Social Responsibility
Synopsis:
This second edition expands the provocative analysis of the racist colonial dynamics at play in philanthropy and finance into other sectors and offers practical advice on how anyone can be a healer.
The world is out of balance. With increasing frequency, we are presented with the inescapable truth that systemic racism and colonial structures are foundational principles to our economies. The $1 trillion philanthropic industry is one example of a system that mirrors oppressive colonial behavior. It’s an industry whose name means “the love for humankind,” yet it does more harm than good.
In Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar Villanueva looks past philanthropy’s glamorous, altruistic façade and into its shadows: white supremacy, savior complexes, and internalized oppression. Across history and to the present day, the accumulation of wealth is steeped in trauma. How can we shift philanthropy toward social reconciliation and healing if the cornerstones are exploitation, extraction, and control?
Drawing from Native traditions, Villanueva empowers individuals and institutions to begin to repair the damage through his Seven Steps to Healing. In this second edition, Villanueva adds inspiring examples of people using their resources to decolonize entertainment, museums, libraries, land ownership, and much more.
Everyone can be a healer and a leader in restoring balance—and we need everyone to do their part. As Villanueva writes, “All our suffering is mutual. All our healing is mutual. All our thriving is mutual.” Are you ready?
Reviews
“Edgar outlines with compassion and clarity thoughtful and practical steps toward aligning our money with our values. There are important lessons here for anyone working in finance or philanthropy.” —Keith Mestrich, President and CEO, Amalgamated Bank
“Decolonizing Wealth is a must-read for philanthropists and donors looking to achieve the change we want to see in the world. Compelling, honest, and kind, Edgar is clear that we must free funding resources and the philanthropic sector itself from frameworks that further exacerbate the problems rather than bring us closer to identifying and activating the solutions.”—Alicia Garza, co-creator of Black Lives Matter Global Network, and Principal, Black Futures Lab
“Edgar has broken through the tired jargon of philanthropy-speak and written a fresh, honest, painful, and hopeful book, grounded in his own truths and Native traditions. He offers some radical thinking about what it would take to bring about a world where power and accountability shifted and communities controlled the resources vital to their strength and futures.”—Gara LaMarche, President, Democracy Alliance; former President, Atlantic Philanthropies; and former Vice President and Director of US Programs, Open Society Foundations
“Due to years of detrimental federal Indian policy and discriminatory economic systems, Native American communities have been marginalized and left out of the economic opportunity experienced by other Americans. Edgar offers a new vision and an Indigenous perspective that can put us on a better path. Everyone should read Decolonizing Wealth, especially those who control the flow of resources in government, philanthropy, and finance.”—LaDonna Harris (Comanche), politician, activist, and founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity
“Decolonizing Wealth offers a refreshing and inspired look at how wealth can better serve the needs of communities of color and atone for the ways in which it has traditionally been used to inflict harm and division. Using a solutions-oriented framing, Edgar makes a solid case for how Indigenous wisdom can be used as a guiding light to achieve greater equity in the funding and philanthropic world.”—Kevin Jennings, President, Tenement Museum
“Finally, a Native perspective on how to heal internal systemic challenges. Decolonizing Wealth not only is an unflinching examination of today’s philanthropic institutions and the foundations upon which they were built but also offers critical wisdom applicable to many sectors.” —Sarah Eagle Heart (Lakota), CEO, Native Americans in Philanthropy
“We should all be grateful to Edgar Villanueva for helping us understand, by sharing Indigenous wisdom, that there is a path toward a more transformative approach to wealth, to investment, and to giving. We cannot truly call ourselves ethical, progressive, or mission-aligned investors until we have wrestled honestly with the fundamental issues raised in this book.”—Andrea Armeni, co-founder and Executive Director, Transform Finance
Additional Information
240 pages | 5.56" x 8.50" | Paperback
Synopsis:
In the last decade, the relationship between settler Canadians and Indigenous Peoples has been highlighted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the Idle No More movement, the Wet'suwet'en struggle against pipeline development and other Indigenous-led struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and decolonization. Increasing numbers of Canadians are beginning to recognize how settler colonialism continues to shape relationships on these lands. With this recognition comes the question many settler Canadians are now asking, what can I do?
