Indigenous Peoples in Canada
Synopsis:
There are worse places to live than the rez. Still, family distractions make it almost impossible for Ray Smith and his three bandmates to rehearse every day. So, fresh from high school, the four move to Wakeville, Manitoba to pursue their passion for music.
A half-year later, gigs come fast and thick, with the group touring the northern province. However, too much partying and fighting leads to a bitter split between the band and their volatile bass player, Butch. Bad luck and sabotage from Butch causes gigs to dwindle, and with encouragement from his best friend and guitarist, Ray decides to join a new, well-known band, where his music career takes off. Soon he’s recognized on the street, has spots on TV, and back home he’s hailed a hero.
But success has a dark underbelly. A girl goes missing, and Ray’s loved ones are terrorized by a faceless, vengeful stalker. The question isn’t the culprit’s identity—Ray’s almost positive he knows who’s responsible. But stopping the killer before someone else is murdered…that’s a whole other story.
Additional Information
234 pages | 5.25" x 8.00"
Synopsis:
Step into a fascinating world of nature and art. These scenes of Mother Nature provide the opportunity to explore colours and creativity. The accompanying cultural teachings will inspire as you colour and in your life.
Educator Information
The publisher of this colouring book for adults has noted that it can be enjoyed by all ages.
Additional Information
21 x 0.3 x 21 cm
Synopsis:
Embrace Your Divine Feminine Energy
Create new rituals and self-care habits with this oracle deck. These sacred inspirational cards inspired by land-based practises of the Metis people serve as a daily mental healer.
Re-energize and connect to the Metis culture. These oracle cards are the perfect way to help you slow down and awaken to the energy around and inside you. Andrea Menard writes beautifully while invoking connections to the land and indigenous teachings; use these cards as friendly reminders to dive into your divine feminine energy. Andrea Menard is a Metis woman whose Michif ancestry originates from St. Laurent, Manitoba, Canada. She is deeply influenced by Sacred Elements and guided by the teachings of her ancestral Grandmothers.
Enjoy colorful and beautifully layered art. These unique images bring emotional healing and a deep awakening to divine feminine energy. Sacred women, men, and gender-fluid individuals will find wisdom on every card. Enjoy 52 cards with beautiful images of original artwork by Metis painter, Leah Marie Dorion. Leah is an interdisciplinary Metis artist raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, who views her Metis heritage as a unique bridge connecting all people to a greater knowledge.
Inside, you'll find:
• Ancient wisdom and teachings from Andrea Menard set to transform you
• Beautifully layered art from Leah Marie Dorion on a deck of cards set to awaken you
• A handbook guide set to spark your divine feminine energy
If you need a gift for the sacred woman in your life, you'll love Seeds of the Sacred Feminine.
Reviews
"What a feast! This collection of inspirational cards invoking the wisdom of the feminine is created entirely by Indigenous women, permeated by the fierce and tender heart of the Grandmothers. The artwork is glorious, the teachings are both luminous and grounded, the combination truly transformational. I will be gifting these cards, with the accompanying handbook, again and again."- Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and God of Love
"The Seeds from the Sacred Feminine is a delicate, gentle, and kind teaching that will help you get in touch with our sacred grandmothers, our guides for being in tune with nature and mother earth. Using this wisdom will draw you into the natural laws of Earth by helping you to return to emotional and mental harmony based on balancing yourself with the four sacred directions. The Messages are a special and comfortable way to be with the spirits and nature."- Barbara Hand Clow, author of Awakening the Planetary Mind and Alchemy of Nine Dimensions
"These are beautiful inspirational cards. They follow the medicine wheel paying attention to the land, water, wind and sun. May we all pay heed and allow our souls to rest upon any given day, to meditate on the thought and allow spirit to carry us to that place of wholeness." - Louise B. Halfe, author of The Crooked Good and Burning in This Midnight
"What a wonderfully refreshing idea. Truly inspired by the spirit of the female life-giver as it yields the tremendous opening of the passageway to life to be lived to its fullest potential. As has been prophesied the female energy is leading the way to renewal and prosperity as the Creator had intended." - Tom McCallum, Metis Elder, lodge keeper
"The Seeds From The Sacred Feminine wisdom deck is a powerful invitation to build a deeper relationship with all of creation. Each card carries beautiful medicine teachings that invoke a great understanding of all aspects of self. This deck carries a vibration of grace, love and truth. I highly recommend this gorgeous deck to all who wish to connect to Indigenous Earth and Spirit wisdom. It will enhance your divine gifts, remind you of your inherent knowing, and delight you with its beautiful artwork."- Asha Frost, Anishinaabekwe bestselling author of You are The Medicine
Additional Information
89 page handbook | 52 Cards | 4.00" x 6.00"
Synopsis:
Shelley Niro is widely known for her ability to explore Traditional Stories, transgress boundaries, and embody the ethos of her matriarchal culture. A member of the Kanyen’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, she uses a wide variety of media, including photography, installation, film, and painting to bring greater visibility to Indigenous women and girls.
