Environment
Synopsis:
A remarkable and profound collection of reflections by one of North America’s most important Indigenous leaders.
My name is Wa’xaid, given to me by my people. ‘Wa’ is ‘the river’, ‘Xaid’ is ‘good’ – good river. Sometimes the river is not good. I am a Xenaksiala, I am from the Killer Whale Clan. I would like to walk with you in Xenaksiala lands. Where I will take you is the place of my birth. They call it the Kitlope. It is called Xesdu’wäxw (Huschduwaschdu) for ‘blue, milky, glacial water’. Our destination is what I would like to talk about, and a boat – I call it my magic canoe. It is a magical canoe because there is room for everyone who wants to come into it to paddle together. The currents against it are very strong but I believe we can reach that destination and this is the reason for our survival. —Cecil Paul
Who better to tell the narrative of our times about the restoration of land and culture than Wa’xaid (the good river), or Cecil Paul, a Xenaksiala elder who pursued both in his ancestral home, the Kitlope — now the largest protected unlogged temperate rainforest left on the planet. Paul’s cultural teachings are more relevant today than ever in the face of environmental threats, climate change and social unrest, while his personal stories of loss from residential schools, industrialization and theft of cultural property (the world-renowned Gps’golox pole) put a human face to the survivors of this particular brand of genocide.
Told in Cecil Paul’s singular, vernacular voice, Stories from the Magic Canoe spans a lifetime of experience, suffering and survival. This beautifully produced volume is in Cecil’s own words, as told to Briony Penn and other friends, and has been meticulously transcribed. Along with Penn’s biography of Cecil Paul, Following the Good River, Stories from the Magic Canoe provides a valuable documented history of a generation that continues to deal with the impacts of brutal colonization and environmental change at the hands of politicians, industrialists and those who willingly ignore the power of ancestral lands and traditional knowledge.
Reviews
“The Magic Canoe brings peace to one’s soul. It is a warm wind moving our hearts. Wa’xaid takes us on a journey that regenerates and empowers us. T’ismista, the stone hunter, looks down on the Magic Canoe and reminds us to listen to storytellers like Cecil Paul. This is a story for the family of man; we are all in the canoe together and our stories need to be shared with each other.” – Roy Henry Vickers
Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list, as well as the 2020-2021 resource list, for grades 9 to 12 for English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science.
Additional Information
224 pages | 5.00" x 7.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
At the age of seventeen, an Anishinabe boy who was raised in the south joined a James Bay Cree family in a one-room hunting cabin in the isolated wilderness of northern Quebec. In the five months that followed, he learned a way of life on the land with which few are familiar, where the daily focus is on the necessities of life, and where both skill and finesse are required for self-sufficiency.
In The Shoe Boy, that boy – Duncan McCue – takes us on an evocative journey that explores the hopeful confusion of the teenage years, entwined with the challenges and culture shock of coming from a mixed-race family and moving to the unfamiliar North. As he reflects on his search for his own personal identity, he illustrates the relationship Indigenous peoples have with their lands, and the challenges urban Indigenous people face when they seek to reconnect to traditional lifestyles.
The result is a contemplative, honest, and unexpected coming-of-age memoir set in the context of the Cree struggle to protect their way of life, after massive hydro-electric projects forever altered the landscape they know as Eeyou Istchee.
This memoir will be of interest to readers of all ages who want to know more about the interplay of traditional and contemporary Indigenous lifestyles, the challenges of identity for First Nations youth, and the relationship Indigenous peoples have with their land.
Reviews
"Frank, funny and evocative, The Shoe Boy deftly entwines the challenges of identity for First Nations youth, the sexual frustration and hopeful confusion of the teenage years, and the realities of living in an enduring state of culture shock." — CBC Books
"The Shoe Boy is a valuable read and will enrich anyone who tunes in to CBC Radio One on Sunday afternoons, as McCue establishes his voice in the conversation of Canada.— Thomas Billingsley, Globe and Mail
Educator Information
Related Topics: Biography, Memoirs, and Letters; Canadian Studies; Indigenous Studies.
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 9 to 12 for English Language Arts and Social Studies.
Caution: mature language, references to sex, alcohol, and suicide.
