Indigenous Peoples in Canada

In this philosophical exploration, Mi’kmaq Elder George Paul shares his traditional knowledge with those on a quest to better understand themselves and the world around them. Practiced and maintained by North American Indigenous tribes since time immemorial, this search for spirituality is informed by traditional knowledge, oral tradition and the use of symbols relating to our environment and to our universe. From the ceremonial to the sacred, George Paul meditates on the Indigenous legends, stories and designs of his ancient ancestors that offer new prospects to a modern population all across Turtle Island who are hungry to look inward.

With creation stories, buffalo sage and tapping into our spirit guides, Sacred Thought: Mi’kmaq Meditations for our Times is a book for those who are looking for balance and peace of mind in the chaos and confusion that govern the world today.

Reviews
“Elder George Paul, has dedicated more than four decades of his life to supporting the revitalization of our nation’s culture. In many ways, his tireless efforts have led a resurgence in our culture’s beautiful tapestry of language, spirit, and tradition — a colourful Mi'kmaw tapestry made all the more powerful when celebrated through the performance arts — and in particular, as we come together as a community to join in traditional song and dance.” - Julie Pellissier-Lush, Atlantic Books

Additional Information
120 pages | 5.00" x 7.40" | Paperback

The Sky Woman has returned to bring down the patriarchy!

This book is about a poet who may or may not be going crazy, who is just trying to survive in Winnipeg, where Indigenous people, especially women, are being disappeared. She is talking to a crow who may or may not be a trickster, and who brings a very important message: Sky Woman has returned, and she is ready to take down the patriarchy.

This is poetry, prose and dialogue about the rise and return of the matriarch. It’s a call to resistance, a manifesto to the female self.

Cree poet and broadcaster Rosanna Deerchild is an important voice for our time. Her poems – angry, funny, sad – demand a new world for Indigenous women.

Awards

• 2025 Indigenous Voices Awards - Poetry in English Award

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

Rock art – etched in blood-red lines into granite cliffs, boulders, and caves – appears as beguiling, graffiti-like abstraction. What are these signs? The petroglyphs and red-ochre pictographs found across Nlaka’pamux territory in present-day British Columbia and Washington State are far more than a collection of ancient motifs.

Signs of the Time explores the historical and cultural reasons for making rock art. Chris Arnett draws on extensive archival research and decades of work with Elders and other Nlaka’pamux community members, their oral histories and oral tradition, to document the variability and similarity of practices. Rock art was and is a form of communication between the spirit and physical worlds, a way to pass information to later generations, and a powerful protection against challenges to a people, land, and culture.

Nlaka’pamux have used such culturally prescribed means to forestall external threats to their lifeways from as early as the sixteenth century – when they were aware of incipient European encroachment – until well into the twentieth. As this important work attests, rock art remains a signature of resilience and resistance to colonization among Nlaka’pamux today.

As well as providing essential reading for scholars and students of archaeology, cultural and applied anthropology, Indigenous studies, and art history, Signs of the Time will also fascinate rock art specialists and amateur enthusiasts.

Reviews
"Signs of the Time is innovative and provocative, adding dramatically to the discussion of how Western science interacts with and accommodates Indigenous knowledge, concerns, and heritage." — David S. Whitley, author of Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit: The Origin of Creativity and Belief

"Signs of the Time is informative and accessible, giving equal voice to Indigenous knowledge keepers and academics in presenting the ideas in petroglyphs and pictographs. It is an excellent example of how Eurowestern academics can work alongside Indigenous knowledge experts to understand the Indigenous world. I highly recommend it." — Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams EdD; OC; OBC; Lil’watul; professor emerita, University of Victoria

Additional Information
256 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 40 b&w photos 

For over twenty years, Nehiyawak-Metis artist and author John Brady McDonald’s day job has been working with youth. Over half of that time was spent as a Frontline Youth Outreach Worker on the streets of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. During that time, John would write down his thoughts and feelings on scraps of paper and in little black hardcover notebooks, chronicling the struggles and traumas of the youth he worked with and which he himself had also experienced. Never being quite the right fit for his other poetry books, John took these poems and hid them away for years, until now. Recently rediscovered in his archives, John has compiled them, using a 54-year-old typewriter, into a work which gives voice to the experiences and resilience of those youth, along with his own experiences, thoughts and recollections of a poet in the midst of a turbulent moment in time amongst the concrete and asphalt of the city.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Modern Indigenous Voices series.

