Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Based on an Inuit traditional story passed down orally for generations, The Cannibal tells the horrific tale of a family experiencing starvation when the animals they rely on for survival disappear. While the wife stays alive by eating plants she gathers daily, the husband does the unthinkable, resorting to murder and cannibalism. Horrified, and terrified for her life, the wife eventually finds herself alone in camp with her husband. She knows what will happen to her if she does not find a way to escape. Hatching a plan, the exhausted wife embarks on the journey with her murderous husband in pursuit. After safely arriving at a nearby camp, she shares the story of what has become of her camp, and her own children. Soon the husband arrives, and the camp must decide how to deal with the cannibal. Both horrific and poignant, this cautionary traditional story provides a window into the at times harsh realities of traditional life.

Reviews
"The Cannibal by Solomon Awa and Louise Flaherty is a stark and compelling novel centred on an Inuit family facing extreme survival challenges in the Arctic. When the family’s father, driven by desperation, begins to resort to cannibalism to stay alive, the story delves into harrowing themes of survival, morality, and the impact of isolation on human behaviour. This topic is suitable for an older audience, not younger students." - David D., Indigenous Educator & Administrator, Indigenous Books for Schools 

Educator Information
The publisher labels this work as an "Adult Graphic Novel."

Recommended in the Indigenous Books for Schools catalogue as a valuable resource for grades 10 to 12 for English Language Arts and Social Studies.

Themes: Animals, Death, Environment, Loss, Reconciliation

Caution: Contains cannibalism

Additional Information
44 pages | 7.00" x 10.50" | Paperback

A vivid and comprehensive history of the City of Prince Rupert, from its ancient roots as a rich, multicultural trading hub between different Indigenous Nations to its current state as an ethnically diverse community set against the stunning natural backdrop of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Since time immemorial, rain has defined life on Kaien Island, now known as the townsite of Prince Rupert. As the rainiest and cloudiest city in Canada, Prince Rupert is the perfect environment for rainbows—and the rainbow is an apt metaphor for the city: a symbol of diversity and inclusion, a supernatural gateway between worlds, and a universal sign of hope and calm after a storm.

From its original Ts’mysen inhabitants to the first European explorers and fur traders, the building of dozens of salmon canneries to the construction of the transcontinental railway, the global upheaval of two World Wars to decades of industrial boom and bust, Kaien Island, and Prince Rupert, has always been a rich, multicultural trading hub that has weathered countless storms.

By weaving together historical events illustrated by compelling archival photographs, The City of Rainbows strives to tell the story of Prince Rupert from a modern perspective, one that confronts the impact of colonization head-on and moves away from a romanticized account of the development of a “pioneer” town. Balancing the histories of Indigenous Peoples, European and Asian settlers, and recent immigrants, this book reveals powerful, intriguing, uncomfortable, and beautiful truths about an undoubtedly colourful city.

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256 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

In The Dialogues: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow, award-winning author Armand Garnet Ruffo brings to life not only the story of the famed WWI Indigenous sniper, but also the complexities of telling Indigenous stories. From Manitoulin Island to the trenches of WWI to the stage, Ruffo moves seamlessly through time in these poems, taking the reader on a captivating journey through Pegahmagabow’s story and onto the creation of Sounding Thunder, the opera based on his life. Throughout, Ruffo uses the Ojibwe concept of two-eyed seeing, which combines the strengths of western and Indigenous ways of knowing, and invites the reader to do the same, particularly through the inclusion of the Anishinaabemowin language within the collection. These are poems that challenge western conventions of thinking, that celebrate hope and that show us a new way to see the world.

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120 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

The Secwépemc term le estcwicwéy̓ (the missing) was given by Secwépemc elders who dedicated their knowledge and time to guide the community through the hell they were forced to endure in May 2021. Garry Gottfriedson’s The Flesh of Ice picks up the thread of his 2021 collection, Bent Back Tongue, describing the history and relationship of Indigenous people in Canada with the Canadian government and the Catholic church. Here is the story of those who survived Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS), and stories of descendants of KIRS who remembered "the missing” in the wake of the discovery of unmarked graves at the KIRS. Here, in hauntingly visceral poems, are the living conditions, policies and practices of the school itself, the stories of those who lived there, and the names of practitioners of the school, called out and cursed. Lastly, personal stories are given space to reclaim the narrative, taking readers on a journey of resilience, survival, pain and joy.