Additional Information
88 pages | 5.00" x 8.00"
Synopsis:
Winona LaDuke is a leader in cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and Indigenous rights. To Be a Water Protector explores issues that have been central to her activism for many years — sacred Mother Earth, our despoiling of Earth and the activism at Standing Rock and opposing Line 3.
For this book, Winona discusses several elements of a New Green Economy and the lessons we can take from activists outside the US and Canada. Also featured are her annual letters to Al Monaco, the CEO of Enbridge, in which she takes him to task for the company’s role in the climate crisis and presents him with an invoice for climate damages. In her unique way of storytelling, Winona LaDuke is inspiring, always a teacher and an utterly fearless activist, writer and speaker.
Reviews
"Since time immemorial, Indigenous Peoples have protected the earth’s precious water systems in recognition of our dependence on these living ecosystems. Water Protectors are earth warriors who put their bodies on the line in the face of powerful, violent and destructive extractive industries supported by Wiindigoo governors. Winona LaDuke is one of those Water Protectors who has made a compelling call to all peoples to rise up and protect the water and in so doing protect life itself on this planet." — Pamela Palmater, Author of Warrior Life
Additional Information
128 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Synopsis:
A Field Guide to Marine Life of the Protected Waters of the Salish Sea includes the most commonly observed species in the tide pools and protected waters of the Salish Sea—that intricate network of coastal waterways spanning southern BC and northwestern Washington. Covering invertebrates, fish and seaweeds, this guide includes key identification features, fun facts and habitat, as well as seventy colour photographs. Water-resistant and compact, this guide is easy to pack on any trip to the shore and perfect for curious minds of all ages.
Rick Harbo is one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading marine writers and photographers.
Additional Information
2 pages | 37.00" x 9.00" | 75 photographs | Pamphlet
Synopsis:
A freshly designed, new edition of a funny weekly chronicle that offers a year-long, intimate view of the flora and fauna populating the West Coast.
A Year on the Wild Side is a witty commentary on the social and natural history of Vancouver Island. Composed of short, readable essays arranged into 12 monthly chapters, this engaging book reveals the magic and humour of the natural world and reminds us of our place within it.
As the weeks and seasons unfold with the turning of the pages, you’ll be in sync with the living world that surrounds you. Discover what berries are ripe and the best time to pick them. Learn why the termites swarm, where the herring spawn, and when the maple leaves fall. Get up close and personal with fascinating creatures like the snowy owl, the giant Pacific octopus, the river otter, and more.
The West Coast is abundantly alive, and A Year on the Wild Side invites you to indulge in unforgettable experiences, week by week, all year long.
Reviews
"Salt Spring Island naturalist, artist and author Briony Penn has spent decades studying the flora and fauna of the West Coast. In her new book, A Year on the Wild Side, she shares her unique perspectives — and enchanting illustrations — on the social and natural history of more than 98 plant and animal species found on the coast." - Times Colonist
Additional Information
400 pages | 6.50" x 8.00" | 2nd edition
Synopsis:
Change the story and change the future – merging science and Indigenous knowledge to steer us towards a more benign Anthropocene
As humanity marches on, causing mass extinctions and destabilizing the climate, the future of Earth will very much reflect the stories that Homo sapiens decides to jettison or accept today into our collective identity. At this pivotal moment in history, the most important story we can be telling ourselves is that humans are not inherently destructive.
In Changing Tides, Alejandro Frid tackles the big questions: who, or what, represents our essential selves, and what stories might allow us to shift the collective psyche of industrial civilization in time to avert the worst of the climate and biodiversity crises?
In seeking the answers, Frid draws from a deep well of personal experience and that of Indigenous colleagues, finding a glimmer of hope in Indigenous cultures that, despite the ravishes of colonialism, have for thousands of years developed intentional and socially complex practices for resource management that epitomize sustainability. Ultimately, Frid argues, merging scientific perspectives with Indigenous knowledge might just help us change the story we tell ourselves about who we are and where we could go.
Changing Tides is for everyone concerned with the irrevocable changes we have unleashed upon our planet and how we might steer towards a more benign Anthropocene.