Living in Indigenous Sovereignty lifts up the wisdom of Indigenous scholars, activists and knowledge keepers who speak pointedly to what they are asking of non-Indigenous people. It also shares the experiences of thirteen white settler Canadians who are deeply engaged in solidarity work with Indigenous Peoples. Together, these stories offer inspiration and guidance for settler Canadians who wish to live honourably in relationship with Indigenous Peoples, laws and lands. If Canadians truly want to achieve this goal, Carlson and Rowe argue, they will pursue a reorientation of their lives toward "living in Indigenous sovereignty"-- living in an awareness that these are Indigenous lands, containing relationships, laws, protocols, stories, obligations and opportunities that have been understood and practised by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial.
Collectively, these stories will help settler Canadians understand what transformations we must undertake if we are to fundamentally shift our current relations and find a new way forward, together.
Reviews
“A powerful decolonial reflection and call to action for settler peoples to learn how to work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples in ways that are decolonizing not recolonizing. Guided by teachings from Indigenous elders, scholars, and activists about the importance of creating relationships with kindness, humility, mutual respect and reciprocity, non-Indigenous readers can find inspiration in the life stories of settlers who speak frankly about their ongoing struggles to do this work in a good way.” — Paulette Regan, author of Unsettling the Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada and Senior Researcher/Lead Writer of “Reconciliation,” Volume 6 of the TRC Final Report
“This is the most comprehensive book on anti-colonial practice focused on non-indigenous peoples. It draws on leading scholars and advocates from across the country and incorporates a breadth of concepts that create a solid and encompassing foundation for creating change. By incorporating these ideas, perspectives, experiences and practices, non-Indigenous and Indigenous people will be well prepared for our work and parallel journey ahead.” — Michael Anthony Hart, Vice Provost (Indigenous Engagement), Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, author of Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin and Wicihitowin
Educator Information
Tables of Contents
Foreword By Aimée Craft, Leona Star and Dawnis Kennedy
Acknowledgments
Introductions
Settler Colonialism and Resistance
Introducing the Narratives
Monique Woroniak
Murray Angus
Steve Heinrichs
Franklin Jones
Orienting Toward Indigenous Sovereignty
Joy Eidse
Adam Barker
Susanne McCrea
Kathi Avery Kinew
Rick Wallace
What Indigenous Peoples Have Asked of Us
John Doe
Silvia Straka
Dave Bleakney
Victoria Freeman
Honourings
Conclusions
Afterword
References
Index
Additional Information
264 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Synopsis:
This book deals with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, an extremely painful topic—one that we struggled at times to write or think about, and it raises some painful memories and feelings, not only for us but particularly those whose stories and reflections are within it.
The book includes essays and reflections by both men and women, because it seeks to help bring balance to our collective, equally important and unique, roles and responsibilities. It hopes to incorporate Indigenous knowledge principles about relationships and love in the hope that we can begin to emulate and live our lives in balance. In this circle, we begin in the eastern direction with respect—seeing someone from all sides, and having ‘1,000 cups of tea’ with them; moving into time in the south where we must physically, mentally and spiritually sit and spend time with someone; then to empathy or feeling in the west where our connection to a person is strong enough so we hurt when they are hurting; then finally, into the gift of movement, where caring behaviour in the northern direction drives us to actually do something about it.
Reviews
"It is uncanny how all these writers’ contributions came together in one book. It gives such a comprehensive observation of historical and current systems that create these vulnerabilities. I have to admit, I felt anger rise up in me at all these injustices. This is an important work for anyone in Canada, and will be especially useful to policymakers. Well done! You have just changed the world." - Lorraine Rekmans
"This book is a highly recommended read for persons desiring to hear truth, and to work toward genuine and responsive reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples." - Barbara Waterfall, PhD