Pushing the limits of photography, Niro incorporates imagery from Traditional Stories to focus on contemporary subjects with wit, irony, and parody. Throughout her work — in her portraiture, sculptures, landscape paintings, photography, and film and video work — Niro challenges common preconceptions about gender, culture, and Indigenous Peoples.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch brings together 215 reproductions from Niro’s expansive oeuvre, including work published here for the first time. Also included in this career retrospective are three major essays about Niro’s work by Melissa Bennett, Greg Hill, and David W. Penney, as well as texts from seven guest artists, scholars, and curators. Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch accompanies an international touring exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian with the collaboration of the National Gallery of Canada.
Additional Information
304 pages | 8.25" x 9.62"
Synopsis:
Place names are powerful, and their significance extends far beyond words. Learning and embracing the original Indigenous phrases used to describe the world around us acknowledges the impact of colonization, recognizes First Peoples’ ongoing relationship to the land, and honours their traditional way of being. In Snuneymuxw Mulstimuxw, Traditional Knowledge Keeper and respected Elder Geraldine Manson, C’tasi:a offers an extensive survey of the history and meaning of local Hul’q’umi’num place names and origin stories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
Produced through a partnership between Snuneymuxw First Nation, Vancouver Island University, and New Society Publishers, this beautifully illustrated, full-colour booklet gathers and shares the rich history of the Snuneymuxw’s living landscape as passed down through generations from time immemorial. From how Xw’ulhquyum (Snake Island) and other sites of significance got their names to ancient stories such as the bringing of fire by Qeyux to the Tle:ltxw people, the cultural history chronicled in these pages provides a unique lens through which to view and understand nearby lands and waters.
In addition to the sacred cultural narratives distilled from the teachings of the Ancestors, Snuneymuxw Mulstimuxw delves into more recent historical events, told from the perspective of those who experienced them firsthand or whose families are still experiencing the intergenerational effects. This invaluable work is complemented by a series of maps integrating traditional Hul’q’umi’num place names into their present day context.
Educator Information
In Snuneymuxw Mulstimuxw Elder C’tasi:a offers an extensive survey of Hul’q’umi’num place names, sites of significance, and origin stories of the Snuneymuxw Nation.
Embracing the original Indigenous names for the world around us, this book acknowledges the impact of colonization and honours First Peoples’ ongoing relationship with the land.
Additional Information
42 Pages | 8.5" x 11" | Paperback
All proceeds from the sale of this work are donated to Youth and Elders events and youth who need finances to attend events.
Synopsis:
A vital collection weaving history, personal experience, and Indigenous resilience.
Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân is a wonder. It plays with form, space, and language, comparing meanings in English and nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree). The reader’s attention is drawn to the restrictive and imposed constructs of English grammar, the way it boxes in interpretation and cadence.
With inspiring defiance, Wanda John-Kehewin demonstrates which magics cannot be suppressed. Broken into three sections, Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead looks at the sickening grip of colonialism: its ongoing detriment to the mental health of Indigenous people, its theft of language, and the scope of its intergenerational harms. The author places herself, her work, and her family’s personal experiences in the context of a historical timeline running from the so-called doctrine of discovery to the present day. Recounting the two in tandem reveals the unrelenting nature of violence and, in turn, resistance. There is great power in truth; John-Kehewin “stands in her truth” so that other survivors may stand in theirs.
Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools resource collection as being useful for grades 11 and 12 for English Language Arts, English First Peoples, Social Studies.
Content Warning: Coarse language, mature content: references to abuse, trauma, suicide.