Educator Information
Subjects: Nature; Environmental Conservation/Protection; Ecosystems; Habitats; Oceans; Seas; Social Science; Indigenous Studies
Audience: Readers of Braiding Sweetgrass; people interested in natural conservation, climate change and ecology; Native American and Indigenous studies students; students of climatology, archeology, anthropology, social science, resource management and ecology.
Additional Information
208 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 8 page color section
Synopsis:
Building environmental strength through a diversity of youth.
While concern about the state of our land, air, and water continues to grow, there is widespread belief that environmental issues are primarily of interest to wealthy white communities. Engage, Connect, Protect explodes this myth, revealing the deep and abiding interest that African American, Latino, and Native American communities – many of whom live in degraded and polluted parts of the country – have in our collective environment.
Part eye-opening critique of the cultural divide in environmentalism, part biography of a leading social entrepreneur, and part practical toolkit for engaging diverse youth, Engage, Connect, Protect covers:
- Why communities of color are largely unrecognized in the environmental movement
- Bridging the cultural divide and activate a new generation of environmental stewards
- A curriculum for engaging diverse youth and young adults through culturally appropriate methods and activities
- A resource guide for connecting mainstream America to organizations working with diverse youth within environmental projects, training, and employment.
Engage, Connect, Protect is a wake-up call for businesses, activists, educators, and policymakers to recognize the work of grassroots activists in diverse communities and create opportunities for engaging with diverse youth as the next generation of environmental stewards.
Educator Information
While this work has a US focus, it is still extremely relevant in other countries like Canada.
Additional Information
256 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Synopsis:
Environmental Activism on the Ground draws upon a wide range of interdisciplinary scholarship to examine small scale, local environmental activism, paying particular attention to Indigenous experiences. It illuminates the questions that are central to the ongoing evolution of the environmental movement while reappraising the history and character of late twentieth and early twenty-first environmentalism in Canada, the United States, and beyond.
This collection considers the different ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists have worked to achieve significant change. It examines attempts to resist exploitative and damaging resource developments, and the establishment of parks, heritage sites, and protected areas that recognize the indivisibility of cultural and natural resources. It pays special attention to the thriving environmentalism of the 1960s through the 1980s, an era which saw the rise of major organizations such as Greenpeace along with the flourishing of local and community-based environmental activism.
Environmental Activism on the Ground emphasizes the effects of local and Indigenous activism, offering lessons and directions from the ground up. It demonstrates that the modern environmental movement has been as much a small-scale, ordinary activity as a large-scale, elite one.
Reviews
"Environmental Activism on the Ground succeeds splendidly in complicating and enriching our understanding of modern environmentalism. Focusing on Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists in an impressive range of settings, Jonathan Clapperton and Liza Piper draw together and interpret diverse methodological and conceptual insights in a way that gives new, deserved prominence to those who have strived—and continue to strive—for environmental justice at the local level. These accounts left me both enlightened and heartened. Scholars from across the humanities and social sciences will welcome this volume." - Richard A. Rajala, Department of History, University of Victoria.
Educator Information
Table of Contents:
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: In the Shadow of the Green Giants: Environmentalism and Civic Engagements - Jonathan Clappeton & Liza Piper
Part 1: Processes and Possibilities
1. Strategies for Survival: First Nations Encounters with Environmentalism - Anna J. Willow
2. Native/Non-Native Alliances: Challenging Fossil Fuel Industry Shipping at Pacific Northwest Ports - Zoltán Grossman
3. Conserving Contested Ground: Soverigenty-Driven Stewardship by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Fort Apache Heritage Foundation - Jon R. Welch
4. From Southern Alberta to Northern Brazil: Indigenous Conservation and the Preservation of Cultural Resources - Sterling Evans
5. Parks For and By the People: Acknowledging Ordinary People in the Formation, Protection, and Use of State and Provincial Parks - Jesica M. DeWitt
Part 2: Histories
6. Alternatives: Environmental and Indigenous Activism in the 1970s - Liza Piper
7. Marmion Lake Generating Station: Another Northern Scandal? - Tobasonakwut Peter Kinew
8. Environmental Activism as Anti-Conquest: The Nuu-chah-nulth and Environmentalists in the Contact Zone of Clayoquont Sound - Jonathan Clapperton
9. Local Economic Independence as Environmentalism: Nova Scotia in the 1970s - Mark Leeming
10. “Not an Easy Thing to Implement”: The Conservation Council of New Brunswick and Environmental Organization in a Resource-Dependent Province, 1969-1983 - Mark J. McLaughlin
11. The Ebb and Flow of Local Environmental Activism: The Society for Pollution and Environmental Control (SPEC), British Columbia - Jonathan Clapperton
12: From Scoieal Movement to Environmental Behemoth: How Greenpeace Got Big - Frank Zelko
Afterword: Lessons from the Ground Up - Jonathan Clapperton & Liza Piper
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
Additional Information
752 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Authenticity Note: Because this work includes contributions from Indigenous peoples, it has been labelled as containing Authentic Indigenous Text.
Synopsis:
Groundswell is a collection of stirring and passionate essays from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers that eloquently present a compelling message about how traditional Indigenous knowledge and practices can and must be used to address climate change. The chapters interconnect, taking us from radical thinking to the gentleness of breath, and demonstrate that we are all in this together—everyone must understand what needs to be accomplished and participate in the care of Mother Earth.
Authors tap into religious and spiritual perspectives, explore the wisdom of youth, and share the insights of a nature-based philosophy. These collective writings give you a chance to contemplate and formulate your own direction. A moral revolution that can produce a groundswell of momentum toward a diverse society based on human rights, Indigenous rights, and the rights of Mother Earth.
Beautifully illustrated with photographs, Groundswell is augmented with video recordings from the authors and a short documentary film, available on the project’s website. Profits from the book will help support the videos, documentary, and future projects of The Call to Action for Climate Change. Visit www.envisionthebigpicture.com.
Reviews
"A beautifully illustrated and highly engaging read.… Essays from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors present a strong vision for how traditional knowledge can be used to fight climate change, as well as how we can work together toward a more balanced and harmonious relationship with nature." – Joan Elliott, librarian and Manager of Stewart Resources Centre
“This book shares Indigenous knowledge that can teach us to listen to and be in relationship to the Earth in a way that honours the sacredness and interdependence of all life forms. A paradigm shift, informed by Indigenous ways of knowing and acting, is crucial in this time of climate change.” – Laura Stivers, author of Disrupting Homelessness: Alternative Christian Approaches
“A powerful text that introduces a much-needed perspective on the issue of climate change.… When reading the chapter ‘Rooted: Staying Grounded Amidst a Changing Landscape’ by Nicole Neidhardt, Teka Everstz, and Gina Mowatt, I was moved by the presence of youth voices. As a young, Indigenous person myself, I felt a great power, understanding, and nuance to the voices emerging in the chapter.… Nicole Neidhardt, Teka Everstz, and Gina Mowatt asked for more than a challenge of the reader’s ideology—they screamed out for a call to action." – Forrest Goodluck, award-winning youth filmmaker who appears opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant
“The reflections of three young Indigenous activists (‘Rooted: Staying Grounded Amidst a Changing Landscape’) … are sharp, buoyant reminders of elation and advocacy in a world of overwhelming and seemingly unlimited power: colonialism, imperialism, and industrial capitalism. These narratives bring me moral conviction and faith as we all walk hand-in-hand into our carbon wrought future.” – Kalen Goodluck, freelance documentary photographer and journalist
Educator Information
Recommended Resource for Grades 11-12 and College/University Students.
Social Studies/B.C. First Peoples/Comparative Cultures/Contemporary Indigenous Studies Curricular Concepts Explored in the Text:
- Interactions between cultures and the natural environment.
- The role of value systems and belief systems in the development of cultures.
- Varied identities and worldviews of Indigenous peoples, and the importance of the interconnection of family, relationships, language, culture, and the land.
- Factors that sustain and challenge the identities and worldviews of Indigenous peoples.
Science/Environmental Science Curricular Concepts Explored in the Text:
- First Peoples knowledge and other traditional ecological knowledge in sustaining biodiversity.
- Human actions and their impact on ecosystem integrity.
- First Peoples ways of knowing and doing.
- Resource stewardship.
