Teen Books

A collection of perspectives by and about Indigenous Toronto, past, present, and future.

Beneath every major city in North America lies a deep and rich Indigenous history that has been colonized, paved over, and ignored. Few of its current inhabitants know that Toronto has seen 12,000 years of different peoples, including the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, the Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit, and a vibrant culture and history that thrives to this day.

With original contributions by Indigenous elders, scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and historians about art, food, health, and more, this unique anthology explores the poles of erasure and cultural continuity that have come to define a crossroads city-region that was known as a meeting place long before the arrival of European settlers.

Contributors include political scientist Hayden King, historian Alan Corbiere, musician Elaine Bomberry, artist Duke Redbird, playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, educator Kerry Potts, writer/journalist Paul Seesequasis and former Mississaugas of the New Credit chief Carolyn King.

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Amber, Bev, Chantel, Jazmyne, Faith, and Jorgina are six Indigenous women previously involved in street gangs or street lifestyles. In Indigenous Women and Street Gangs they collaborate with Robert Henry (Métis) to share an emancipatory expression of their lives through photovoice. Each author shares a narrative that begins with her earliest memory and continues to the present. This is followed by a selection of photographs the woman took to show how she has changed with her experiences. Readers can expect difficult life stories imbued with hope and humour. Throughout, these women show us the meaning of survivance; a process of survival, resistance, resurgence, and growth.

“I don’t think there is any such thing as bad; it’s called healing, you know? It is starting to fix yourself inside your heart, you know? You just got to keep doing it, that’s all I got to say.”- Jazmyne

Educator Information
Caution: mature, triggering, explicit content.

Keywords / Subjects: survivance; photovoice; Indigenous; street gang; critical gang studies; Saskatchewan; women; oral history; community engaged research; relational practice; justice; child welfare; education; health; social work; social services; criminology

Table of Contents
ix Acknowledgements
xi Introduction
3 Amber
23 Bev
39 Chantel
59 Jazmyne
77 Faith
95 Jorgina
115 Photograph Captions
123 Bibliography

Additional Information
144 pages | 9.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

You take your seat in the theatre. You are given a remote control. The play begins.

An urban couple are on a getaway to visit her father at his vast rural estate. But when they arrive, they find him missing and a local Indigenous man staying there instead. They ask him to leave … and with an anonymous click of your remote, you choose what happens next.

When it’s revealed that the colonial rights to this entire property are actually up for grabs, you must continue to decide how the story unfolds, ultimately determining how the land will be stewarded, and by whom.

With humour, suspense, and a race against time, Inheritance is an interactive stage play – with over fifty possible variations – that thrusts you into the middle of a land dispute and asks you to work it out.

Replete with additional material, this unique book includes insightful forewords by President of the Haida Nation Miles Richardson and environmentalist David Suzuki, a brief history of the Secwépemc People, a detailed study guide for students and teachers, and an interview with the co-creators.

Reviews
"The creative team is definitely onto something … digs into land claims and entitlement in engaging new ways, using a lively mix of humour and interactive technology to work through heavy concepts. Viewers go out into the night with the knowledge that land issues will never be solved with an easy click of the button. And more importantly, with plenty to think about their own role in the matter."—the Georgia Straight

"Inheritance is what theatre should be. It breaks boundaries, embraces new technology … It is excellent. It should be required viewing. See it, ask questions, and enjoy the beauty of these incredible artists along the way."—Vancouver Presents

Educator Information
Includes a detailed study guide for students and teachers.

Additional Information
256 pages | 8.50" x 5.50"

Plenty of people talk about farm-to-table dining these days. But on Vancouver Island and the surrounding Gulf Islands, it’s truly a way of life. And why not, when there is so much abundance to choose from? From the Comox Valley to the Cowichan to Salt Spring Island, you’ll find everything from truffles to tea, passionfruit to Pinot Noir, water buffalo to the most delicately briny oysters.

Island Eats is a tribute to the vibrant food culture of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands and the celebration of a passionate culinary community built on the edge of a continent. Whether they’re shucking oysters and rolling pasta just for you, pouring you a glass of local wine, telling you about the best surf beach or hiking trail or the cool new craft brewery in town, the chefs, mixologists, and food artisans profiled in this cookbook have contributed to the heartfelt food traditions of a rare culinary destination.

Featuring more than 80 signature dishes, from a classic salmon chowder to island-foraged chantarelle risotto, apple pie waffles to bannock ice-cream sandwich, this inspired collection boasts locally-minded, soul-satisfying dishes that readers will want to make again and again.