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

I wanted a good bewildering, / down deep, / as the keep of a castle.

With a voice as ungovernable and determined as Prometheus—who stole fire from Zeus only to face dire consequences—Colleen Coco Collins' debut poems are daring dispatches from beyond the margins: light-filled flares sent up from the edge of language, sentience, land, and story. Drawing on all of her multidisciplinary enamorations and rendered through the triple vision of her Irish, French, and Odawa heritage, Sorry About the Fire introduces not just a poet, but a stunningly original sensibility.

Reviews
"Fealty to the sentient. To every mostleast thing, to every impulse (sentient), gesture (sentient). Re-resourcing language to equip it to be fit: bawaajigan. telamon. mothaitheacht ... Collins' Sorry About the Fire is the story of a dark time, in which the strike of language on the texture of reality sounds a sharp off-note—and sparks; and/or the story of a light-drenched time in which a sensibility cracks open, beholding/becoming."—Luke Hathaway, author of The Affirmations

"Colleen Coco Collins employs vocabulary as a joyful precision tool, re-earthing the intimate relations between wonder, grief, and the more-than-human world. Embodying the playful and destructive energy of the cosmos, her poems vibrate like some kind of ancient, sacred rock & roll."—Shary Boyle

Additional Information
64 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

A nuanced, relational, and community-minded new book from one of Canada's preeminent poets.

South Side of a Kinless River wrestles with concepts of Métis identity in a nation and territory that would rather erase it. Métis identity, land loss, sexual relationships between Indigenous women and European men, and midwifery by Indigenous women of the nascent settler communities figure into these poems. They add up to a Métis woman's prairie history, one that helps us feel the violence in how those contributions and wisdoms have been suppressed and denied.

Reviews
"Each poem is an anthem, every page showcasing the talent and necessity of this incredible poetic voice. Dumont brings the Métis tone, cadence and intricate stitch-work into all she creates." - Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves and Empire of the Wild

"The voice of this Métis woman is as loving, tender and humane, as it is powerful, satirical and political..."- Rita Bouvier, author of a beautiful rebellion

Additional Information
80 pages | 5.75" x 8.50" | Paperback 

Respected Elder Elmer Ghostkeeper takes us on a journey of rediscovery where we gain a new perspective on the world we take for granted. Ghostkeeper tells the story of his attempt to reclaim and reawaken to his Indigenous worldview on his own terms with his traditional knowledge intact.

As he returns to his roots, he shares the series of natural signs that have guided his family through time and shaped their ceremonial activities in living with the land rather than off the land. He reveals how to follow the natural ebb and flow of nature with its spiritual exchange of precise and well-thought-out duties and giftings. As a fluent Cree speaker, he names the Cree words for the 12 moons of the year, setting out these traditional duties and preparations. His writing is a breath of fresh reality and air—air free of exhaust and spiritual exhaustion—air filled with spiritual inspiration.

Additional Information
128 pages | 5.25" x 8.25" | Paperback

On the twentieth anniversary of its first volume, Staging Coyote’s Dream Volume 3 is a curated collection of new works rooted in Indigenous values, aesthetics, and narrative structures. Inspired by their own dramaturgical practices and current conversations in contemporary theatre creation, co-editors Monique Mojica and Lindsay Lachance identify the invaluable and understudied ways that many Indigenous theatre artists are creating culturally specific dramaturgical processes and shifting the paradigm for what is considered “text.” By presenting models for relational theatre-making and land-based explorations outside the traditional “well-made-play” structure, Staging Coyote’s Dream Volume 3 is more than just a collection of plays; it offers some strategies and tools for how Indigenous artists can reimagine the structures of new-play development and performance on Turtle Island.