English/English First Peoples Curricular Concepts Explored in the Text:
- First Peoples languages and texts reflect their cultures, knowledge, histories, and worldviews.
- Critically, creatively, and reflectively explore ideas within, between, and beyond texts.
- Construct meaningful personal connections between self, text, and world.
- The diversity within and across First Peoples societies as represented in texts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface Invocation: Using Contemplative Meditation to Foster Change
Introduction: This Is the Moral Revolution
Climate Change Snapshots by Kristen Dey
Rooted: Staying Grounded Amidst a Changing Landscape by Nicole Neidhardt, Teka Everstz, and Gina Mowatt
What You Need to Know Is Not in a Book: Indigenous Education by Larry Emerson
Illuminating the Path Forward by Erin Brillon
Stories from Our Elders by Andy Everson
Religions for the Earth by Karenna Gore
How We Can Work Together by Merle Lefkoff
Essential Elements of Change by Mary Hasbah Roessel
The Radical Vision of Indigenous Resurgence by Taiaiake Alfred
Sharing the Wealth: Bending Toward Justice by Rod Dobell
The Commonwealth of Breath by David Abram
Science, Spirituality, Justice by Larry Rasmussen
The Moral Revolution, Weaving All the Parts by Joe Neidhardt
Acknowledgements
Further References
Further Readings
Contributors
Contributors: David Abram, Taiaiake Alfred, Erin Brillon, Kristen Dey, Rod Dobell, Larry Emerson, Andy Everson, Teka Everstz, Karenna Gore, Merle Lefkoff, Gina Mowatt, Joe Neidhardt, Nicole Neidhardt, Larry Rasmussen, Mary Hasbah Roessel.
Additional Information
208 Pages | 8.5" x 9" | ISBN: 9781771743440 | Hardcover
Synopsis:
A stunning new voice in nature writing makes an epic journey along the Yukon River to give us the stories of its people and its protagonist--the king salmon, or the Chinook--and the deepening threat to a singular way of life, in a lyrical, evocative and captivating narrative.
The Yukon River is 3,190 kilometres long, flowing northwest from British Columbia through the Yukon Territory and Alaska to the Bering Sea. Every summer, millions of salmon migrate the distance of this river to their spawning ground, where they go to breed and then die. The Chinook is the most highly prized among the five species of Pacific salmon for its large size and rich, healthy oils. It has long since formed the lifeblood of the economy and culture along the Yukon--there are few communities that have been so reliant on a single source. Now, as the region contends with the effects of a globalized economy, climate change, fishing quotas and the general drift towards urban life, the health and numbers of the Chinook are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them.
Travelling in a canoe along the Yukon River with the migrating salmon, a three-month journey through untrammeled wilderness, Adam Weymouth traces the profound interconnectedness of the people and the Chinook through searing portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into the erosion of indigenous culture, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the history of the salmon run and their mysterious life cycle, Kings of the Yukon is extraordinary adventure and nature writing and social history at its most compelling.
Awards
- 2019 Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year Winner
- 2018 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award
Reviews
“Travel writing? Climate change? Here’s a book that does it all . . . He writes like Annie Dillard, Bruce Chatwin and Jack London combined: suspenseful and sensitive storytelling and sumptuous descriptions.” —National Observer
“Shift over, Pierre Berton and Farley Mowat. You, too, Robert Service. Set another place at the table for Adam Weymouth, who writes as powerfully and poetically about the Far North as any of the greats who went before him.” —Roy MacGregor, author of Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada
“A moving, masterful portrait of a river, the people who live on its banks, and the salmon that connect their lives to the land. It is at once travelogue, natural history, and a meditation on the sort of wildness of which we are intrinsically a part. Adam Weymouth deftly illuminates the symbiosis between humans and the natural world—a relationship so ancient, complex, and mysterious that it just might save us.” —Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road
“I thoroughly enjoyed traveling the length of the Yukon River with Adam Weymouth, discovering the essential connection between the salmon and the people who rely upon them. What a joy it is to be immersed in such a remote and wondrous landscape, and what a pleasure to be in the hands of such a gifted narrator.” —Nate Blakeslee, author of The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
“Beautiful, restrained, uncompromising. The narrative pulls you eagerly downstream roaring, chuckling and shimmering just like the mighty Yukon itself.” —Ben Rawlence, author of City of Thorns
“An enthralling account of a literary and scientific quest. Adam Weymouth vividly conveys the raw grandeur and deep silences of the Yukon landscape, and endows his subject, the river’s King Salmon, with a melancholy nobility.” —Luke Jennings, author of Atlantic and Codename Villanelle
“Adam Weymouth's account of his canoe trip down the Yukon River is both stirring and heartbreaking. He ably describes a world that seems alternately untouched by human beings and teetering at the brink of ruin.” —David Owen, author of Where the Water Goes
Additional Information
288 pages | 5.18" x 8.00"
Synopsis:
Eating sustainable seafood is about opening your mind (and fridge) to a vast array of fish and shellfish that you might not have considered before - and the Pacific Coast is blessed with an abundance of wild species. With Lure, readers embark on a wild Pacific adventure and discover the benefits of healthy oils and rich nutrients that seafood delivers. This stunning cookbook, authored by chef and seafood advocate Ned Bell, features simple techniques and straightforward sustainability guidelines around Pacific species as well as 80 delicious recipes to make at home. You'll find tacos, fish burgers, chowders, and sandwiches- the types of dishes that fill bellies, soothe souls and get happy dinner table conversation flowing on a weekday night - as well as elegant (albeit still simple-to-execute) dinner party options, such as crudo, ceviche, and caviar butter.
Reviews
“Ned’s first cookbook Lure features a set of sustainable seafood recipes that are accessible, well considered and, most importantly, delicious.” – Michael Cimarusti, Michelin-starred chef of Providence
“Ned Bell is one of that laudable cadre of young chefs who has taken the trouble to learn not only the names of his farmers but also his fishers. If, like me, you’re committed to sustaining the health of the oceans, you’ll grab this book that shows you how to cook all the responsibly-harvested gifts of the sea.” – Tom Douglas, American executive chef, restaurateur, author, and radio talk show host.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that Lure is the most important cookbook of the year, if not the decade.” – Tim Pawsey, Hired Belly
“Lure is at once a cookbook, coffee table showpiece, and educational manual. With straightforward recipes and a digestible approach to ocean sustainability, Lure is a beautiful and accessible guide for the conscientious cook.” – NUVO Magazine
“It should come as no surprise that Lure, his first cookbook, co-written with ace writer Valerie Howes, is just wonderful too. It’s a beauty of book—bright, full of gorgeous imagery and laid out in an attractive easy-to-understand style” – BC Living
Additional Information
304 pages | 9.14" x 9.99"
Synopsis:
Labrador Innu cultural and environmental activist Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue is well-known both within and far beyond the Innu Nation. The recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award and an honorary doctorate from Memorial University, she has been a subject of documentary films, books, and numerous articles. She led the Innu campaign against NATO’s low-level flying and bomb testing on Innu land during the 1980s and ’90s, and was a key respondent in a landmark legal case in which the judge held that the Innu had the “colour of right” to occupy the Canadian Forces base in Goose Bay, Labrador. Over the past twenty years she has led walks and canoe trips in nutshimit, “on the land,” to teach people about Innu culture and knowledge.
Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep the Land Alive began as a diary written in Innu-aimun, in which Tshaukuesh recorded day-to-day experiences, court appearances, and interviews with reporters. Tshaukuesh has always had a strong sense of the importance of documenting what was happening to the Innu and their land. She also found keeping a diary therapeutic, and her writing evolved from brief notes into a detailed account of her own life and reflections on Innu land, culture, politics, and history.
Beautifully illustrated, this work contains numerous images by professional photographers and journalists as well as archival photographs and others from Tshaukuesh’s own collection.
Additional Information
288 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | 128 colour illustrations | 1 map | bibliography
Synopsis:
On Active Grounds considers the themes of agency and time through the burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of the environmental humanities. Fourteen essays and a photo album cover topics such as environmental practices and history, temporal literacy, graphic novels, ecocinema, ecomusicology, animal studies, Indigeneity, wolf reintroduction, environmental history, green conservatism, and social-ecological systems change. The book also speaks to the growing concern regarding environmental issues in the aftermath of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21) and the election of Donald Trump in the United States. This collection is organized as a written and visual appeal to issues such as time (how much is left?) and agency (who is active? what can be done? what does and does not work?). It describes problems and suggests solutions. On Active Grounds is unique in its explicit and twinned emphasis on time and agency in the context of the Environmental Humanities and a requisite interdisciplinarity.
Educator Information
Useful for these course/subject areas: Cultural Studies, Film & Media, Environmental Studies, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Humanities.
Table of Contents
Permissions
List of Figures, Photographs, and Tables
Introduction: EcocriticalAgency in Time | Mario Trono and Robert Boschman
I. Eco-Temporal Literacies
1 “The clock’s wound up”: Critical Reading Practices in the Time of Social Acceleration and Ecological Collapse | Paul Huebener
2 A Better Distribution Deal: Ecocinematic Viewing and Montagist Reply | Mario Trono
3 “Allô, ici la terre”: Agency in Ecological Music Composition, Performance, and Listening | Sabine Feisst
4 The Environmental Vampire: Terror, Time, and Territory after 9/11 | Robert Boschman
II. Timelines and Indigeneity
5 "We are key players...": Creating Indigenous Engagement and Community Control at Blackfoot Heritage Sites in Time | Geneviève Susemihl
6 Mapping a Bleak Time: The Mining Legacy of Navajo Nation | Lea Rekow
Photo Essay
Agency and Time on Active Grounds: A Memoir of Bruno Latour and Gaïa Global Circus | Robert Boschman
III. Animal Agents and Human-NonhumanInteractions
7 The Gaze of Predators, Fleshly Worlds, and the Redefinition of the Human | Karla Armbruster
8 Anim-oils: Wild Animals in Petro-Cultural Landscapes | Pamela Banting
9 Reacting to Wolves: The Historical Construction of Identity and Value | Morgan Zedalis and Sean Gould
IV. Systems Change in Time
10 Declarations of Interdependence: Unexpected Human-Animal Conflict and Bhutanese Nonlinear Policy | Randy Schroeder and Kent Schroeder
11 Future Environmental Action in Canada: The German Energiewende as a Model of Public Agency | Mishka Lysack
12 Culture as Vector: (Re)Locating Agency in Social-Ecological Systems Change | Nancy Doubleday
Additional Information
296 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Text Content Note: Includes some Indigenous content.
Synopsis:
How two centuries of Indigenous resistance created the movement proclaiming “Water is life”.
In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century. Water Protectors knew this battle for native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anticolonial struggle would continue. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future is at once a work of history, a manifesto, and an intergenerational story of resistance.
Reviews
“Embedded in the centuries-long struggle for Indigenous liberation resides our best hope for a safe and just future for everyone on this planet. Few events embody that truth as clearly as the resistance at Standing Rock, and the many deep currents that converged there. In this powerful blend of personal and historical narrative, Nick Estes skillfully weaves together transformative stories of resistance from these front lines, never losing sight of their enormous stakes. A major contribution.”—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything
“In Our History Is the Future historian Nick Estes tells a spellbinding story of the 10 month Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock in 2016, animating the lives and characters of the leaders and organizers, emphasizing the powerful leadership of the women. Alone this would be a brilliant analysis of one of the most significant social movements of this century. But embedded in the story and inseparable from it is the centuries-long history of the Oceti Sakowin’ resistance to United States’ genocidal wars and colonial institutions. And woven into these entwined stories of Indigenous resistance is the true history of the United States as a colonialist state and a global history of European colonialism. This book is a jewel—history and analysis that reads like the best poetry—certain to be a classic work as well as a study guide for continued and accelerated resistance.”—Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
“When state violence against peaceful protest at Standing Rock became part of the national consciousness, many noticed Native people for the first time—again. Our History Is the Future is necessary reading, documenting how Native resistance is met with settler erasure: an outcome shaped by land, resources, and the juggernaut of capitalism. Estes has written a powerful history of Seven Fires resolve that demonstrates how Standing Rock is the outcome of history and the beginning of the future.”—Louise Erdrich, author of the National Book Award winner The Round House
“A touching and necessary manifesto and history featuring firsthand accounts of the recent Indigenous uprising against powerful oil companies … With an urgent voice, Estes reminds us that the greed of private corporations must never be allowed to endanger the health of the majority. An important read about Indigenous protesters fighting to protect their ancestral land and uphold their historic values of clean land and water for all humans.” —Kirkus
“Our History Is the Future is a game-changer. In addition to providing a thorough and cogent history of the long tradition of Indigenous resistance, it is also a personal memoir and homage to the Oceti Sakowin; an entreaty to all their relations that demands the ‘emancipation of the earth.’ Estes continues in the legacy of his ancestors, from Black Elk to Vine Deloria, he turns Indigenous history right-side up as a story of self-defense against settler invasion. In so doing, he is careful and judicious in his telling, working seamlessly across eras, movements, and scholarly literatures, to forge a collective vision for liberation that takes prophecy and revolutionary theory seriously. The book will be an instant classic and go-to text for students and educators working to understand the ‘structure’ undergirding the ‘event’ of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is what history as Ghost Dance looks like.”—Sandy Grande, author of Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought
“Nick Estes is a forceful writer whose work reflects the defiant spirit of the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future braids together strands of history, theory, manifesto and memoir into a unique and compelling whole that will provoke activists, scholars and readers alike to think deeper, consider broader possibilities and mobilize for action on stolen land.”—Julian Brave Noisecat, 350.org
Additional Information
320 pages | 5.50" x 8.25"
Synopsis:
Dispatches of radical political engagement from people taking a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
It is prophecy. A Black Snake will spread itself across the land, bringing destruction while uniting Indigenous nations. The Dakota Access Pipeline is the Black Snake, crossing the Missouri River north of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The oil pipeline united communities along its path—from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois—and galvanized a twenty-first-century Indigenous resistance movement marching under the banner Mni Wiconi—Water Is Life! Standing Rock youth issued a call, and millions around the world and thousands of Water Protectors from more than three hundred Native nations answered. Amid the movement to protect the land and the water that millions depend on for life, the Oceti Sakowin (the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota people) reunited. A nation was reborn with renewed power to protect the environment and support Indigenous grassroots education and organizing. This book assembles the multitude of voices of writers, thinkers, artists, and activists from that movement.
Through poetry and prose, essays, photography, interviews, and polemical interventions, the contributors, including leaders of the Standing Rock movement, reflect on Indigenous history and politics and on the movement’s significance. Their work challenges our understanding of colonial history not simply as “lessons learned” but as essential guideposts for current and future activism.
Contributors: Dave Archambault II, Natalie Avalos, Vanessa Bowen, Alleen Brown, Kevin Bruyneel, Tomoki Mari Birkett, Troy Cochrane, Michelle L. Cook, Deborah Cowen, Andrew Curley, Martin Danyluk, Jaskiran Dhillon, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Liz Ellis, Nick Estes, Marcella Gilbert, Sandy Grande, Craig Howe, Elise Hunchuck, Michelle Latimer, Layli Long Soldier, David Uahikeaikalei‘ohu Maile, Jason Mancini, Sarah Sunshine Manning, Katie Mazer, Teresa Montoya, Chris Newell, The NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective, Jeffrey Ostler, Will Parrish, Shiri Pasternak, endawnis Spears, Alice Speri, Anne Spice, Kim TallBear, Mark L. Tilsen, Edward Valandra, Joel Waters, Tyler Young.
Reviews
"As our songs and prayers echo across the prairie, we need the public to see that in standing up for our rights, we do so on behalf of the millions of Americans who will be affected by this pipeline."—David Archambault II, from the interior
"There is no alternative to water. There is no alternative to this Earth. This fight has become my life, and it’s not over. I think this is only the beginning for me, for all of us. Do you want a future for your children and grandchildren? If you want them to have a future then stand with Standing Rock because this is just the beginning of a revolution."—Zaysha Grinnell, from the interior
"We will put our best warriors in the front. We are the vanguard. We are the Hunkpapa Lakota. That means the horn of the buffalo. That’s who we are. We are protectors of our nation of Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires. Know who we are."—Phyllis Young
Additional Information
448 pages | 7.00" x 9.00"




















