of the soul. It’s been some time since I loved a book so deeply.”—Claudia Dey, author of Daughter

“Through the interconnected lifeworlds contained in Coexistence, we hear a defiantly loving and astoundingly honest response to colonial and racial violence. Billy-Ray Belcourt has written an homage and an elegy to a still-unfolding history—as intimate and hopeful as young romance, as mysterious and life-giving as family. I adore this collection.” —Tsering Yangzom Lama, author ofWe Measure the Earth with our Bodies

“Coexistence filled my heart and lifted my spirit. There are few writers who can authentically capture the beauty and complexity of Indigenous existence both on the rez and in the city like Billy-Ray Belcourt. This book is a resolute proclamation of resilient Indigenous humanity and the nuance and richness we all embody. The stories weave and enrich on journeys that are both familiar and informative. Coexistence is a powerful celebration and a gift to the world.” —Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Turning Leaves

“Billy-Ray Belcourt masterfully portrays the complexities of Indigenous lives, longing, and belonging through these stories. There are sentences in this collection that I didn’t know I had been waiting to read; my breath caught on several of them. I suspect that readers will be letting out collective sighs while reading this book.”—Helen Knott, author of Becoming a Matriarch

“Billy-Ray Belcourt’s Coexistence is a brilliant exploration of the boundaries both imposed and imagined that exist between beings and the spaces we inhabit. I wildly admire Belcourt’s crisp prose and remarkable insights, yet what haunts me most about these powerful stories is the author’s heart-blasted willingness to be vulnerable on the page. This engaging, alive text drills right to heart of what it is to be Indigenous in the twenty-first century.”—Mona Susan Power, author of A Council of Dolls

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200 pages | 5.00" x 7.50" | Hardcover

A tragic plane crash that leaves two women stranded and fighting for their lives kicks off this sweeping and hilarious novel from award-winning writer Drew Hayden Taylor that blends thriller, murder mystery, and horror with humour and spectacle.

Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book.

What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone—or something—is hunting them all.

Taking tropes from the murder mystery, police procedural, thriller, and horror genres, Drew Hayden Taylor weaves a pulse-pounding and propulsive narrative with an intricate cast of characters, while never losing the ability to make you laugh.

Reviews
"Cold is an absolutely enthralling novel from a legendary writer and storyteller. Drew Hayden Taylor is a master of genuinely capturing contemporary Indigenous realities in fiction, making the vibrant characters in this exceptional story relatable and real. Cold is creepy and funny, smart and lively, and overall a strikingly dynamic book that will keep readers on edge from start to finish."—Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves

"The myth of the Wendigo has shaped narratives from Pet Semetary to Shadow Country to The Hunger—but never in my reading has it been so cleverly and relevantly employed as it is in Drew Hayden Taylor's serpentine and haunting new novel, Cold." —Nick Cutter, author of The Troop and Little Heaven

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368 pages | 5.50" x 8.25" | Paperback

An eighty-year overview of wood and argillite carving by Indigenous women artists on the Northwest Coast.

Though women of the Northwest Coast have long carved poles, canoes, panels, and masks, many of these artists have not become as well known outside their communities as their male counterparts. These artists are cherished within their communities for helping to keep traditional carving practices alive, and for maintaining the dances, songs, and ceremonies that are intertwined with visual art production. This book, and an associated exhibition at the Audain Art Museum, gathers a range of sculptural formats by Indigenous women in order to expand the discourse of carving in the region.

Both the exhibition and publication are co-curated by Dana Claxton, artist, filmmaker and head of the University of British Columbia's Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory; and Dr. Curtis Collins, the AAM's Director & Chief Curator. Commentaries by Skeena Reece, Claxton, and Marika Swan, and interviews with artists Dale Campbell and Mary Anne Barkhouse are presented alongside more than one hundred artworks from public and private collections across North America, including several newly commissioned pieces.

Featured artists include:
- Ellen Neel (Kwakwaka'wakw, 1916-1966) - Freda Diesing (Haida, 1925-2002) - Doreen Jensen (Gitxsan, 1933-2009) - Susan Point (Musqueam, b. 1952) - Dale Campbell (Tahltan, b. 1954) - Marianne Nicolson (Kwakwaka'wakw, b. 1969) - Arlene Ness (Gitxsan, b. 1970s) - Melanie Russ (Haida, b. 1977) - Marika Swan (Nuu-chah-nulth, b. 1982) - Morgan Asoyuf (Ts'msyen, b. 1984) - Cori Savard (Haida, b. 1985) - Cherish Alexander (Gitwangak, b. 1987) - Stephanie Anderson (Wetsuwet'en, b. 1991) - Veronica Waechter (Gitxsan, b. 1995)

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160 pages | 9.20" x 1.10" | 120 colour photos | Hardcover 

Dangling in the Glimmer of Hope: Academic Action on Truth and Reconciliation demonstrates actions academics have taken in relation to some of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Poetry, short stories, and children’s stories sit alongside scholarly chapters, mixing personal and academic voices to challenge and engage both the head and the heart about what Truth and Reconciliation—and the Calls to Action—require of us all.

Garry Gottfriedson, Victoria Handford, and their collaborators invite readers not only to explore the diverse facets of Indigenous identity, but also to embark on a transformative, collective journey towards mutual understanding and respect.

Contributions by Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian, Georgann Cope Watson, Garry Gottfriedson, Victoria (Tory) Handford, Sarah Ladd, Patricia Liu Baergen, Tina Matthew, Rod McCormick, Gloria Ramirez, Fred Schaub, and Bernita Wienhold-Leahy.

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Land Acknowledgement
In Your Canada—A Thousand and Counting by Garry Gottfriedson
About the Cover Photograph
List of Poems
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword by Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian

Introduction by Garry Gottfriedson and Victoria Handford

SECTION 1
Language and Culture Calls to Action

Returning from School by Garry Gottfriedson
Disrupting Colonial Practices through Indigenous Language Learning and Research by Gloria Ramirez

SECTION 2
Health Calls to Action

lessons by Garry Gottfriedson
Grave Concerns by Rod McCormick
A Walk Together by Bernita Wienhold-Leahy
Health Care Practices by Bernita Wienhold-Leahy

SECTION 3
Education for Reconciliation Calls to Action

KIRS Curriculum by Garry Gottfriedson
Change Begins with a Whisper by Georgann Cope Watson

SECTION 4
Business and Reconciliation Calls to Action

Too Much by Sarah Ladd
Cultural Dissonance: Job Interviewing and Indigenous Candidates by Sarah Ladd

SECTION 5
Commemoration Calls to Action

An Unholy Act by Garry Gottfriedson
Debwewin by Victoria Handford
Red Bridge by Victoria Handford

SECTION 6
Newcomers to Canada Calls to Action

The Flesh of Ice by Garry Gottfriedson
Encounters by Fred Schaub
Reconciliation and Decolonization: From the Shadows of Settler Shame to the Generosity of an Ethical Relationality by Fred Schaub
Exploring Curriculum as a Lived Experience of Poetic Dwelling in between Place Stories by Patricia Liu Baergen

Afterword by Tina Matthew
Contributors
Appendices

Additional Information
232 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 20 photos | Paperback