Additional Information
96 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Stephen Kakfwi was born in a bush camp on the edge of the Arctic Circle in 1950. In a family torn apart by tuberculosis, alcohol and the traumas endured by generations in residential school, he emerged as a respected Dene elder and eventually the Premier of the Northwest Territories.
Stephen belongs to a cohort of young northerners who survived the childhood abuses of residential school only to find themselves as teenagers in another residential school where one Oblate father saw them as the next generation of leaders, and gave them the skills they would need to succeed. Kakfwi, schooled on civil rights and 1960s protest songs, dedicated himself to supporting chiefs in their claim to land that had been taken away from them and in their determination to seize control of the colonial political system.
Kakfwi’s life has been a series of diverse endeavours, blending traditional Dene practices with the daily demands of political office—hunting moose one day and negotiating with European diamond merchants the next. Throughout his career, Kakfwi understood that he held the power to make change—sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he did not. But he also embraced the power of story-telling, and has helped change the story of the North.
Kakfwi combines his remarkable memory for detail with his compelling raconteur’s skill in taking us through the incredible story of his life and one of the most transformative times in Canadian history. In his candid description of the loneliness of leadership and his embrace of Dene spirituality, Kakfwi’s Stoneface transforms politics into philosophy and an intensely personal guide to reconciliation.
Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Suliewey: The Sequel to My Indian continues the story of Mi’kmaw guide Sylvester Joe, whose traditional name is Suliewey, as he seeks out the last remaining Beothuk community.
In My Indian, Sylvester was hired by William Cormack in 1822 to guide him across Newfoundland in search of Beothuk encampments. In fact, he followed the advice of his Elders and guided Cormack away from the Beothuk.
In this sequel, having parted ways with Cormack at St. George’s Bay, Sylvester decides to go out on his own, in search of the winter camp of the last of the remaining Beothuk.
Written as fiction, by two Mi’kmaq authors, Suliewey: The Sequel to My Indian supports Mi’kmaq oral history of friendly relationships with the Beothuk.
The novel reclaims the settler narrative that the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq of Newfoundland were enemies and represents an existing kinship between the Mi’kmaq and the Beothuk.
Rich in oral history, the descriptions of traditional ceremonies and sacred medicines, the use of Mi’kmaw language, and the teachings of two-spirit place readers on the land and embed them in the strong relationships described throughout the book.
Educator & Series Information
232 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | b&w illustrations | Paperback
Synopsis:
Curious, uncanny tales blending Indigenous oral storytelling and meticulous style, from an electric voice in Canadian fiction.
These are stories that are a little bit larger than life, or maybe they really happened. Tales that could be told 'round the campfire, each one-upping the next. Tales about a car that drives herself, ever loyal to her owner. Tales about an impossible moose hunt. Tales about the Real Santa(TM) mashed up with the book of Genesis, alongside SPAM stew and bedroom sets from IKEA.
G.A. Grisenthwaite's writing is electric and inimitable, blending meticulous literary style with oral storytelling and coming away with a voice that is entirely his own. Tales for Late Night Bonfires is truly one of a kind, and not to be missed.
Reviews
"Tales for Late Night Bonfires is funny, dark, and rich all at once; each story is immense and alive. Grisenthwaite shows us what fiction can be when story leads the way." - QUILL & QUIRE starred review
"With his first book, Home Waltz, G.A. Grisenthwaite had arrived. With Tales for Late Night Bonfires, he has fully moved in. His writing is so vivid and fresh that the reader inhabits his characters, in their homes, on the land, in their talking cars. Gord has a great gift for dialogue and he writes with flinty humour and such love. I felt more completely human when I finished this book." - SHELAGH ROGERS founding host and co-creator, The Next Chapter, CBC Radio
"Grisenthwaite is a master storyteller, with a voice capable of roasting us and all the other ‘two-leggeds’ while keeping us at the bonfire, hungry for more. The lives of these unforgettable characters are at once comic and heart-crushing, precarious and buoyed by the undying embrace of interlaced dimensions, imbricate worlds." - SUSAN HOLBROOK author of Throaty Wipes and Ink Earl
"Gordon has a voice that is authentic campfire. I felt like I was holding a mug of tea in one hand, and enjoying a fish fry with the other - while waiting for his words to paint a vibrant canvas of characters. Sitting around the campfire, and ingesting memory with stories that need to be told, and retold. These stories visit places in the heart, where we each share, words that need to be said, words that beg to be read." - CAROL ROSE GOLDENEAGLE author of Bearskin Diary and Essential Ingredients
Additional Information
232 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Dear grandmother, I am writing this song, over and over again, for you. I am a stranger in this place, he tauhou ahau, reintroducing myself to your land.
Tauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and alternate post-colonial realities by Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall, a writer of Maori and Coast Salish descent. This innovative hybrid novel envisions a shared past between two Indigenous cultures, set on reimagined versions of Vancouver Island and Aotearoa New Zealand that sit side by side in the ocean.
Each chapter is a fable, an autobiographical memory, a poem. A monster guards cultural objects in a museum, a woman uncovers her own grave, another woman remembers her estranged father. On rainforest beaches and grassy dunes, sisters and cousins contend with the ghosts of the past - all the way back to when the first foreign ships arrived on their shores.
In a testament to the resilience of Indigenous women, the two sides of this family, Coast Salish and Maori, must work together in understanding and forgiveness to heal that which has been forced upon them by colonialism. Tauhou is an ardent search for answers, for ways to live with truth. It is a longing for home, to return to the land and sea.
Reviews
"Tauhou is a search for answers, of finding ways to live with the truth. Some of the stories are like fables, others like poetry, and all are a sheer joy to read. A longing for home resonates, a gift for those of us searching for our island also."— Kete Books
"This one's for the lovers of language, lean prose-poetry you can dip in and out of and think about for hours. Best read beside a large body of water."— Woman Magazine
"Brilliantly written in the best of Maori and Coast Salish practices of story, Tauhou is teeming with possibility, love, and dreaming otherwise." — Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies
"Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall takes threads made from all the colours of the Indigenous experience and crosses them over oceans, cultures, and time." — Tayi Tibble, author of Poukahangatus and Rangikura
"Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall's Tauhou is a brilliant example of what language can do when forged with intentional hands and a fantastic mind. Nuttall's work binds words in a way that doesn't hold too tightly but steadfastly contains the many Ancestors present in Nuttall's life and work, weaving together a tapestry of nuance and witnessing. Masterful dialogue and rich scenes move emotions like the currents around Aotearoa and the Salish Seas, a beautiful display of lyricism that loudly proclaims that Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall belongs in the crescendo of rising voices in CanLit. Tauhou is not a collection to miss!" — jaye simpson, author of it was never going to be okay
"The stories in this collection move like the waves of the ocean that divide Vancouver Island and Aotearoa. Once you emerge from Tauhou's narrative depths, you'll miss its imagination, its rhythms, its heart." — Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
Educator Information
Includes a SENĆOŦEN glossary, a Te Reo Māori glossary, an Author's Notes and Acknowledgements.
Curriculum Connections: Indigenous Studies
Additional Information
224 pages | 5.00" x 7.75" | Hardcover
Synopsis:
Brandi Bird's frank, transcendent poetry explores the concepts of health, language, place, and memory in this long-anticipated debut collection.
Brandi Bird's long-anticipated debut poetry collection, The All + Flesh, explores the concepts of health, language, place, and memory that connect its author to their chosen kin, blood relatives, and ancestral lands. By examining kinship in broader contexts, these frank, transcendent poems expose binaries that exist inside those relationships, then inspect and tease them apart in the hope of moving toward decolonial future(s). Bird's work is highly concerned with how outer and inner landscapes move and change within the confines of the English language, particularly the "I" of the self, a tradition of movement that has been lost for many who don't speak their Indigenous languages or live on their homelands. By exploring the landscapes the poet does inhabit, both internally and externally, Bird's poems seek to delve into and reflect their cultural lineages-specifically Saulteaux, Cree, and Métis-and how these transformative identities shape the person they are today.
