Indigenous Peoples

Judge, senator, and activist. Father, grandfather, and friend. This is Murray Sinclair’s story—and the story of a nation—in his own words, an oral history that forgoes the trappings of the traditional written memoir to center Indigenous ways of knowledge and storytelling. As Canada moves forward into the future of reconciliation, one of its greatest leaders guides us to ask the most important and difficult question we can ask of ourselves: Who are we?

For decades, Senator Sinclair has fearlessly educated Canadians about the painful truths of our history. He was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba, and only the second Indigenous judge in Canadian history. He was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and remains one of the foremost voices on Reconciliation. And now, for the first time, he will share his full story—and his full vision for our nation—with readers across Canada.

Drawing on Senator Sinclair’s unique experiences, and his perspectives regarding Indigenous identity, human rights, and justice in Canada, Who We Are will examine the roles of history, resistance, and resilience in the pursuit of finding that path forward, and healing the damaged relationship between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. And in doing so, it will reveal Senator Sinclair’s life in a new and direct way, exploring how all of these experiences shaped him as an Anishinaabe man, father, and grandfather.

Structured around the four questions that have long shaped Senator Sinclair’s thinking and worldview—Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I?—Who We Are will take readers into the story of his remarkable life as never before, while challenging them to embrace an inclusive vision for our shared future.

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

In eighteen hundred and something something, somewhere upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for twenty-first century slang sit in a fort sharing their views on life, love, and the hot nerd Louis Riel.

Marie-Angelique, a Metis Taurus, is determined to woo Louis (a Metis Libra)—who will be arriving soon—by sending him boldly flirtatious letters. Eugenia, an Ojibwe Sagittarius, brings news of rebellion back to the fort after trading, but isn’t impressed by Louis’s true mediocre nature. And Cecilia, a pregnant British Virgo, is anxiously waiting on her husband’s return from an expedition, but can’t resist pining over the heartthrob Thomas Scott (Irish Capricorn), who is actually the one secretly responding to Marie-Angelique’s letters. This will all go smoothly, right?

This lively historical satire of survival and cultural inheritance shifts perspectives from the male gaze onto women’s power in the past and present through the lens of the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade.

Awards

• 2023 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English
• 2018 Toronto Fringe Best New Play Contest winner
• 2024 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play

Reviews
“Not only is the play a fun and clever look at the province’s history, but by weaving in modern slang and references, Koncan (who is of Anishinaabe and Slovene descent) highlights how many Indigenous issues from our past are still relevant today.” — Stephanie Cram, CBC News

“A timely, provocative piece of theatre written from a perspective and voice we need to hear.”— Ian Ross, Winnipeg Free Press

Additional Information
120 pages | 5.32" x 8.35" | 2nd Edition | Paperback 

A brand-new, spine-chilling collection of horror/thriller fiction, Zegaajimo, Anishinaabemowin for "to tell a scary story," includes stories from eleven leading First Nations and Metis authors from across the territories of Canada: Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, Dawn Dumont, Daniel Heath Justice, D.A. Lockhart, Karen McBride, Tyler Pennock, Waubgeshig Rice, David A. Robertson, Drew Hayden Taylor, and Richard Van Camp.

Many of the stories draw on Traditional Stories. These stories of supernatural settings and deadful dees are more than speculative fiction, they are also reminders that monsters are already in our midst, that the known can be just as frightening as the unknown, and that the slightest mistakes can have dire consequences.

The collection is co-edited by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm. Thrilling horror, Indigenous-style, perfect for Halloween!

Additional Information
230 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback 