Educator Information
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
1. Colonization, ‘Truth,’ and ‘Reconciliation’ for Indigenous Women and Girls?
By: Kelly M. Bugler, John G. Hansen, & Michael Hankard
2. Taking Me Home: The Life of Mere Hiki
By: Taima Moeke-Pickering
3. Traveling the Spirit Road: Anna Mae Pictou Aquash
By Cynthia Landrum
4. How Are Indigenous Women’s Experiences of Policing and Homelessness Linked to MMIWG?
By: Carol Kauppi & Rebecca Schiff
5. Indigenous Responses to Gendered and Colonial Violence: A View from Baawaating
By: Vivian Jiménez-Estrada &Eva Dabutch
6. Walking the Sweetgrass Road Together
By: Michael Hankard
7. Rites of Passage: Building Strength and Resilience
By: Joey-Lynn Wabie
8. Colonial Exceptionalism and the MMIWG Genocide: Bringing Words of the Silent to the Ears of the Deaf
By: Nawel Hamidi
9. Shinning the Light Into Dark Places: Going Beyond Statistics and Literature Reviews and into the Humanity of MMIWG
By: Sharon L. Acoose, & John E. Charlton
About the Authors
Table 1. Aboriginal Offender Statistics
Graphic 1. Mere Hiki
Additional Information
Pages: 150 | Size: 6” x 9” | Paperback
Synopsis:
When the Red Nation released their call for a Red Deal, it generated coverage in places from Teen Vogue to Jacobin to the New Republic, was endorsed by the DSA, and has galvanized organizing and action. Now, in response to popular demand, the Red Nation expands their original statement filling in the histories and ideas that formed it and forwarding an even more powerful case for the actions it demands.
One-part visionary platform, one-part practical toolkit, the Red Deal is a platform that encompasses everyone, including non-Indigenous comrades and relatives who live on Indigenous land. We—Indigenous, Black and people of color, women and trans folks, migrants, and working people—did not create this disaster, but we have inherited it. We have barely a decade to turn back the tide of climate disaster. It is time to reclaim the life and destiny that has been stolen from us and riseup together to confront this challenge and build a world where all life can thrive. Only mass movements can do what the moment demands. Politicians may or may not follow--it is up to them--but we will design, build, and lead this movement with or without them.
The Red Deal is a call for action beyond the scope of the US colonial state. It’s a program for Indigenous liberation, life, and land—an affirmation that colonialism and capitalism must be overturned for this planet to be habitable for human and other-than-human relatives to live dignified lives. The Red Deal is not a response to the Green New Deal, or a “bargain” with the elite and powerful. It’s a deal with the humble people of the earth; a pact that we shall strive for peace and justice and a declaration that movements for justice must come from below and to the left.
Reviews
“The Red Nation has given us The Red Deal, an Indigenous Peoples’ world view and practice that leads to profound changes in existing human relations. Five hundred years of European colonialism, which produced capitalist economic and social relations, has nearly destroyed life itself. Technology can be marshaled to reverse this death march, but it will require a vision for the future and a path to follow to arrive there, and that is what The Red Deal provides.”—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
"The Red Deal is an incendiary and necessary compilation. With momentum for a Green New Deal mounting, the humble and powerful organizers of The Red Nation remind us that a Green New Deal must also be Red—socialist, committed to class struggle, internationalist in orientation, and opposed to the settler-colonial theft of Indigenous lands and resources. Redistribution also requires reparations and land back. The Red Deal is a profound call to action for us all."—Harsha Walia, author of Undoing Border Imperialism and Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
“We really need The Red Deal because it forces open a critical conversation on how Land Back can be a platform for mass mobilization and collective struggle. The Red Deal poignantly argues that if we do not foreground decolonization and Indigenous liberation in climate justice strategies such as the Green New Deal, we will reproduce the violence of the original New Deal that dammed life-giving rivers and further dispossessed Indigenous peoples of their lands. Strategically, The Red Deal shows how, if we understand green infrastructure and economic restructuring as anticolonial struggle, as well as an anticapitalist, we can move from reforms that deny Indigenous jurisdiction towards just coalitions for repossession that radically rethink environmental policy and land protection without sacrificing Indigenous life and relations.”—Shiri Pasternak, author of Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State
“The Red Deal asserts that the fight for climate justice must center Native people when it comes to the issues that disproportionately impact Native communities, but it also communicates what the Green New Deal does not — namely, that public lands are stolen lands and climate change is significantly caused by just a few industries, which the government has at worst neglected to hold accountable and at best assisted in their efforts to mine the earth for resources in a move that put profits over people.” —Teen Vogue
“For the Red Nation, living and being interdependent with Mother Nature is explicitly anticapitalist. An ethos merely hinted at in the Green New Deal, The Red Deal understands that capitalism fundamentally protects wealth, not life”—The Politic
“The Red Nation also names Black abolitionists as an inspiration for the Red Deal, citing the links between mass incarceration and detention and climate change. They further note that police departments, prisons, and the U.S. military receive billions of taxpayer dollars annually while doing irreparable harm to Native Americans, Black people, and the Earth.” —Essence
Educator Information
Excerpt from the book:
The Red Deal begins with the oldest yet often forgotten struggle on this continent: ending the occupation. While usually erased from the history of this nation, settler colonial occupation has fundamentally shaped the development of the United States and indeed the world that it dominates economically and politically. Ending the occupation links those of us in the seat of empire with those who face its weapons, soldiers, and policies around the world. Together we share the common enemy of US imperialism, and Indigenous people here have fought against it since the first settlers began to occupy our lands by force. It is important to remember that the very first act of US imperialism was the military and settler incursions on Indigenous land as the fledgling colonies expanded westward. This is why we begin with ending the occupation.