Reviews
"Drawing on the work of the late legal scholar Patricia Monture-Angus, I find fitting words for this book and for the former students of KIRS: first we were victims, then we were survivors and now we are warriors. Those warriors have now become teachers—teachers for those who learn to listen to the voices in this book."—from the prologue by Celia Haig-Brown

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126 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Paperback

Ela Tahoe, a runaway turned deputy sheriff, is forced to contend with a Confederate invasion of her New Mexican town three months after the conclusion of the Civil War. Ela will need to confront her heritage and past with the Apache in order to get their aid to combat this Confederate threat, leading her to look at the world from the Native American perspective once again. Conceived as a tightly paced, gut wrenching western thriller, Ela fights tooth and nail to save the lives of her townspeople and most importantly, her son.

The American Western Frontier is arguably one of the most widely misrepresented histories, rife with inaccuracies and stereotypes. Black Mi'kmaq and Anishinaabe author Tristan Jones powerfully and critically reimagines and reclaims a historical retelling of the Frontier with a focus on the historically missing Indigenous narrative. Illustrated by master sequential artist Alexander Bumbulut, The Forgotten Frontier should be on everyone's reading list.

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140 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

A new edition, revised and updated by the author, of John Brady McDonald’s acclaimed debut poetry collection

John Brady McDonald, MBSFA, a Nêhiyawak-Métis multidisciplinary artist and writer from Treaty Six Territory in Saskatchewan, Canada, is an award-winning author of multiple books who has presented at literary festivals around the world. Before all this, however, he was a young, urban Indigenous youth, struggling with addictions, the streets, and the pain and turmoil of intergenerational trauma as a residential school survivor and the child of residential school survivors.

These raw, lyrical poems are a glimpse of the birth of a poet, recklessly using language and words with abandon and without restraint. It is the poetry of an individual experimenting with the language, influenced by the works of Shakespeare and Jim Morrison, mixed with the teenage goth writing style of youth—the base metals from which a lifetime of words was forged.

Originally published by Kegedonce Press in 2004, The Glass Lodge was presented across Canada and the US at esteemed festivals. Chosen for the First Nations Communities Read program, it was also nominated for the Anskohk Aboriginal Book of the Year in 2005. Since that first edition went out of print a few years ago, McDonald has re-edited and restored the work. He also rediscovered many of the original, handwritten poems, which serve as illustrations in this new edition.

Reviews
"The Glass Lodge transcends all the cliches of the angst-ridden Urban Indian. McDonald's verse is a brilliant fusion of the brutality and hope that is inherent in the Aboriginal experience. I have never read poetry that so closely resembles my own experience as a First Nations man." - Darrell Dennis, Writer, Tales of an Urban Indian, Moccasin Flats

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74 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | Hardcover | 2nd Edition 

A lively recounting of the tough men and heroic but overworked packhorses who broke open B.C. to the big business of the 19th-century fur trade.

Facing a gruelling thousand-mile trail, the brigades of the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) pushed onward over mountains and through ferocious river crossings to reach the isolated fur-trading posts. But it wasn't just the landscape the brigades faced, as First Nations people struggled with the desire to resist, or assist, the fur company's attempts to build their brigade trails over the Aboriginal trails that led between Indigenous communities, which surrounded the trading posts. Nancy Marguerite Anderson reveals how the devastating Cayuse War of 1847 forced the HBC men over a newly-explored overland trail to Fort Langley. The journey was a disaster-in-waiting.

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280 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | archival images, maps | Paperback 

The life and times of the Premier from Red River

John Norquay, orphan and prodigy, was a leader among the Scots Cree peoples of western Canada. Born in the Red River Settlement, he farmed, hunted, traded, and taught school before becoming a legislator, cabinet minister, and, from 1878 to 1887, premier of Manitoba.

Once described as Louis Riel's alter ego, he skirmished with prime minister John A. Macdonald, clashed with railway baron George Stephen, and endured racist taunts while championing the interests of the Prairie West in battles with investment bankers, Ottawa politicians, and the CPR. His contributions to the development of Canada's federal system and his dealings with issues of race and racism deserve attention today.