Avec un langage fort et des illustrations évocatrices, cette bande dessinée – fruit des nombreuses années de recherche, de création et de militantisme de son auteur – révèle la ténacité et la persévérance des Premiers Peuples qui luttent depuis 500 ans contre les massacres, les déplacements et l’assimilation. Antidote nécessaire à l’histoire officielle des Amériques, elle présente sous un nouveau jour des événements marquants comme la conquête espagnole des empires aztèque, maya et inca, la révolte des Pueblos de 1680 au Nouveau-Mexique, la bataille de Wounded Knee en 1890, la résistance des peuples des grandes Plaines au 19e siècle, et plus récemment, les manifestations Idle No More de 2012-2013 en défense de la souveraineté et des droits autochtones, et la résistance au Dakota Access Pipeline de 2016. Au Canada, elle aborde la crise d’Oka de 1990, le conflit foncier de Grand River entre les Six Nations et le gouvernement fédéral de 2006 et les manifestations anti-pipeline des Wet’suwet’en de 2020. Parue en langue originale anglaise chez Arsenal Pulp Press en 2010, cette œuvre unique en son genre a connu un énorme succès populaire (10?000 exemplaires vendus) et critique. Colorisée, revue et augmentée en 2021, la nouvelle édition – présentée ici en traduction – inclut les résistances autochtones les plus récentes. Elle comprend une préface de Pamela Palmater, avocate, professeure et commentatrice politique mi’kmaw.

Educator Information
This book is available in English: The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded

This evocative new poetry collection speaks with a fierce tenderness of many aspects of the poet’s life: a childhood spent on the banks of the Churchill River, the death of a beloved one, the struggle to try to find forgiveness for wrongs done and the weariness of trying to redress those wrongs. And, most poignantly, a beautiful rebellion reaches one hand back to Louis Riel and one hand forward to future Métis generations.

The poems navigate losses that we all suffer when the world of our childhoods has altered irrevocably; they reveal the pain caused by residential schools and share despair at the lack of progress in social justice and self-determination. Rita Bouvier’s work is intimate and insightful, written in inviting, open-hearted language that includes many Cree and Michif phrases and their translation.

There is a quiet power--riverine, deep, unstoppable--that flows through these words.

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

Improve your well-being with Native American herbal medicine

Native American herbal medicine offers a powerful way to connect with the earth and heal naturally—and with this handbook of Native American herbs, you can learn all about herb uses and their restorative effects. Written by an Indigenous herbalist, this guide shows you how to responsibly use traditional plants to treat anxiety, colds, inflammation, and more.

This standout among books about herbs and healing will help you:
- Learn about a time-honored practice—Discover the origins and healing secrets of Native American herbalism, its traditional and modern uses, and how tools like the medicine wheel teach us about our relationship with the natural world.

- Identify the essential herbs—Explore the healing properties of medicinal herbs for wellness, from anise hyssop to yerba santa.

- Make 75 natural remedies—Ease physical and emotional ailments with Native American remedies, like Memory Support Tea, Stress-Induced Headache Tincture, and Antibacterial Healing Herb Liniment.

Tap into traditional wisdom with this Native American herbal medicine book for health and well-being.

Reviews
"A beautiful jumping-off point for anyone who is interested in practical herbalism. Angela organizes the wisdom of Native American herbalism in a way that is accessible for anyone to pick up and fold into their everyday life." —Kathleen Lee, acupuncturist, herbalist, and spiritual business mentor

"Angela is a wise and fierce protector of plant medicine and traditions of healing. Her first book, A Beginner's Guide to Native American Herbal Medicine, is a meaningful, accessible resource for readers who seek to ground themselves in understanding and build an herbal practice of integrity." —Graham Wesley

Additional Information
165 pages | 7.50" x 9.25" | full-colour photographs throughout | Paperback

The BookTok sensation from debut author Melissa Blair—now with exclusive bonus content!

My body is made of scars,
some were done to me,
but most I did to myself.

Keera is a killer. As the King's Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the king’s favored assassin. When a mysterious figure moves against the Crown, Keera is called upon to hunt down the so-called Shadow. She tracks her target into the magical lands of the Fae, but Faeland is not what it seems . . . and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she learns, and can't help but wonder who her enemy truly is: the King that destroyed her people or the Shadow that threatens the peace?

As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago, one that will test her in every way. To keep her word, Keera must not only save herself, but an entire kingdom.

Fans of fast-paced high fantasy such as A Court of Thorns and Roses series, The Inadequate Heir, and From Blood and Ash author Jennifer L. Armentrout, will enjoy the fierce female characters, sapphic representation, and fantasy romance of A Broken Blade.

Reviews
"Gripping and fierce. This is much-needed fantasy with its fangs honed sharp by the power of resistance. Melissa Blair has built a tremendous world."—Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights

Educator & Series Information
Young adult/new adult fantasy series recommended for ages 18+.

This book is the first title in the Halfing Saga.

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

The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.

From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried….

Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous, but her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear, and in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life.

Lillian, born 1925: Born in her ancestral lands in a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school” far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, the doll Mae finds her way to defend the girls.

Cora, born 1888: Though she was born into the brutal legacy of the “Indian Wars,” Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.” When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost…

A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. With stunning prose, Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page.

Reviews
“A Council of Dolls reached out, grabbed me and did not let go. Power’s ability to make language sing, cry, scream, and laugh illuminates this heartstopper of a book that shines a light into the dark corners of America’s history. I wanted the generational journey I was taking with these unforgettable characters—and their dolls—to never end. Read it--and be healed." — Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of The Evening Hero

“A Council of Dolls absorbs through the skin, enters the bone, and disperses through the psyche—it perfectly captures the internal roots of the Native experience. Through the lives of three Dakota women, we grapple with the emotional, psychological, and spiritual toll on Indigenous peoples enduring an often brutal system and, moreover, how strength, healing, and love reverberate down each passing generation to dispense hope and resiliency. I cannot more highly recommend Power’s newest masterpiece.” — Oscar Hokeah, PEN/Hemingway award-winning author of Calling for a Blanket Dance

"Mona Susan Power’s new novel is an honor song to the love and strength of Native families and our stories, to our brilliant selves. I couldn’t have known how much I needed the wisdom and offerings of these pages." — Kelli Jo Ford, author of Crooked Hallelujah

“This tender and magical novel will stay with me for a long time. Mona Susan Power writes with dazzling empathy. The result is a heart-rending and many-layered narrative, a captivating story which is also a thrilling testimonial to the power of stories.” — Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field

"A resplendent novel about the spirited lives of three inspiring women who endure significant change and hardship. Each story so deeply compelling I wanted to read quickly but was magnetized by the transformative power of each voice. A mighty, dazzling whirlwind of storytelling. These stories lift from the page. Prepare to stay up all night. A Council of Dolls is mesmerizing. Take a deep breath! Mona Susan Power can peer into darkness and transform it." — Debra Magpie Earling — Debra Magpie Earling

“A work of exquisite beauty and courageous truth-telling, and an unforgettable homage to ancestral suffering and strength.”
— Sheila O’Connor, author of Evidence of V

“A talent like Susan Power comes along once in a lifetime, and lucky for us she's arrived. Here is a debut so stunning, so extraordinary in its depth and passion, you will swear there's a miracle on every page.” — Alice Hoffman, on The Grass Dancer

"This book is well-written. It includes elements of historical fiction and a bit of real life horror. The role of the dolls in these women's lives was the most thought-provoking aspect of the novel. It added a bit of a fantasy element to the story. I wondered what the author's intention was. The dolls seem to be symbolic in addition to invisible friends for the girls. They were also silent, supposedly inanimate witnesses to what the young women experienced. The parts of the story told from the dolls' POV were especially intriguing. I enjoyed the section about how the Shirley Temple doll was made, and the doll was presented as self-aware. The author wove mystery and symbolism around the dolls without being blatant. She left readers room to make their own interpretations. I really enjoyed and appreciated that. The book is also full of interesting philosophical statements." - Claudia, Goodreads Review 

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

In this debut poetry collection, Samantha Nock redefines where and what “home” is.

A Family of Dreamers delves into the complexities of growing up in rural northeast British Columbia and the love and grief that blooms there. In this debut collection, Samantha Nock weaves together threads of fat liberation, desirability politics, and heartbreak while working through her existence as a young Indigenous woman coming of age in the city. The result is a love song to northern cuzzins, dive bars, and growing up.

Additional Information
101 pages | 5.98" x 9.01" | Paperback

A visual and cultural celebration of a traditional Haida wedding ceremony, exploring its roots, rituals, symbolism, joyfulness, and contemporary significance for a thriving Indigenous Nation.

In 1996, Terri-Lynn Williams and Robert Davidson celebrated their wedding with a traditional ceremony, the first in over a century that was legalized under Haida law. This book provides an intimate photographic window into that momentous day and marks the resurgence of a tradition that was nearly lost to colonial forces.

Relying on recorded knowledge their ancestors had shared with ethnographers and anthropologists, and the few details living Elders could recall about the tradition of guud ‘iina Gihl (“becoming married”) in the time before the arrival of Christian missionaries, the couple carefully planned out a seven-part celebration. It involved a canoe procession, ceremony, feast, dancing, and dowry payment, signifying the coming together of two people, two families, and two clans. The occasion is lovingly and painstakingly recounted through imagery and text in this fascinating tribute to a resilient culture and the unbreakable bonds of love and family.

Additional Information
128 pages | 8.75" x 10.50"| Hardcover 

A subversive novel by acclaimed Cree author Darrel J. McLeod, infused with the contradictory triumph and pain of finding conventional success in a world that feels alien.

James, a talented and conflicted Cree man from a tiny settlement in Northern Alberta, has settled into a comfortable middle-class life in Kitsilano, a trendy neighbourhood of Vancouver. He is living the life he had once dreamed of—travel, a charming circle of sophisticated friends, a promising career and a loving relationship with a caring man—but he chafes at being assimilated into mainstream society, removed from his people and culture.

The untimely death of James’s mother, his only link to his extended family and community, propels him into a quest to reconnect with his roots. He secures a job as a principal in a remote northern Dakelh community but quickly learns that life there isn’t the fix he’d hoped it would be: His encounters with poverty, cultural disruption and abuse conjure ghosts from his past that drive him toward self-destruction. During the single year he spends in northern BC, James takes solace in the richness of the Dakelh culture—the indomitable spirit of the people, and the splendour of nature—all the while fighting to keep his dark side from destroying his life.

Reviews
“MacLeod offers the reader a thought-provoking and immersive portrait of a remote Dakelh community and of James, the driven Indigiqueer educator who chooses to work there—a man who must struggle with structural injustices, conflicting demands, prejudice, and his own divided self. A deeply authentic novel, and one that is both educative and heartfelt.” — Kathy Page, author of Alphabet and Dear Evelyn

“A Season in Chezgh’un is about the search for meaning and for love, about grappling with history and loss, about creating a future out of quiet daring. I love the elegance of languages and cultures intermingling in this story, Cree, Dene, Nehiyaw, French, Spanish. Beautifully crafted, this novel is alive with dialogue that takes us into the hearts of characters too often left voiceless. Let this book sweep you away.” — Kim Echlin, author of Speak, Silence

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

The highly anticipated second installment of the new adult fantasy saga that took BookTok by storm picks up where A Broken Blade left off…

To the kingdom, Keera is the king’s Blade, his most feared and trusted spy and assassin. But in the shadows, she works with Prince Killian and his Shadow—the dark, brooding Fae, Riven, who sets her blood on fire. Together, they plot to kill a tyrant king.

In Myrelinth, the lush, secret city of trees, Fae, Elves, and Halflings like Keera live in harmony. But Keera cannot escape her past: her crimes against her own people have followed her all the way to the Faeland. There is a traitor in their midst, and Keera is the top suspect.

Keera finds comfort in the allies that have become her family. She swore she would never open her heart again after a loss she barely survived. But she will soon find she has more to lose than she ever imagined . . .

Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series, A Shadow Crown is a tour-de-force high fantasy novel with stunning world building and a slow burn enemies to lovers romance. Readers seeking more LGBTQ+ and BIPOC representation in the fantasy realm will fall in love with the unforgettable cast of characters introduced in A Broken Blade, whose sagas are only beginning…

Reviews
"The second installment in Melissa Blair’s Halfling Saga will undoubtedly take BookTok by storm all over again with its political intrigue and plotting.” —Paste Magazine

“If you’re a particular fan of spies in fantasy realms—like our beloved Inej in Six of Crows—then The Halfling Saga should be your next read.” —The Everygirl

Educator & Series Information
Young adult/new adult fantasy series recommended for ages 18+.

This book is the second title in the Halfing Saga.

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

A fifty-year-old mystery converges with a present-day struggle over family, land, and history.

When a rock is dislodged from its slope by mischievous ancestors, the past rises to meet the present, and Half-Dime Hill gives up a gruesome secret it has kept for half a century. Some people of Mozhay Point have theories about what happened; others know—and the discovery stirs memories long buried, reviving a terrible story yet to be told.

Returning to the fictional Ojibwe reservation in northern Minnesota she has so deftly mapped in her award-winning books, Linda LeGarde Grover reveals traumas old and new as Margie Robineau, in the midst of a fight to keep her family’s long-held allotment land, uncovers events connected to a long-ago escape plan across the Canadian border, and the burial—at once figurative and painfully real—of not one crime but two. While Margie is piecing the facts together, Dale Ann is confronted by her own long-held secrets and the truth that the long ago and the now, the vital and the departed are all indelibly linked, no matter how much we try to forget.

As the past returns to haunt those involved, Margie prepares her statement for the tribal government, defending her family’s land from a casino development and sorting the truths of Half-Dime Hill from the facts that remain there. Throughout the narrative, a chorus of spirit women gather in lawn chairs with coffee and cookies to reminisce, reflect, and speculate, spinning the threads of family, myth, history, and humor—much as Grover spins another tale of Mozhay Point, weaving together an intimate and complex novel of a place and its people.

Reviews
"A sprawling, poignant chronicle of struggle and survivance."—Kirkus Reviews

"With its powerful, atmospheric descriptions of the natural world, A Song over Miskwaa Rapids resembles an Indigenous family saga in miniature, couching memory and mystery in a potent spirit world."—Foreword Reviews

Additional Information
128 pages | 5.50" x 8.25" | Hardcover

Aided by Grandmother Spider, Star Woman discovers the Hole-in-the-Sky, opening a pathway for the Star People to experience the wonder of life on earth. But the world falls into the hands of the Paper People, jeopardizing the sacred harmony between nature and the cosmos. And so Little Spirit, a young boy, must search for meaning and find redemption in the care of Grandmother Moon.

An epic narrative, The Star Poems explores the black hole of colonial history—Residential Schools, the loss of the father, youth suicide—and the vital role of women in reclaiming our traditional knowledge, the teachings that stitch together the fabric of the universe.

The Star Poems creatively engages Cree oral tradition in a new way, connecting Indigenous spirituality and quantum physics to honour and adapt some of our most ancient stories about the origins of life and our place in the universe. Presented in both English and Cree, The Star Poems is a timely contribution to the revitalization of the Cree language—and the fascinating world of star stories.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 15+

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

From the author of Bears comes two dark comedies that expose the effects of disturbing the natural order and what we’re capable of when pushed to our breaking point.

Set in the aftermath of the disaster that nearly destroyed Fort McMurray in 2016, After the Fire centres around two couples whose lives have been deeply affected by the ruin. Sisters Laura and Carmell have been channelling their devastation after the disaster into their daughters’ hockey team . . . maybe a little too much. Their Indigenous oil-worker husbands Barry and Ty are fighting their own demons as they try to sort out how to move on, while digging a very big hole.

In The Particulars, a week’s worth of daily routines for an insomniac is disrupted by a mysterious home invasion. Gordon battles his invaders on two main fronts—in his home, where he believes he is dealing with vermin, and in his yard, where insects have taken over his garden. By day, Gordon forges ahead, in control of every aspect of his life. But by night, the scratching he has begun to hear in his walls is unravelling him, driving him to the edge of cosmic desperation.

The sharp commentary in these two plays will shock and satisfy the temptation of taking matters into your own hands.

Reviews
“After the Fire may have one of the greatest surprise endings ever in a Canadian play—and certainly has one of the most Canadian surprise endings ever to a play . . . It is also good writing that alters your perception of all of the characters, the state of their relationships—and maybe Fort McMurray as well.”— J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail

“The Particulars entices you with its details, but it’s the exploration of life’s biggest mysteries that will break your heart.”— Carly Maga, Toronto Star

"Moving and funny, audaciously strange . . . Suffice it to say that it’s as if Martin McDonagh took up writing the kind of Canadian family plays where revealing dark secrets of the past usually tends to be the way forward. Basically, [After the Fire] blows that Canuck m.o. into smithereens, while slyly seducing us into feeling its embrace."— Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

"The writing [in The Particulars] stands on its own—I like how our narrator speaks of himself in third person—and MacKenzie effectively brings the cyclical smallness of a life to life."— Elizabeth Withey, Edmonton Journal

Additional Information
120 pages | 5.37" x 8.38" | Paperback