The struggle against occupation on this continent has remained strong throughout history and continues to this day. We’ve seen this in the global uprisings led by Black relatives who have been resisting the colonization of Africa and the enslavement and oppression of African people stolen to work on this continent for centuries. The uprisings during the summer of 2020, even with the global COVID-19 pandemic, built upon the decades of Black resistance to police violence and the everyday brutality of American society towards Black people, and exploded into some of the largest mobilizations in US history. The spread of uprisings throughout cities across the country was also marked by the sharpening of tactics and clarity of the roots of the issues, with images of burnt down police precincts and flipped cop cars evoking memories of Black and Indigenous resistance to slave plantations and frontier forts. Calls for abolition of police and prisons arose with renewed volume, stretching forward from a long history of abolitionist struggle.
It is important that we continue nurturing these histories and movements of struggle against occupation on these lands and continue to build relationships with others globally who face the violence of occupation. We begin with addressing those things that act as obstacles to our collective liberation: the prisons and detention centers filled with our family members; the police officers and prison guards who stand between us and the capitalist interests they defend; and the military, police, and vigilantes who murder our relatives. As we know, colonial occupation is upheld by constant threats of violence and in many instances, actual violence. It is therefore no surprise that these obstacles to our life and wellbeing that employ violence in order to maintain the occupation, receive the largest proportions of resources by the US settler state. We seek to dismantle these institutions that get in our way of living good lives, and we aim to divert resources away from them through divestment.
This is just the first step, though. It is not enough to be against any one thing, even something as big, evil, and all-encompassing as colonial occupation. Ending the occupation gives us the space to breathe and envision other possibilities that we are for, and we must be clear about what we are for. We are for Indigenous life, for the life of all human and other-than-human beings. And in order to live good lives, we must heal ourselves from the destruction caused by colonialism and capitalism by stopping what harms us and desecrates our land and begin to build what will sustain us.
Additional Information
144 pages | 5.00" x 7.00" | b&w illustrations
Authenticity Note: The Red Nation is a coalition of Native and non-Native activists, educators, students, and community organizers advocating Native liberation. The Red Deal was written collectively by members of the Red Nation and the allied movements and community members who comprised the Red Deal coalition. Everyone from youth to elders; from knowledge keepers to farmers contributed to the creation of The Red Deal. It's up to readers to determine if this title works as an authentic resource for their purposes
Synopsis:
Charged with fresh material and new perspectives, this updated edition of the groundbreaking biography From Brotherhood to Nationhood brings George Manuel and his fighting tradition into the present.
George Manuel (19201989) was the strategist and visionary behind the modern Indigenous movement in Canada. A three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, he laid the groundwork for what would become the Assembly of First Nations and was the founding president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. Authors Peter McFarlane and Doreen Manuel follow him on a riveting journey from his childhood on a Shuswap reserve through three decades of fierce and dedicated activism.
In these pages, an all-new foreword by celebrated Mi'kmaq lawyer and activist Pam Palmater is joined by an afterword from Manuel’s granddaughter, land defender Kanahus Manuel. This edition features new photos and previously untold stories of the pivotal roles that the women of the Manuel family played and continue to play in the battle for Indigenous rights.