Recounted here by Canadian historian Gerald Friesen, Norquay's life story ignites contemporary conversations around the nature of empire and Canada's own imperial past. Drawing extensively on recently opened letters and financial papers that offer new insights into his business, family, and political life, Friesen reveals Norquay to be a thoughtful statesman and generous patriarch. This masterful biography of the Premier from Red River sheds welcome light on a neglected historical figure and a tumultuous time for Canada and Manitoba.

Reviews
"The Honourable John Norquay is a magisterial biography that brings Norquay out of the historical shadows to a prominent place among the major figures of nineteenth century Canada. One of the most important historical studies of this decade, Norquay is a model of how superb historical scholarship can make us better understand both past and present."  — John English

"This is a beautifully written, extremely accessible, but obviously meticulous scholarly tome. Friesen wrangles a wide variety of facts into a compelling narrative." — Chris Andersen

"The Honourable John Norquay is a magnificent book. Friesen meticulously documents Norquay's many accomplishments, larger-than-life character, and charisma. He paints a picture of a negotiator and orator who ably uses humour and personal stories to win support, especially in the midst of the racism he faced." — Gary Doer, Premier of Manitoba, 1999-2009

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Introduction

Ch 1: “A Merry Prankish Youngster,” 1841–58

Ch 2: Red River Family, 1859–70

Ch 3: “The Transfer Made Us Wise,” the 1870s

Ch 4: Public Life: An Introduction, 1871–74

Ch 5: Senior Minister, 1875–78

Ch 6: Premier, 1879

Ch 7: Boom Times and Crash, 1880–January 1883

Ch 8: “Chief,” 1883–February 1885

Ch 9: “An Unfortunate Family Difference,” 1885

Ch 10: Vindication, 1886

Ch 11: Defiance, 1887

Ch 12: Downfall, November–December 1887

Ch 13: Dénouement, 1888–89

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Keywords

A Note on Sources

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Additional Information
619 pages | 6.12" x 9.25" | b&w illustrations, maps, index, bibliography | Hardcover 

From Tanya Talaga, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers, comes a riveting exploration of her family’s story and a retelling of the history of the country we now call Canada

For generations, Indigenous People have known that their family members disappeared, many of them after being sent to residential schools, “Indian hospitals” and asylums through a coordinated system designed to destroy who the First Nations, Métis and Inuit people are. This is one of Canada’s greatest open secrets, an unhealed wound that until recently lay hidden by shame and abandonment.

The Knowing is the unfolding of Canadian history unlike anything we have ever read before. Award-winning and bestselling Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga retells the history of this country as only she can—through an Indigenous lens, beginning with the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and her family as they experienced decades of government- and Church-sanctioned enfranchisement and genocide.

Deeply personal and meticulously researched, The Knowing is a seminal unravelling of the centuries-long oppression of Indigenous People that continues to reverberate in these communities today.

Additional Information
480 pages | 6.12" x 9.25" | Hardcover 

Ukraine, 1944

As the world around her is ripped apart by war and infiltrated by Nazi soldiers, Savka Ivanets works as a medic for the Ukrainian resistance, stitching wounds by day, stealing supplies by night, and dodging firefights between the SS and Soviet partisans. When her husband, Marko, a reluctant member of the Waffen-SS, forces her to deliver a coded message to an underground bunker, she’s terrified. But when her mission doesn’t go as planned, and her son, Taras, is kidnapped by the KGB, Savka fears she’ll never see him again.

Salt Spring Island, 1972

For Jeanie Esterhazy, the world, with its whispers and curious eyes, is too much to bear. Ever since the horrific accident that left her badly scarred, Jeanie, unable to remember anything about that awful day, has pulled away from society, utterly isolated.

Then a mysterious stranger appears at her house, and Jeanie suddenly begins having flashbacks about the night of her wedding—flashbacks that hold answers to the questions she’s had for years; flashbacks that make her realize the world around her is not as it seems.

Weaving together Savka and Jeanie's stories with artful precision, The Last Secret is at once luminous and transporting, a brilliant and impossible-to-forget story of love, hope, and the breathtaking resilience of women.

Reviews
"An extraordinarily powerful novel cinematically weaving one gripping layer into the next. From the frozen hellscape of Eastern Europe during WW2 to the lush green of Salt Spring Island in Canada, The Last Secret delivers a thrilling story of survival and love that held me spellbound throughout. Brava, Ms. Caron! An easy five stars." —Genevieve Graham, #1 bestselling author of The Forgotten Home Child

"How delicious to discover sleepy Salt Spring Island, BC, caught up in the icy tendrils of a Cold War thriller. Sweeping from hardship to heartache, The Last Secret is a timely reminder of the improbable bonds forged, broken and recast on World War II’s Eastern Front. Here, revenge is served tundra-cold, but with a dash of sea salt and fire." —Shelley Wood

Additional Information
416 pages | 6.09" x 8.91" | Paperback 

An examination of the barriers facing Indigenous people within the healthcare system from the perspective of an empathetic settler physician

After leaving her medical practice in Pennsylvania in 2011, Jarol Boan returned to her childhood home in Saskatchewan, Canada to practice medicine. There she found a healthcare system struggling with preventable chronic diseases and institutional racism. Shocked by the high rate of preventable diseases in her patients, Boan realized that a paternalistic deficit model does not support Indigenous communities. Through working to provide medical services in Indigenous communities and learning firsthand from her Indigenous patients, Boan embarked on a road to enlightenment and reconciliation.

In The Medicine Chest, Boan exposes the healthcare disparities in a country that prides itself on an equitable healthcare system and examines the devastating effects of diabetes, the myth of “the drunken Indian,” the inner workings of hospitals, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, epidemics on reserves, and residential school trauma. Exploring the intersectionality of common diseases and social determinants of health gained from her experience of caring for Indigenous patients, Boan weaves historical data, comments on health policy, and jurisdictional gaps into the narrative while investigating how Canada’s healthcare system is failing those most in need.

Reviews
“A heart-breaking, heart-warming story of damage and caring. I couldn’t stop reading.” —Gary Geddes, Medicine Unbundled

“Canada’s national sense of self is rooted in the myth of a fair, open, and public health care system. But all too often the medical system is a nightmare journey for Indigenous patients and their families. The Medicine Chest is a frontline diary of the struggle to address the inequities and colonial legacy, and the urgency to find a new way to healing and reconciliation.” —Charlie Angus, Cobalt and Children of the Broken Treaty

“Dr. Boan confronts the traps and assumptions she unearths, both in herself and in the health care system, as she journeys, and sometimes stumbles, along the messy path toward self-awareness and reconciliation.” —Karen Palmer, Policy Advisor to Canadian Doctors for Medicare

“An important effort at reaching out and tackling the challenges presented by Indigenous health disparities and jurisdictional obstacles.” —Blair Stonechild, First Nations University of Canada

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Map

Introduction

Willow Medicine
Hollywood in Regina
A Field on the Prairie
A Middle Ground
Two-Eyed Seeing
A Crime to Refuse Treatment
As Long as That Sun Shines
Strangers in the Touchwood Hills
An Expanding Circle
Red Dress Day
Michael’s Tears
An HIV Epidemic
A Clinic in the Parklands
Derrick
The Trade in Alcohol
Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won’t
Sweetgrass and Ceremony
The Dialysis Shuttle
Anxiety
Food on the Reserve
The Spirit Journey
Ten to Fifteen Percent
The Serpent
The Road to Reconciliation

Seven Grandfather Teachings from the Anishinaabe
Postscript
TRC Calls to Action addressed in The Medicine Chest

Index
About the Author

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

A powerful, lyrical collection of essays from the award-winning author of Following the River, exploring the pivotal moments in her life, and how art and nature have shaped her.

Like both memory and the moon, what's written here aims to shed what light it can, bringing it home to now.

How does a woman compose a life? The Old Moon in Her Arms is a hybrid book of fragments, pivotal moments and images in the phases of a woman's life, turning points rendered in Lorri Neilsen Glenn's lyrical prose.

Like the shifting images in a kaleidoscope, these glimpses into the life of an ordinary woman lay bare the ways family, landscape, loss, and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge have forced the author in her later years to examine what really matters. Here, readers bear witness to the making of a daughter, a student, a wife, a friend, a teacher, a mother, a feminist, an award-winning scholar and writer. Neilsen Glenn's artistry weaves personal history, philosophy, pop culture, and contemporary thought to examine moments and people who've inhabited her life. "Over time and circumstance," she says, "haven't we all been various?"

Guiding her exploration are the Cree concept of wahkohtowin, the kinship in all of creation, and the elliptical path of the moon.

This hybrid collection of singular moments celebrates connection, wonder and endless curiosity.

Educator Information
Subjects/Themes: Memoir, Creativity, Aging, Literacy Collection, Prose, Poetry

Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 8.00"| Paperback

This art book features artwork by Anishinaabe artist Donna Langhorne.

In the Seven Visions, Anishinaabe artist Donna Langhorne describes to you the meaning behind her seven pieces of artwork. Her visions were inspired by the seven sacred teachings, and draw on contemporary issues affecting Indigenous people.

Diana Frost from Colouring It Forward adds suggestions of activities that you can engage in to do something about these issues and to participate in reconciliation.

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8.5"x11", 24 pages, full colour book

A teacher lesson plan that accompanies the book, The Seventh Direction. Includes comprehension questions, group activities, colouring pages, and more. In this enlightening legend shared by Lakota Elder Kevin Locke, Wakhan Thanka  (The Great Spirit) created the entire world in seven days; leaving the most precious creation for last. In order to protect this precious creation, Wakhan Thanka needed to hide it where it would always be safe and turned to our animal relatives for help. Together, they found the perfect place. Do you know where they chose?

Educator Information
This lesson plan accompanies the book The Seventh Direction: A Legend of Creation.

This lesson plan is available in French: La septième direction Plan de cours 

Additional Information
12 pages | 8.75" x 11.00" | Paper Packet 

The Spaces In Between examines prospects for the enhanced practice of Indigenous political sovereignty within the Canadian state. As Indigenous rights include the right to self-determination, the book contends that restored practices of Indigenous sovereignty constitute important steps forward in securing better relationships between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state.

While the Canadian state maintains its position of dominance with respect to the exercise of state sovereignty, Tim Schouls reveals how Indigenous nations are nevertheless carving out and reclaiming areas of significant political power as their own. By means of strategically acquired legal concessions, through hard-fought political negotiations, and sometimes through simple declarations of intent, Indigenous nations have repeatedly compelled the Canadian state to roll back its jurisdiction over them. In doing so, they have enhanced their prospects for political sovereignty within Canada. As such, they now increasingly occupy what Schouls refers to metaphorically as “the spaces in between.”

The book asserts that occupation of these jurisdictional “spaces in between” not only goes some distance in meeting the requirements of Indigenous rights but also contributes to Indigenous community autonomy and well-being, enhancing prospects for reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state.

Reviews
“The Space In Between is a vital resource for understanding how the concept of sovereignty has helped and hindered the Indigenous emancipation project in Canada. Schouls is a gifted educator, who shares his astute insight and considerable knowledge of Indigenous law and politics in a highly accessible and common sense fashion that will be of interest to students, instructors and the broader Canadian public.” — Dimitrios Panagos, Associate Professor of Political Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland

“The Spaces In Between addresses many of the key issues that are most salient in Indigenous–state relations. Tim Schouls presents a good balance between exploring theoretical concepts and examining case studies to contextualize and show how important debates play out in real-world settings. This book will serve as an essential resource for many universities and colleges seeking to build more Indigenous programming and courses, as per the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations.” — Minh Do, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Guelph

“Drawing on a range of themes and issues, The Spaces In Between provides students with a strong academic grounding in Indigenous politics and Indigenous–settler relations. It articulates the ways Indigenous peoples have opened space within Canadian state claims to sovereignty and filled it with their own articulations and practices of sovereignty. Well-written and accessible, this book presents complex information in an eminently readable and engaging way, offering a clear articulation for a possible path forward for Indigenous–settler relations.” — Liam Midzain-Gobin, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brock University

Educator Information 
Table of Contents
Introduction: Claiming the Spaces In Between
1. Contending Sovereignties: Prospects for Coexistence
2. Identity Politics: Citizenship and Belonging
3. Policy: From Political Sovereigns to Colonial Subjects
4. Policy: Signs of a Post-colonial Reality?
5. The Courts: Colonialism’s Constraints and Sovereignty’s Opportunities
6. Treaties Old: Sharing Lands and Resources
7. Treaties New: Landed Citizenship
8. Self-Government: Incremental Sovereignty
9. Partnerships: Shared Sovereignty, Shared Ventures
Conclusion: Occupying the Spaces In Between
References
Index

Additional Information 
436 pages | 7.50" x 9.25"