An anthology that identifies and highlights a vast array of anti-colonial performing arts processes, including reclamation, embodiment, and community-engaged work—to name only a few—Mojica and Lachance gather the works of artists leading these practices to not only honour how their plays are expanding dramaturgy, but to build Indigenous performance literacies for all practitioners creating on Turtle Island.

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416 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

Pat spent a lifetime catching up to who she wanted to be. Growing up in a Métis family, it would take her decades to shed the prejudice and shame of who she was, to find her indigeneity. After escaping an alcoholic relationship, she achieved corporate success in a man’s world, switched gears to become an author of children’s books, survived breast cancer, and accepted her husband's wish to participate in MAID. These challenges are all part of Pat’s inspiring story.

Swiftly Flowing Waters is a raw reflection of the many experiences women quietly go through in life. It’s a story about finding courage, overcoming obstacles, and the discovery of joy and fulfilment along the way.

Reviews
"No one could tell this compelling story with such precision if they had not lived it. Pat's journey, as she chronicles it from four to seventy years of age, deserves to be shared - for her Metis legacy, for her ancestors who could not speak, and for her descendants who need to know the unique truth of their origins. This memoir provides an anchor of truth that is honest and unashamed. We need more courageous authors like Pat Lamondin Skene." - Fern Perkins, Registered Citizen of Metis Nation Greater Victoria and Metis Nation BC; Educator, University of Victoria and Greater Victoria School District (retired)

Additional Information
216 pages | 7.25" x 10.25" | Paperback

Denesųłiné Elders Lawrence and Lena Adam have been tanning hides and sharing their knowledge with others for more than four decades. Woodland Cree knowledge carrier Tommy Bird helped his family tan hides on the trapline as a young boy. Together they share their lifetime of experience to guide a new generation of hide tanners to keep the tradition alive. The trouble-shooting tips and hands-on advice in this book will help you to make your own bone tools and turn raw moosehides into smoke-tanned hides soft enough to sew into mitts or moccasins. Combining traditional knowledge with easy-to-follow instructions and detailed colour photos, Tanning Moosehides the Northern Saskatchewan Trapline Way is a practical guide you will refer to again and again.

Educator Information
The publisher recommends this resource for ages 10+ 

Recommended in the Indigenous Books for Schools catalogue as a valuable resource for Art, Science, and Social Studies in grades 5 to 12.

Themes: Animals, Arts and Culture, Cultural Teachings, Fashion, Traditional Knowledge.

Additional Information
64 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Spiral Bound

First published in 1983, In Search of April Raintree is a Canadian classic that presents a heart-rending and powerful account of the harsh realities that Indigenous and Métis peoples face.

Written by Anishinaabe educator Christine M’Lot with psychologist Dr. Karlee Fellner, the Teacher Guide for In Search of April Raintree and April Raintree helps teachers create dynamic learning experiences for their students in grades 11 and 12, while maintaining a respectful and dignified approach to Indigenous topics.

In this guide you will find:

• an inquiry based approach with resources for teaching from a trauma-informed stance
• easy-to-use lesson plans, reproducibles, and assessment opportunities
• a focus on wellness and supporting students while learning about difficult topics
• activities that encourage cross-curricular connections and collaboration
• free access to supplemental videos covering wellness topics
• a glossary of terms and suggested resources to extend learning

Educator Information
For use with students in grades 11 and 12.

This teacher guide can be used with either In Search of April Raintree or April Raintree, a version written specifically for teens in grades 9 to 12 that does not contain the graphic graphic scene in the original.

Additional Information
98 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Spiral Bound

This is a book about grief, death and longing. It’s about the gristle that lodges itself deep into one’s gums, between incisors and canines.

Teeth details not only the symptoms of colonization, but also the foundational and constitutive asymmetries that allow for it to proliferate and reproduce itself. Dallas Hunt grapples with the material realities and imaginaries Indigenous communities face, as well as the pockets of livability that they inhabit just to survive. Still this collection seeks joy in the everyday, in the flourishing of Indigenous Peoples in the elsewhere, in worlds to come.

Nestling into the place between love and ruin, Teeth traces the collisions of love undone and being undone by love, where “the hope is to find an ocean nested in shoulders—to reside there when the tidal waves come. and then love names the ruin.”

Additional Information
112 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Paperback

Tap into guidance from the animal spirit realm and connect to ancestral wisdom with this transformative 44-card deck and guidebook from Indigenous Medicine Woman and author of You Are the Medicine and The Sacred Medicine Oracle, Asha Frost.

Everything is interconnected. All of creation carries a spirit. Indigenous people have always had a sacred relationship with animals and treated them as honored elders. Animal beings in the spirit realm are part of our spiritual support team as allies and medicine keepers, ready to help, waiting to remind you of your humanity and deep connection to the natural world.

With 44 Elder Animals depicted in a richly detailed traditional Ojibway art style, each card carries its own unique medicine. This deck offers meaningful insights and messages to guide you on your path both from the universe and in the voice of an animal spirit guide from the lands of the Ojibway people—from Elder Artic Hare to Elder Wolf. Whether you're seeking clarity, healing, or a deeper connection to your ancestral lineage, these cards provide a bridge to the spirit world.

Use this deck your rituals and ceremonies, do readings with it for your clients and friends, and share it with your communities. As the medicine ripples out, hold Indigenous people in your heart and honor how their history continues to impact your current reality.

Additional Information
128 pages | 3.50" x 5.00" | Card Deck & Guidebook 

The Art of Making: Rediscovering the Blackfoot Legacy is a captivating entry into Jared Tailfeathers’ quest of cultural reclamation. Accompanied by his family and loyal dogs, Tailfeathers delves into his Indigenous heritage through hands-on, land-based exploration. The book traces the evolution of the Blackfoot Confederacy, examining its trade routes, resources, and interactions pre- and post-1800s. It provides intricate details of Blackfoot connections with nature, neighbouring First Nations Peoples, and their rich legacy in tool-making, spiritual knowledge seeking, and artistic expression. Tailfeathers’ research began in 2019, driven by a deep desire to reacquaint himself with his cultural and historical identity as a Blackfoot man navigating a post-colonial world. This book is a journey into the heart of Blackfoot culture, told by a man who walks the ancestral trails with his dogs.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Indigenous Spirit of Nature series.

Additional Information
208 pages | 7.25" x 9.25" | Colour Illustrations | Paperback 

Thrust into the foster care system from an early age, Apple moves from house to house on Prince Edward Island without finding a home until she's a teenager and taken in by a couple who never managed to have children themselves. When she falls pregnant, her foster parents are keen to raise the baby with Apple still in the house—to live as a family.

That opportunity is torn from Apple by members of the Catholic Church along with social workers and government officials. Their vicious practices take the babies of unwed mothers and give them to wealthy families in exchange for large "donations" to the church. Apple's beloved baby ends up with a rich couple in the U.S., and is lost to her.

The Baby Train traces her life in the aftermath of that loss, raising subsequent children, creating deep bonds of friendship with other women struggling against society's rigid norms, and carrying underneath it all an unending love for her firstborn child.

We also follow her baby's path, and watch his affluent, neglected childhood and then adulthood unfold. He never knows that his birth mother still yearns for him, still lights him birthday candles every year.

The shameful legacy of forced and coerced adoption in Eastern Canada is brought to life in this sweeping novel.

Educator Information
PEI's birth alert practice allowed hospitals or social workers to flag expectant parents whom they felt might put their newborns at risk. Generally, this practice targeted Indigenous and unwed women.

Additional Information
224 pages | 5.75" x 8.00" | Paperback