Reviews
“Brotherhood to Nationhood is more than just a biography of the life of George Manuel; it demonstrates the roots of an Indigenous internationalism and political theory that is grounded in the ethics, knowledge, and practices of the Secwepemc people.” – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of As We Have Always Done
Educator Information
Table of Contents
Foreword - Dr. Pamela Palmater
Preface - Peter McFarlane
Preface - Doreen Manuel
Part I. The Neck of the Chicken
1. Paradise, Paradise Lost, 1960
2. The Hard-Luck Shuswap Kid, 1920–1932
3. White Plague, Red Victims, 1932–1954
4. Local Agitator to Provincial Leader, 1955–1960
5. A Future for Your Children, 1960–1963
Part II. Building the National Movement
6. Community Development and the Arthur Laing Gang, 1965–1967
7. Down the Garden Path: Chretien Andras Consultations, 1968–1969
8. From White Paper to Red Paper, 1969–1970
9. The National Chief
10. The National Indian Philosophy, 1971–1972
Part III. Indian Shogun
11. International Travels
12. Land Title and the James Bay Battle, 1972–1973
13. Red Power
14. Political Eruptions in British Columbia, 1975
15. A Voice for the Fourth World, 1975–1976
16. Back to British Columbia,1976–1977
17. The Peoples’ Movement, 1977–1979
18. Constitutional Express, 1980
Part IV. Final Days
19. European Express, 1981–1982
20. Passing the Torch, 1982–1989
Epilogue
Afterword - Kanahus Manuel
Additional Information
402 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Revised, 2nd Edition
Synopsis:
Fears about climate change are fueling an epidemic of despair across the world: adults worry about their children’s future; thirty-somethings question whether they should have kids or not; and many young people honestly believe they have no future at all.
In the face of extreme eco-anxiety, scholar and award-winning author Elin Kelsey argues that our hopelessness—while an understandable reaction—is hampering our ability to address the very real problems we face. Kelsey offers a powerful solution: hope itself.
Hope Matters boldly breaks through the narrative of doom and gloom to show why evidence-based hope, not fear, is our most powerful tool for change. Kelsey shares real-life examples of positive climate news that reveal the power of our mindsets to shape reality, the resilience of nature, and the transformative possibilities of individual and collective action. And she demonstrates how we can build on positive trends to work toward a sustainable and just future, before it’s too late.
Reviews
“Like Elin, I have met countless people who have lost hope in many countries. Most were apathetic. Some were angry. Others depressed. Because, they told me, their future has been compromised and there was nothing they could do about it. But there is something they can do. This book comes at just the right moment. It brings a message of hope to help curb the negativity, the gloom and doom we are confronted with each day. It is NOT too late if we get together and take action, NOW.” —Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace
“Elin Kelsey is that rare creature—perhaps unique?—who writes with the acuity of a scientist, the grace of a poet, and the heart of a mother. After decades of fighting the good fight on behalf of her beloved oceans and their wildlife, she realizes that our conversations about environmentalism are often thwarted by overwhelming doubt and despair. Hope Matters is a clarion call to reawaken our spirits and renew our efforts, filled with engaging success stories, lyrical nature writing, and actionable ideas. 'We can recognize the urgency of the problem and be inspired by the resilience of other species,' Kelsey writes. This is a book to inspire resilience: for our children, for our leaders, for ourselves.”— Anne Nelson, Fellow, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute, Columbia University School for International and Public Affairs, and author of Suzanne’s Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris
“In a time when so much of the news on biodiversity is depressing, Dr. Elin Kelsey reminds us that there are good reasons to be hopeful. This book is a tonic in hard times.”—Claudia Dreifus, instructor in Columbia University’s Masters in Sustainability Management program and author of Scientific Conversations: Interviews on Science from the New York Times
Additional Information
240 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"
Synopsis:
Author Layla F. Saad wrote Me and White Supremacy to encourage people who hold white privilege to examine their (often unconscious) racist thoughts and behaviors through a unique, 28-day reflection process complete with journaling prompts. This guided journal, which includes the book's original weekly prompts and lots of space for note-taking and free-writing, is the perfect place to begin your antiracism journey. You will unpack:
Week One: White Privilege; White Fragility; Tone Policing; White Silence; White Superiority; White Exceptionalism
Week Two: Color Blindness; Anti-Blackness against Black Women, Black Men, and Black Children; Racist Stereotypes; Cultural Appropriation
Week Three: White Apathy; White Centering; Tokenism; White Saviorism; Optical Allyship; Being Called Out/Called In
Week Four: Friends; Family; Values; Losing Privilege; Your Commitments.
Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change. Create the change the world needs by creating change within yourself.
Additional Information
304 pages | 5.25" x 7.75"
Synopsis:
This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
Based on the viral Instagram challenge that captivated participants worldwide, Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey, complete with journal prompts, to do the necessary and vital work that can ultimately lead to improving race relations.