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240 pages | 8.00" x 10.00"

Pawaminikititicikiw, Wilfred Buck, is an Ininew / Cree, Knowledge and Dream Keeper of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation of Northern Manitoba. He is the author of Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star stories, and I Have Lived Four Lives, a memoir. Kitcikisik (Great Sky) features Indigenous Star Knowledge and is the second edition of Tipiskawi Kisik.

Educator Information
Recommended by the publisher for grades 7+

Additional Information
86 Pages

The Neyhiyawak (Plains Cree) word "Kitotam" translates into English as, "He Speaks to It." This is a collection of free-verse poetry by Indigenous poet and artist John McDonald. Written in two parts, these poems chronicle John's life and experiences as an urban Indigenous youth during the 1980s. The second half of the book is a look into the inspirations and events, that shaped John's career as an internationally known spoken word artist, beat poet, monologist and performance artist.

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88 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Un livre à mettre entre toutes les mains, pour que le dialogue prenne le pas sur le racisme En 2016, la poète Innu Natasha Kanapé Fontaine et le romancier québéco-américain Deni Ellis Béchard entamaient une conversation sans tabou sur le racisme entre Autochtones et Allochtones. Cette rencontre littéraire et poétique ouvrait un dialogue nécessaire et faisait émerger une série de questions. Comment cohabiter si notre histoire commune est empreinte de honte, de blessures et de colère ? Comment faire réaliser aux Blancs le privilège invisible de la domination historique? Comment guérir les Autochtones des stigmates du génocide culturel ? Pour ouvrir le dialogue et amorcer la nécessaire réconciliation entre nos peuples, Deni et Natasha sont partis de leur trajectoire personnelle et ont tenté de débusquer les mots et comportements qui empruntent les chemins du racisme. Natasha raconte sa découverte des pensionnats autochtones, son obsession pour la crise d'Oka, la vie sur la réserve de Pessamit ; Deni parle du racisme ordinaire de son père, de la ségrégation envers les Afro-Américains, de son identité de Québécois aux États-Unis. Cinq ans et des milliers de lecteurs et lectrices plus tard, Deni et Natasha ont décidé de reprendre la plume et de poursuivre ce « rendez-vous de la parole qui s'ouvre ». Démarré en septembre 2020, leur échange épistolaire renoue avec le ton intimiste et le foisonnement intellectuel qui caractérisaient leurs premiers échanges. Deni écrit depuis Stanford, en Californie, alors que les feux de forêts ravagent ce territoire et que la campagne présidentielle bat son plein aux États-Unis, en pleine pandémie, sur fond de montée des extrêmes et d’une parole haineuse libérée par quatre ans de pouvoir de Trump. Il décrit la mobilisation sans précédent du mouvement Black Live Matters à la suite de l’assassinat odieux de George Floyd, cet Afro-Américain de 46 ans abattu par un policier blanc à Minneapolis le 25 mai 2020. Natasha a été marquée par le soulèvement des Wet’suwet’en contre le gazoduc Coastal GasLink partout au Canada et par l’hypocrisie colonialiste de la politique de la reconnaissance du gouvernement Trudeau à l’égard des Autochtones. Puis, au milieu de leurs échanges, est arrivé l’impensable : la mort de Joyce Echaquan, une femme de 37 ans, Atikamekw, sous les injures racistes et humiliantes de deux infirmières de l’hôpital de Joliette. « Une indignation est montée. […] À Montréal, le samedi suivant, nous étions des milliers à marcher pour la reconnaissance du racisme systémique, comme celui dans les services de la santé, et à réclamer justice. Son nom est désormais rattaché au mot « justice » : Justice Pour Joyce. Une douleur est venue m’envahir. Depuis, elle habite mon corps comme une vieille amie. Je n’ai pas ressenti de colère. Je n’en ai plus la force. Une douleur tellement vive, Deni. J’en pleure presque tous les jours. » Deni lui répond : « Chère nuitsheuakan, pendant cette période de souffrances et d’incertitudes, il est clair que la solution passera par un chemin long et difficile. […] Récemment, je me suis plongé dans l’histoire des mouvements sociaux et j’ai pris conscience des millions de personnes qui ont lutté jusqu’ici. C’est horrible de parler de patience quand tellement d’êtres humains vivent de l’oppression, mais il faut qu’on persiste et qu’on sache qu’au cœur de tout ce qu’on fait, reste le dialogue. Un proverbe grec dit : «?Une société devient grande quand des vieillards plantent des arbres à l’ombre desquels ils savent qu’ils ne s’assoiront jamais.?» Je souhaite qu’on ait des politicien.ne.s qui, un jour, se demandent ce qu’il faut faire aujourd’hui pour avoir la paix demain. En attendant, on a des artistes et des militant.e.s comme toi.» Croisant leurs mots, leurs indignations et leurs espoirs, ces deux grands écrivain.e.s nous offrent un livre humaniste et universel sur le rapport à l'autre et le respect de la différence.