I am made of centuries & carbohydrates
the development of my molars
the hunger the teeth grew
has been with me since childhood
I can't escape the mouths of others
Awards
- 2024 Poetry in English, Indigenous Voices Awards
Reviews
"Since hearing Brandi Bird at a reading in a park in summertime recite the lines, "I know / then that there is hope / until I die & then / there is other / people's hope," I have thought about them many times, they have merged with my own consciousness. That's the power of Bird's poems-they resonate at such a visceral and cerebral level that they become a part of you. The All + Flesh marks the arrival of an endlessly moving and astounding voice in Indigenous poetry. I, for one, will be reading these poems for the rest of my life." — Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A MINOR CHORUS
"In The All + Flesh, Brandi Bird maps the psychic space between 'NDN compartmentalization' and split prairies, from bus depots to 'endocrine storms,' from LiveJournal to a living history of relocation under land theft. 'My body is not an empire but first contact happened at / birth' and 'I eat / until my mouth needles / the dark.' With exacting lucidity, Bird's lyrics chart the body as a reservoir for colonial malice, a site of resistance, and a conduit for a voice that is visceral, immediate, and uncompromising. An absolute triumph of a debut."— Liz Howard, author of Letters in a Bruised Cosmos
Additional Information
96 pages | 6.00" x 8.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Mi’kmaw artists are creating a wide range of imaginative and beautiful work using the skills and traditions of basketry weaving given to them by their elders and ancestors. In this book, nine artists present their work and their stories in their own words. Their unique artistic practices reflect their relationships to the natural world around them and their abilities to create unique and beautiful objects using a mix of traditional and contemporary materials and forms.
Each artist's account of their background and practice is introduced by editor shalan joudry. Their words stand alongside examples of their art, photographed in their studios by Holly Brown Bear.
This book is a milestone in creating awareness of and celebrating a group of important contemporary artists working today in Mi’kma'ki, the traditional territory which embraces Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and portions of Quebec.
Featured artists:
- Peter Clair, Elsipogtog First Nation, New Brunswick.
- Virick Francis, Eskasoni First Nation, Nova Scotia.
- Stephen Jerome, Gesgapegiag, Quebec.
- Della Maguire, Glooscap First Nation, Nova Scotia.
- Frank Meuse, L'sittkuk First Nation (Bear River), Nova Scotia.
- Margaret Peltier, We'koqma'q First Nation, Nova Scotia.
- Sandra Racine, Elsipogtog First Nation, New Brunswick.
- Nora Richard, Lennox Island, Prince Edward Island.
- Ashley Sanipass, Indian Island, New Brunswick.
Additional Information
10.00" x 8.03" | Paperback | 100+ Colour Photographs
Synopsis:
A four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that will remain unsolved for nearly fifty years
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes mysteriously. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain deeply affected by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.
In Boston, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
A stunning debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction, The Berry Pickers is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma and the persistence of love across time.
Reviews
“Amanda Peters manages to take you home to the East Coast in the very best ways – through family love and personal grief and the precious accounting of minutes and memories. You cannot help but love these characters from the first chapter. They stay with you long after the last page.” — Cherie Dimaline, bestselling author of The Marrow Thieves
“The Berry Pickers is an intimate story about the destruction wreaked on a family when their youngest child goes missing. Peters brilliantly crafts a multi-layered tale about how one irrational act creates irrevocable harm that ripples through multiple lives, including the lives of the perpetrators. This is an emotional novel that is beautifully rendered. An amazing read from a talented new voice.” — Michelle Good, bestselling author of Five Little Indians
“A marvelous debut. The Berry Pickers has all the passion of a first book but also the finely developed skill of a well-practiced storyteller. The Berry Pickers is a triumph.” — Katherena Vermette, bestselling author of The Break
Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
“The Circle is a polyphonic masterpiece.” —Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse
From the award-winning and #1 bestselling author of The Break and The Strangers comes a poignant and unwavering epic told from a constellation of Métis voices that consider the fallout when the person who connects them all goes missing
The concept was simple. You sit a bunch of people in a circle—everyone who hurt, everyone who got hurt, all affected—and let them share. Some people, it helped them heal, for sure. Others went in angry and left a different kind of angry. Learned how the blame belonged on the system, the history, the colonizer, the big things that were harder to change than one bad person.
The day that Cedar Sage Stranger has been both dreading and longing for has finally come: her sister Phoenix is getting out of prison.
The effect of Phoenix’s release cascades through the community. M, the young girl whom she assaulted, is triggered by the news. Her mother, Paulina, is worried and her cousin is angry—all feel the threat of Phoenix’s release. When Phoenix is seen lingering outside the school to catch a glimpse of her son, Sparrow, the police get a call to file a report—but the next thing they know, she has disappeared.
Amid accusations and plots for revenge, past grievances become a poor guide in a moment of danger, and the clumsy armature of law enforcement is no match for the community. Cedar and her and Phoenix’s mother, Elsie, continue down different paths of healing, while everyone in their lives form a circle around the chaos, the calm within the storm, and the beauty in the darkness.