Updated and expanded from the original workbook (downloaded by nearly 100,000 people), this critical text helps you take the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources, giving you the language to understand racism, and to dismantle your own biases, whether you are using the book on your own, with a book club, or looking to start family activism in your own home.
This book will walk you step-by-step through the work of examining:
- Examining your own white privilege
- What allyship really means
- Anti-blackness, racial stereotypes, and cultural appropriation
- Changing the way that you view and respond to race
- How to continue the work to create social change
Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change.
Reviews
"Layla Saad moves her readers from their heads into their hearts, and ultimately, into their practice. We won't end white supremacy through an intellectual understanding alone; we must put that understanding into action."—Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller White Fragility
"Layla Saad is one of the most important and valuable teachers we have right now on the subject of white supremacy and racial injustice."—New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert
"As an educator and writer in this space, I well understand the difficulties of productive discourse on topics like white supremacy, white fragility, and complicity. In Me and White Supremacy, Layla not only engages readers effectively – she hands them the tools they need to change themselves so that they can better the lives of millions of people worldwide." - Rachel Cargle, activist, writer, and lecturer
Additional Information
256 pages | 5.25" x 7.75"
Synopsis:
Canada’s Indian Act is infamously sexist. Through many iterations of the legislation a woman’s status rights flowed from her husband, and even once it was amended to reinstate rights lost through marriage or widowhood, First Nations women could not necessarily pass status on to their descendants.
That injustice has rightly been subject to much scrutiny, but what has it meant for First Nations men? In an original complement to studies focused on the implications of the act for women, Martin J. Cannon challenges the decades-long assumption of case law and politics that the act has affected Indigenous people as either “women” or “Indians” – but not both. He argues that sexism and racialization must instead be understood as interlocking within the law. This double discrimination has been used to disrupt gender complementarity between Indigenous men and women, and to undercut the identities of Indigenous men through their female forebears.
By restorying historically patriarchal legislation and Indigenous masculinity, Men, Masculinity, and the Indian Act encourages Indigenous men to begin to articulate the complex ways in which their life’s journey is shaped by discrimination directed at Indigenous women. Only then can a transformative discussion about Indigenous nationhood, citizenship, and reconciliation take place.
Scholars and students of Indigenous studies and gender studies will find this book of interest, as will activists, legal practitioners, and others concerned with Indigenous rights, feminism, nationhood, identity, and the Indian Act.
Reviews"
We need Martin Cannon’s meticulous and critical work to help us reimagine Indigenous identity in Canada. This book will long be a go-to reference for understanding the intersections of sexism and racism brought on by the Indian Act, and for determining sovereign identity pathways forward." — Kim Anderson, author of A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood
Additional Information
192 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
How can social movements help bring about large-scale systems change? This is the question Jen Gobby sets out to answer in More Powerful Together. As an activist, Gobby has been actively involved with climate justice, anti-pipeline, and Indigenous land defense movements in Canada for many years. As a researcher, she has sat down with folks from these movements and asked them to reflect on their experiences with movement building. Bringing their incredibly poignant insights into dialogue with scholarly and activist literature on transformation, Gobby weaves together a powerful story about how change happens.
In reflecting on what’s working and what’s not working in these movements, taking inventory of the obstacles hindering efforts, and imagining the strategies for building a powerful movement of movements, a common theme emerges: relationships are crucial to building movements strong enough to transform systems. Indigenous scholarship, ecological principles, and activist reflections all converge on the insight that the means and ends of radical transformation is in forging relationships of equality and reciprocity with each other and with the land.
It is through this, Gobby argues, that we become more powerful together.
100% of the royalties made from the sales of this book are being donated to Indigenous Climate Action.
Educator Information
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Thinking Together About Changing Everything
The Climate and Inequality Crises in Canada
Understanding the Crises
Envisioning Alternatives
How We Get From Here to There
Taking Stock of Where We Are At and What Stands in Our Way
Overcoming the Barriers and Building More Powerful Movements
“We Get There Together, or We Don’t Get There at All”
Appendix
References
Index
Additional Information
266 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
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:
In a moment where unlawful pipelines are built on Indigenous territories, the RCMP make illegal arrests of land defenders on unceded lands, and anti-Indigenous racism permeates on social media; the government lie that is reconciliation is exposed. Renowned lawyer, author, speaker and activist, Pamela Palmater returns to wade through media headlines and government propaganda and get to heart of key issues lost in the noise.
Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence is the second collection of writings by Palmater. In keeping with her previous works, numerous op-eds, media commentaries, YouTube channel videos and podcasts, Palmater’s work is fiercely anti-colonial, anti-racist, and more crucial than ever before.
Palmater addresses a range of Indigenous issues — empty political promises, ongoing racism, sexualized genocide, government lawlessness, and the lie that is reconciliation — and makes the complex political and legal implications accessible to the public.
From one of the most important, inspiring and fearless voices in Indigenous rights, decolonization, Canadian politics, social justice, earth justice and beyond, Warrior Life is an unflinching critique of the colonial project that is Canada and a rallying cry for Indigenous peoples and allies alike to forge a path toward a decolonial future through resistance and resurgence.
Reviews
“In this moment of multiple existential crises from climate change to species extinction, ocean degradation, toxic pollution and so on, the Indigenous struggle to regain authority over land provides an opportunity to see our place in the world differently. To me, that is what Palmater’s fiery rhetoric is calling for, a chance to see the world through the lenses of different values.” — David Suzuki
“As governments try to pull the wool over the public eye by suggesting contemporary colonial acts are best for Indigenous peoples, Palmater helps us see the wrongdoing so we can become informed and be respectful change allies. Read this book to see the many faces of colonialism and to learn how truth, justice, and respect can defeat it.” — Cindy Blackstock, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
Educator Information
Table of Contents
Foreword by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
Harper’s Gone, Now It’s Time to Look Within
The Worst Thing That Could Happen Is A First Nations Minister of Indian Affairs
Will We See Real Nation to Nation Respect With Trudeau?
Evidence of Good Faith Lacking in Trudeau’s Indigenous Agenda
Why Is Trudeau Government Opposing Charter Equality for Indigenous Women?
PM Trudeau’s Nation to Nation Relationship Disappeared with Empty Budget Promises
Trudeau’s Dance of Deception on Indigenous Rights
Trudeau’s Forked Tongue Reconciliation At UN
Indigenous Issues Disappear Slowly from Election 2019
Canada’s Ongoing Racial Discrimination Against Indigenous Women and Children Discussed at United Nations
Lethal Impact of Racism on Indigenous Health
Overincarceration Of Indigenous Peoples Nothing Short of Genocide
First Nations Water Crisis Problems A Crisis of Canada’s Own Making
Saskatchewan: The Land of The Living Skies and Lethal Racism
Justice for Our Stolen Children Camp
How Canada Turned A Blind Eye to The Suicide Crises In First Nations
Don’t Forget the Racist Canadians Behind the Racist Systems
The Ongoing Legacies of Canadian Genocide
Sexualized Genocide
Corporate Conquistadors Rape Indigenous Lands and Bodies
Bill S-3 Amendments to The Indian Act and the Never-Ending Battle for Equality for Indigenous Women
What You Need to Know About Sharon McIvor’s UN Victory on Indian Status
The People Left Behind by Trudeau’s Promised Nation to Nation Relationship (Co-Authored with Sharon McIvor)
Federal Budget 2019 Indigenous Women & Children Left Behind Again
Public Inquiry Needed to Address Sexualized Violence in Policing and Corrections
Why Canada Should Stand Trial for Tina Fontaine’s Murder
Justice System Still Not Protecting Indigenous Women and Girls
Missing and Murdered: Canada’s Genocide Cover-Up
Transitional Justice Plan Needed to End Genocide in Canada
Bill C-92’s Indigenous Child Welfare Act More Pan-Indigenous Legislation That Risks Continuing the Status Quo
Bill C-91 An Act Respecting Indigenous Languages: More Hollow Reconciliation
Canada’s Criminalization of The Indigenous Tobacco Trade
Cannabis Legalization Ignores First Nations
NAFTA 2.0 – Time to Get It Right or Kill It
Bill C-51, Anti-Terrorism Act, Testimony and Questions at Senate Committee on Public Safety and National Security
RCMP Invasion of Wet’suwet’en Nation Territory Breaches Canada’s Rule of Law
Killer Whales, Trans Mountain Pipeline and The Public Interest (Part 1)
It’s Up to Indigenous Environmental Groups to Protect the Public Interest (Part 2)
Clearing the lands has always been at the heart of Canada’s Indian Policy
The blockades no one talks about devastate Indigenous economies
The Liberals Plans for Indigenous Reconciliation are Just Beads and Trinkets
Abolishing the Indian Act Means Eliminating First Nations’ Rights
The Source of Our Power Has Always Been in Our Peoples – Not Voting in Federal Elections
Indigenous Rights are Not Conditional on Public Opinion
Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Universities and Colleges
True Test of Reconciliation: Respect the Indigenous Right to Say No
The Indigenous Right to Say No
A Modern Treaty to Save Our Peoples and the Planet
Social Conflict Inevitable in Decolonization Battle
Indigenous Women Warriors are the Heart of Indigenous Resistance
Wet’suwet’en: a wake-up call for Canada
References
Index
Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
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 is Groundswell: Indigenous Knowledge and a Call to Action for Climate Change, edited by Joe Neidhardt and Nicole Neidhardt. 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/Manager, Stewart Resources Centre
“The most important environmental development of the last decade is the full emergence and full recognition of the Native leadership at the very front of every fight. One of the things that makes that leadership so powerful is its deep roots in tradition and thought; this book gives the reader some sense of that tradition, though of course it is so vast that it would take a thousand such books to capture it all!”— Bill McKibben; Author Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
“This book shares Indigenous knowledge that can teach us to listen to and be in relationship to the Earth in a way that honors 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
“Groundswell: Indigenous Knowledge and a Call to Action for Climate Change... is a powerful text that introduces a much-needed perspective on the issue of climate change. Much has been said and written on the topic of climate change from a purely logical perspective, which is essential, but Groundswell introduces an equally important perspective, that of the spiritual implications of climate change. From the perspective of Native people, we start to unravel the complex emotions when learning of the negative effects of climate change through an entirely different lens than the lens supplied to us through westernized education. There is an aspect of spiritual connection that Native people have when approaching the topic of climate change and the destructive and corrosive actions taken against our Earth. I hate to use the phrase “spiritual connection,” because spirituality has been wrongly stripped down to a non-science, when in reality, it is something that just cannot be defined by science. One’s spirit is only one way of saying, one’s being, essence, one’s present energy, or one’s connection to all that is, beyond thought and logic. It is the core of us all, and it is a feeling that connects us all, and in my opinion, uniquely respected and understood by Native people. This is one reason I believe Native people feel an obligation to protect this Earth, because we hold this truth close culturally. We and everything are one, and the destruction of our planet is also the destruction of ourselves. 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. The writers spoke of the complexities and the duality of living as an Indigenous person in western society that I have myself experienced. They also addressed the modern paradox of social media, in that in as many ways as it is bringing people together, in many ways it is tearing us apart and allowing for non-accountability in our society. It is rare to find a text that so genuinely sums up the issues of living as an Indigenous youth in western culture and our struggle of being heard when voicing our truths. I believe that this text, in the hands of other young people like the writers will be moved by it like I was. 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, appears opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant
“Reading the reflections of three young Indigenous activists (Rooted: Staying Grounded Amidst a Changing Landscape) is special and something I’ve admittedly never experienced before. What I thought about while reading this was my own decades' long growing pains, not just in body, but rather identity. My own insecurities has led me down dark walkways toward depression and anxiety. For years—and still to this day—I am petrified of the inescapable uncertainty the universe’s laws present me. I had zero doubts about three Cosmic proclamations: death, taxes and thermodynamics. Their stories are a sharp, buoyant reminder 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; A freelance documentary photographer, photojournalist, and journalist
“Groundswell is about helping one another through the threat of death we experience on this increasingly traumatized planet—in the air, on the land and in the water—and nurturing it back to life. Neidhardt and his kindred spirits offer us new, yet familiar, resources for a creative participation in that gracious process. “New” for us who are not yet listening attentively to Indigenous instructions voiced in their “Older Testament.” “Familiar” insofar as we are given to see, truly see, our relatedness and belonging to all things, great and small, in this created world, our “common home” (Pope Francis). One message powerfully conveyed throughout this book is that planetary health is primary, whereas human well-being is derivative (Thomas Berry). This message turns the infamous “Doctrine of Discovery” upside down, inviting us, all of us together, into fresh discoveries of healing wisdom in ancient treasures still alive and well for us. Again, “together”: “A little trickle of water that goes alone goes crookedly” (Gbaya proverb). Together we may pray for vibrant faith and spiritual rootedness to yield justice: equilibrium throughout creation and among all people. Such faith is indeed a “renewable energy” (Larry Rasmussen)!” — Thomas G. Christensen; Author of An African Tree of Life
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