Educator Information
The English version of this resource is a recommended resource for Grades 10-12 in these areas: BC First Peoples, Contemporary Indigenous Studies, English First Peoples, English Studies, Literary Studies.

This resource is also available in English: Kuei, My Friend: A Conversation on Race and Reconciliation.

Beaver shares his teachings on how he shapes the land.

kʷu‿c̕əx̌ʷəntim təl stunx isck’ʷuls / Lessons From Beaver’s Work teaches children through storytelling to hold reverence for all life forms. The book depicts a conflict between Tapit, a rancher, and stunx (beaver), as they both try to meet their water needs. The touching humanity of stunx (Beaver) softens Tapit’s outlook, as he reminds Tapit that he is not the only one that depends on water.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 10 to 13.

Author Harron Hall has written several children's books that incorporate her Indigenous heritage and her deep commitment to protecting the land and water, including The Water Sings to Suli?, Water Changeling and We Go with Muskrat to Those Living Underwater.

This fictional story teaches the importance of watersheds and protecting our water systems.

Includes words in n'syilxwcn, the language spoken by the Sylix/Okanagan peoples.

This book is part of the Follow the Water series.

Additional Information
26 pages | 8.00" x 8.00"

I have to believe my account will outpace its ending.

The danger and necessity of living with each other is at the core of Liz Howard’s daring and intimate second collection. Letters in a Bruised Cosmos asks who do we become after the worst has happened? Invoking the knowledge histories of Western and Indigenous astrophysical science, Howard takes us on a breakneck river course of radiant and perilous survival in which we are invited to “reforge [ourselves] inside tomorrow’s humidex”. Everyday observation, family history, and personal tragedy are sublimated here in a propulsive verse that is relentlessly its own. Part autobiography, part philosophical puzzlement, part love song, Letters in a Bruised Cosmos is a book that once read will not soon be forgotten.

Reviews
“Liz Howard’s Letters in a Bruised Cosmos stands as yet another masterpiece of orality and temporality in the blossoming oeuvre that is her poetic arena. We traverse through webbed histories, a multiplicity of singing bodies: human, non-human, father, lover, lake, land, galactic. Howard’s ability to unearth creation and trickster from beneath the rubble of canonic and catatonic poetics is a miracle in the making. It is no surprise to be met with yet again grace and fury in Letters in a Bruised Cosmos—as Howard has demonstrated time and time again, she is a divining starwalker of a poet.” —Joshua Whitehead, author of Jonny Appleseed
 
“In Letters in a Bruised Cosmos, Liz Howard makes sentences with the elegance and mystery of a sculptor. Howard’s aesthetic mode is a beautiful synthesis of feminist, anti-colonial, and post-structural traditions of critique and re-imagination that is singularly hers. I read each poem with the faith that I would land somewhere I couldn’t have known existed until I opened this book. That’s the mark of poetic genius. I loved this book with my whole body.” —Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A History of My Brief Body

Additional Information
80 pages | 5.75" x 8.50"

Little Red Warrior is the last remaining member of the Little Red Warrior First Nation. One day, he discovers a development company has begun construction on his ancestral lands. In a fit of rage, Little Red attacks one of the engineers and is arrested for assault and trespassing on his own lands. In jail he meets his court-appointed lawyer, Larry, who agrees to help Little Red get his lands back. Larry convinces his wife, Desdemona, to allow Little Red to move into their basement while they sort out Red’s case. Desdemona and Red strike up an uneasy relationship. When Red notices that one of Desdemona’s eyes is slightly lazy she becomes increasingly neurotic, convinced that Little Red is up to something. Despite herself Desdemona, who is not accustomed to being thrown off her game, is increasingly drawn to Red’s apparently hypnotic Indigenous charisma. As sparks begin to fly between them Larry prepares to fight for Little Red’s Land Rights. An unexpected intervention by a greater power occurs in the court case, and nothing will ever be the same.

Educator Information
Cast of one Indigenous man; two settler men; one settler woman; and one male, female, or non-binary person in drag.

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"