Fierce, heartbreaking, and profound, Vermette’s The Circle is the third and final companion novel to her bestsellers The Break and The Strangers. Told from various perspectives, with an unforgettable voice for each chapter, the novel is masterfully structured as a Restorative Justice Circle where all gather—both the victimized and the accused—to take account of a crime that has altered the course of their lives. It considers what it means to be abandoned by the very systems that claim to offer support, how it feels to gain a sense of belonging, and the unanticipated cost of protecting those you love most.
Reviews
“Like Orange's There There, The Circle is a polyphonic masterpiece. Brutal at turns, and tender at others, it's about the tremendous impact one person can have on an entire community.” —Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse
“Like its sisters in this trilogy, every page of The Circle is a steady and rhythmic observation of our humanity as Indigenous people. It asks what restitution and justice could possibly feel like when we, as Indigenous people, are all subjects of this unjust empire called Canada. This book is truth in all her fluid forms. It is an altar of love, hope, and grief amidst the relentless torment of settler colonialism. Katherena Vermette, in her distinctly elegant style, offers a glimpse into the devastating beauty of our people and our capacity to keep moving forward, one foot at a time, guided by the love and strength of our ancestors. It reminds us that, in the end, all that’s left is the stories we carry with the people we loved.”—Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, filmmaker and actor
“A perfect companion to The Break and The Strangers, Katherena Vermette’s The Circle draws us back into the lives of characters who we’ve come to know so intimately that their heartache is our heartache. With each new perspective as distinct and vivid as the last, The Circle acts as an unsettling reminder that the systems designed to help the most vulnerable too often end up betraying them. This is a stellar finale with an ending that will leave you both heartbroken and hopeful.”—Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers
Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover
Synopsis:
“My name is Sam George. In spite of everything that happened to me, by the grace of the Creator, I have lived to be an Elder.”
The crimes carried out at St. Paul’s Indian Residential School in North Vancouver scarred untold numbers of Indigenous children and families across generations. Sam George was one of these children. This candid account follows Sam from his idyllic childhood growing up on the Eslhá7an (Mission) reserve to St. Paul’s, where he weathered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. He spent much of his life navigating the effects of this trauma – prison, addiction, and challenging relationships – until he found the strength to face his past. Now an Elder and educator with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, this is Sam’s harrowing story, in his own words. An ember of Sam’s spirit always burned within him, and even in the darkest of places he retained his humour and dignity.
The Fire Still Burns is an unflinching look at the horrors of a childhood in the Indian Residential School system and the long-term effects on survivors. It illustrates the healing power of one’s culture and the resilience that allows an individual to rebuild a life and a future.
This frank and powerful personal story of trauma and resilience will bring a greater understanding to all readers – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – of residential schools and the impact they had on those who were forced to attend them.
Reviews
"I am glad that Sam George has lent his voice to the many voices of survivors now surfacing from residential "schools". I love the way Sam describes his traditional life before he was forced to go to the school and then later goes back to his culture to overcome the trauma he endured. Sam did time in jail for a crime he committed, but the real crime is that our Indigenous way of life was interfered with, and that created the dysfunction in our communities. This book shows that we had it right all along – Indigenous culture is our saviour."— Bev Sellars, author of They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School
"Brutally frank yet disarmingly subtle, sensitive, and funny, The Fire Still Burns by Sam George offers an unflinching look at the human dimensions of Canada’s attempted genocide of Indigenous Peoples through residential schooling." — Sam McKegney, author of Carrying the Burden of Peace: Reimagining Indigenous Masculinities through Story
Educator Information
Table of Contents
Preface / Sam George
Acknowledgments
A Note on the Text
1 Your Name Is T'seatsultux
2 In Them Days
3 Our Lives Signed Away
4 The Strap
5 A Girl Named Pearl, a Boy Named Charlie
6 Runaway
7 I Tried to Be Invisible
8 Finding Ways to Feel Good
9 On Our Own
10 Oakalla
11 Haney Correctional
12 Longshoreman
13 Misery Loves Company
14 Drowning
15 Tsow-Tun Le Lum
16 I’m Still Here
Afterword: On Co-Writing Sam George’s Memoir / Jill Yonit Goldberg
Reader’s Guide
About the Authors
Additional Information
152 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback