Salish
Synopsis:
From the award-winning, bestselling author of All the Quiet Places, comes Brian Thomas Isaac's highly anticipated, haunting and tender return to the Okanagan Indian Reserve and a teenager's struggle to become a man in a world of racism and hardship.
Summer, 1968. For the first time since his big brother, Eddie, disappeared two years earlier—either a runaway or dead by his own hand—sixteen-year-old Lewis Toma has shaken off some of his grief. His mother, Grace, and her friend Isabel have gone south to the United States to pick fruit to earn the cash Grace needs to put a bathroom and running water into the three-room shack they share on the reserve, leaving Lewis to spend the summer with his cousins, his Uncle Ned and his Aunt Jean in the new house they’ve built on their farm along the Salmon River. Their warm family life is almost enough to counter the pressures he feels as a boy trying to become a man in a place where responsible adult men like his uncle are largely absent, broken by residential school and racism. Everywhere he looks, women are left to carry the load, sometimes with kindness, but often with the bitterness, anger and ferocity of his own mother, who kicked Lewis’s lowlife father, Jimmy, to the curb long ago.
Lewis has vowed never to be like his father—but an encounter with a predatory older woman tests him and he suffers the consequences. Worse, his dad is back in town and scheming on how to use the Indian Act to steal the land Lewis and his mom have been living on. And then, at summer's end, more shocking revelations shake the family, unleashing a deadly force of anger and frustration.
With so many traps laid around him, how will Lewis find a path to a different future?
Reviews
"A compelling novel, honest and compassionate, haunted by the past. Towards the end of the book, I tried to slow down, not wanting the story to end, but it wasn’t possible."—Mary Lawson, bestselling author of A Town Called Solace
"Brian Thomas Isaac reinforces his place as one of Canada’s most engaging novelists with the tender troubling coming-of-age story of Lewis, a 16-year-old growing up on the Okanagan Reserve. He’s a boy who sees and feels everything with intensity—the joy of swimming in a river, the cruelty of a racist neighbour, the complexity of his mother’s love, the sensations of his first deep kiss, the injustices of the Indian Act, which keeps turning his family’s life upside down. I couldn’t put Bones of a Giant down, wondering to the end if Lewis is just too sweet and vulnerable for the mean world around him."—Carol Off, award-winning author of At a Loss for Words
"Bones of a Giant has good bones. Isaac is a masterful storyteller with an observant eye for nature and a deep compassion for his characters. I loved this book."—Thomas Wharton, bestselling author of The Book of Rain
"A clear-eyed love story to both a people and a place. Brian Thomas Isaac is a vital voice."—David Bergen, award-winning author of Here the Dark
Additional Information
320 pages | 6.25" x 9.00" | Hardcover
Synopsis:
This book invites readers to step into a space of reflection on your personal relationship with truth, reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day.
Written in response to the increase of residential school denialism, Phyllis Webstad and Kristy McLeod have collaborated to create a book that encourages readers to face their own biases. This book challenges readers through a series of sensitive conversations that explore decolonization, Indigenization, healing, and every person’s individual responsibility to truth and reconciliation. Centered around the Orange Shirt Day movement, and a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, these conversations encourage readers to unpack and reckon with denialism, biases, privilege, and the journey forward, on both a personal and national level.
Within each chapter, Phyllis Webstad draws on her decade of experience (sharing her Orange Shirt Story on a global level and advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples) to offer insights on these topics and stories from her personal journey, which co-author and Métis scholar, Kristy McLeod, helps readers to further navigate. Each section includes real denialist comments taken from social media and Kristy's analysis and response to them. Through empathy-driven truth-telling, this book offers an opportunity to witness, reflect, heal, and be intentional about the seeds we hope to plant for the future, together.
Additional Information
350 pages | 5.70" x 8.25" | Hardcover
Synopsis:
New poems from award-winning storyteller and poet Joseph Dandurand.
Prolific Kwantlen writer Joseph Dandurand offers his latest poetry collection, following The Punishment and The East Side of It All, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Building on his legacy as a skilled storyteller, Dandurand continues to write about trauma, love, grief and forgiveness. These poems are about the streets, the East Side, self-pity, spirits and Dandurand’s people, the Kwantlen. As the jury of the 2022 Latner Writers’ Trust Award wrote, “his quotidian reflections read like parables, with startling economy.” After putting this collection down, don’t be surprised to find yourself saying “thank you,” too.
Additional Information
102 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Le récit inspirant d’une chercheuse et écologiste autochtone qui a cherché à réconcilier sa tête (science occidentale) et son cœur (vision du monde indigène) pour trouver une voie plus juste vers la guérison écologique.La roue de médecine raconte le voyage de réconciliation personnelle et écologique vécu par la chercheuse autochtone Jennifer Grenz dans son travail sur la restauration écologique. Elle montre qu’il est possible de créer des ponts entre les savoirs autochtones et occidentaux sans tomber, pour les populations autochtones elles-mêmes, dans le piège de l’assimilation par l’inclusion. Un récit qui démontre qu’il n’est pas nécessaire de se couper de ses valeurs, de sa spiritualité, de sa vie relationnelle et de son engagement envers la communauté, mais qu’on gagne au contraire à les placer au cœur de son métier. Éloquent, inspirant et dérangeant, ce bestseller enfin traduit en français jette les bases d’une écologie autochtone et nous rappelle qu’une multiplicité de visions du monde est nécessaire pour sauvegarder notre planète.
Educator Information
This book is available in English: Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey toward Personal and Ecological Healing
Additional Information
Paperback
Synopsis:
"This beautiful book can completely change how we approach science, using both Indigenous and Western perspectives, and how we can work collaboratively to help foster balance in nature." —Suzanne Simard, bestselling author of Finding the Mother Tree
For readers of Braiding Sweetgrass: Future-saving insights and approaches to science and ecology using both Indigenous and Western perspectives.
A farm kid at heart, and a Nlaka'pamux woman of mixed ancestry, Dr. Jennifer Grenz always felt a deep connection to the land. However, after nearly two decades of working as a restoration ecologist in the Pacific Northwest, she became frustrated that despite the best efforts of her colleagues and numerous volunteers, they weren't making the meaningful change needed for plant, animal and human communities to adapt to a warming climate. Restoration ecology is grounded in an idea that we must return the natural world to an untouched, pristine state, placing humans in a godlike role—a notion at odds with Indigenous histories of purposeful, reciprocal interaction with the environment. This disconnect sent Dr. Grenz on a personal journey of joining her head (Western science) and her heart (Indigenous worldview) to find a truer path toward ecological healing.
In Medicine Wheel for the Planet, building on sacred stories, field observations and her own journey, Dr. Grenz invites readers to share in the teachings of the four directions of the medicine wheel: the North, which draws upon the knowledge and wisdom of elders; the East, where we let go of colonial narratives and see with fresh eyes; the South, where we apply new-old worldviews to envision a way forward; and the West, where a relational approach to land reconciliation is realized.
Eloquent, inspiring and disruptive, Medicine Wheel for the Planet circles toward an argument that we need more than a singular worldview to protect the planet and make the significant changes we are running out of time for.
Reviews
"Grenz shares her ancestral Nlaka'pamux wisdom that respect, relationship and reciprocity with all life is essential in healing the land. In telling her stories, she demonstrates how these fundamental principles underlie the good work. She also teaches us that our ability to understand nature and our success at stewardship requires that we lead with our hearts and keep our beginner’s curiosity open. When we do this, we have unlimited capacity to heal. This beautiful book can completely change how we approach science, using both Indigenous and Western perspectives, and how we can work collaboratively to help foster balance in nature.” —Suzanne Simard, author of Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
“Rooted in both Indigenous and Western ways of understanding and doing science, Medicine Wheel for the Planet challenges the simplistic, dichotomous thinking that has led well-meaning environmentalists astray for too long. In a book that is part primer in ecology, part memoir, and part manifesto, Jennifer Grenz movingly shares her own process of learning and unlearning, of connecting with traditional knowledge and practices to help unearth future-saving insights and approaches — and by doing so, generously invites the reader to undertake a similar transformation. Wise, humble, provocative, brave, and beautifully written, this book is a triumph. Read it and let it alter and expand how you see the world and your place and role within it." —Astra Taylor, author of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart
“Deeply moving and compelling, Medicine Wheel for the Planet weaves a powerful story about the limitations of restoration ecology and a Western lens, and illuminates a path forward using the power of Indigenous and reciprocal ways of being. An imperative read for all Canadians.” —Angela Sterritt, author of Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
“In this thoughtful and heartfelt book, Dr. Grenz challenges us to reflect on how – despite the massive contributions of Western science – we humans are impacting the Earth and all life on our planet in problematic ways, most recently evident in the ongoing global climate crisis. Guiding us through the medicine wheel concept, she illuminates the deep experiences of the First Peoples, often conveyed through stories, that can inspire us to be better relatives, reminding us to focus our time and energy on healing the Earth. This is a revelatory, immersive work that illustrates, with respect and gratitude, the meaningful role that all systems of knowledge play in connecting ‘our heads and our hearts’ for a healthier planet.” —Nancy J. Turner, Distinguished Emeritus Professor in Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, author/editor of many books including The Earth’s Blanket, Member of the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia and winner of Canadian Botanical Association Lawson Medal
“Medicine Wheel for the Planet transported me gently into the dynamic world of plants and trees and offers a powerful viewing lens—one derived from Indigenous storytelling as well as from Western science. Dr. Grenz helped me to see research methods through a more holistic perspective, and skilfully shows what science could accomplish if untangled from the rigid rules of our dominant culture. With patience and humility, she convinced me that if we take the time to look and listen differently, the land will offer us crucial lessons in healing that would otherwise be left unseen and unheard.” —Dr. Jane Philpott, author of Health for All: A Doctor's Prescription for a Healthier Canada
Educator Information
This book is available in French: La roue de médecine: Un nouveau récit pour guérir la planète
Additional Information
280 pages | 5.18" x 8.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Secwépemc elder, matriarch and knowledge-keeper Cecilia DeRose presents her powerful, heartfelt and inspiring memoir of overcoming racism and adversity—One Arrow Left is a celebration of Secwépemc culture, language and the importance of passing on this knowledge to future generations.
Born in 1935 in the village of Esket, Cecilia DeRose was welcomed into a loving, supportive Secwepemc family. Growing up in an isolated meadow, Cecilia was the fourth of ten children, spending much of her early years caring for younger siblings. Ranch life was in their blood; Cecilia’s mother, Amelia Joe, was the progeny of a white ranch hand, Joe Smith, and her Secwepemc mother, Martha Williams; her father, Matthew Dick, was well-known in the Williams Lake rodeo circuit and played for the famous Alkali Braves hockey team. Navigating the complexities of being a mixed-race family, both within and outside of the Secwepemc community, would be a lifelong source of tension, which Cecilia handles with grace, tenacity and humour.
Like their parents before them, Cecilia and her siblings were sent to St. Joseph’s Mission residential school near Williams Lake. At seven years old she eagerly awaited her turn to join her older sister and brother at the mission, where she could escape the drudgery of washing diapers and caring for her younger siblings at home. Nothing could have prepared her for the cruelty of institutionalized life. Dreams of an education that might lead to a career as a teacher, lawyer, or journalist were dashed. Residential school was hell, and Cecilia was left with the scars to prove it.
In 1956, Cecilia married non-Indigenous ranch hand Lenny DeRose and lost her Indigenous status. Nevertheless, on the insistence of her father Matthew Dick, Cecilia remained true to her Secwepemc roots and traditions. She eventually regained her status and became an ambassador of Secwepemc language and cultural practices. As she raised her own six children, she took great care to bestow in them the cultural teachings of the Secwepemc identity. She eventually taught the Secwepemcstin language in the public-school system, fulfilling her dream of teaching and reinforcing her belief that “we have one arrow left in our quiver and that’s education—we must use it wisely.”
Today, Cecilia is recognized nationally as an Indigenous knowledge keeper. She has provided cross-cultural training for hospitals, courts, and law enforcement institutions, and shared her knowledge on projects ranging from ethnobotany research to culturally safe elder care. In 2018, she received the Indspire Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality. In 2024, she was honoured by Thompson Rivers University with a Doctor of Letter, honoris causa, for her indispensable contributions to language revitalization.
Additional Information
224 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
A celebration and in-depth exploration of Canada’s West Coast through an Indigenous and immigrant lens, Reconciling weaves together personal tales and tough histories for guiding steps toward true understanding.
A personal and historical story of identity, place, and belonging from a Musqueam-Chinese Elder caught between cultures.
It’s taken most of Larry Grant’s long life for his extraordinary heritage to be appreciated. He was born in a hop field outside Vancouver in 1936, the son of a Musqueam cultural leader and an immigrant from a village in Guangdong, China. In 1940, when the Indian agent discovered that their mother had married a non-status man, Larry and his two siblings were stripped of their status, suddenly labeled “bastard children.” With one stroke of the pen, they were no longer recognized as Indigenous.
In Reconciling, Larry tells the story of his life, including his thoughts on reconciliation and the path forward for First Nations and Canada. His life echoes the barely known story of Vancouver — and most cities in the Americas, from Cusco to Mexico City, from New York to Toronto. It combines Indigenous traditions with key events of the last two centuries, including Chinese immigration and the Head Tax, the ravages of residential schools, and now Indigenous revival and the accompanying change in worldview. Each chapter takes the form of a series of conversations between Larry and writer Scott Steedman and is built around one pivotal geographical place and its themes, including the Musqueam reserve, Chinatown, the site of the Mission Residential School, the Vancouver docks, and the University of British Columbia.
When Larry talks about reconciliation, he uses the verb reconciling, an ongoing, unfinished process we’re all going through, Indigenous and settler, immigrant and Canadian-born. “I have been reconciling my whole life, with my inner self,” he explains. “To not belong was forced upon me by the colonial society that surrounded me. But reconciling with myself is part of all that.”
Reviews
“Musqueam Elder Larry Grant’s intimate eyewitness accounts of huge changes in the region’s landscape and its evolving relationship with his people are a must-read for people who want to join Canada’s journey towards reconciliation.” — Paul Yee, author of Saltwater City
“Conversing with the ideal listener, the inquisitive, sensitive journalist Scott Steedman, Larry Grant speaks unflinchingly of his dual heritages and how, for most of his life, he had to suppress one or another or both. Steedman presents Grant’s spoken prose with pristine clarity, and so governmental crimes and real-estate wrongs are laid bare, and unbearable is our outrage, but necessary is our courage to rectify and reconcile.” — George Elliott Clarke, author of Where Beauty Survived: An Africadian Memoir
“Larry Grant’s conversational memoir is a poignant and honest recollection of identity politics as well as a meditation on bearing witness and surviving ecological and cultural displacement. His wise words invite you to reflect on how all of us can better reconcile with the past, present, and future and how we can never escape the fact that everything in this world is connected.” — Donna Seto, author of Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History
Additional Information
232 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 16 black and white halftones; bibliography; table of contents | Paperback
Synopsis:
“The map of the land is in our blood.”
A woman trawls the bottom of a riverbed with a makeshift plough, hoping to dislodge something—anything. The world has drastically changed: rivers run dry, rampant bushfires leave little left to burn. Still she persists searching for the stories of her loved ones, maybe even her own. She is not alone—an ancestor watches nearby. This desolate landscape is about to unearth its long-held secrets.
Inspired by the grassroots organization Drag the Red, which searches for evidence of missing Indigenous women, girls, and 2 Spirit people in the Red River of Treaty One Territory, this ethereal and engrossing drama is a profound offering to those who persevere in spite of sorrow. Told in Anishinaabemowin, English, and French, Tara Beagan’s prophetic play draws a direct connection between the treatment of Indigenous peoples and the abuse inflicted on the land. Fluid and majestic like the river itself, Rise, Red River is an invocation, a revelation, and a call to action.
Educator Information
Told in Anishinaabemowin, English, and French.
Additional Information
112 pages | 5.37" x 8.38" | Paperback
Synopsis:
The pelt of a dog named “Mutton” languished in a drawer at the Smithsonian for 150 years until it was discovered, almost accidentally, by an amateur archivist. This book tells Mutton's story and explores what it can teach us about Coast Salish Woolly Dogs and their cultural significance.
Until now, there has been very little written about the enigmatic Coast Salish Woolly Dog, or sqʷəmey̓ in the Hul'q'umi'num language. According to Indigenous Oral Histories of the Pacific Northwest, this small dog was bred for thousands of years for its woolly fibres, which were woven into traditional blankets, robes and regalia. Although the dogs were carefully protected by Coast Salish peoples, by the 1900s, the Woolly Dog had become so rare it is now considered extinct.
Co-authored with weavers, Knowledge Keepers, and Elders, The Teachings of Mutton interweaves perspectives from Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lō, Suquamish, Cowichan, Katzie, Snuneymuxw, and Skokomish cultures with narratives of science, post-contact history, and the lasting and devastating impacts of colonization. Binding it all together is Mutton's story—a tale of research, reawakening, and resurgence.
Reviews
“What a compelling story, reflecting a way of life, practical knowledge, artistry and change in the Pacific Northwest! Mutton, the domesticated woolly dog, represents so much more than a museum collection or a source of weaving material. Generations of breeding, learning and sharing, caring and trading are mirrored in the discovery of his pelt in a drawer at the Smithsonian. Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa and her respected Salishan co-authors and Knowledge Keepers have brought Mutton into the present, and in doing so, have given us a new and unique perspective on the complex history of this region and on the meaning of Truth and Reconciliation. The book is clearly and thoughtfully written, and supplemented with excellent illustrations. It is a ‘must read’ for anyone wishing to know more about weaving arts, dog breeds, Indigenous cultures and/or history in northwestern North America.” — Nancy J. Turner, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of Victoria
“Conscientious and accessible, The Teachings of Mutton weaves a charming and informative history, walking through the discovery of his pelt in a museum drawer to the modern science that reveals the shape of this dog’s life. Highlighting and correcting generations of non-Indigenous misinterpretation, the intertwined histories provided by Salish knowledge keepers reveal the nuanced Indigenous sciences of dog husbandry, spinning, weaving, and the cultural significance of Woolly Dogs while telling a lively story.” — Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, PhD, curator of Northwest Native art and director of the Bill Holm Center for
Additional Information
264 pages | 8.00" x 10.00"
Synopsis:
An eighty-year overview of wood and argillite carving by Indigenous women artists on the Northwest Coast.
Though women of the Northwest Coast have long carved poles, canoes, panels, and masks, many of these artists have not become as well known outside their communities as their male counterparts. These artists are cherished within their communities for helping to keep traditional carving practices alive, and for maintaining the dances, songs, and ceremonies that are intertwined with visual art production. This book, and an associated exhibition at the Audain Art Museum, gathers a range of sculptural formats by Indigenous women in order to expand the discourse of carving in the region.
Both the exhibition and publication are co-curated by Dana Claxton, artist, filmmaker and head of the University of British Columbia's Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory; and Dr. Curtis Collins, the AAM's Director & Chief Curator. Commentaries by Skeena Reece, Claxton, and Marika Swan, and interviews with artists Dale Campbell and Mary Anne Barkhouse are presented alongside more than one hundred artworks from public and private collections across North America, including several newly commissioned pieces.
Featured artists include:
- Ellen Neel (Kwakwaka'wakw, 1916-1966) - Freda Diesing (Haida, 1925-2002) - Doreen Jensen (Gitxsan, 1933-2009) - Susan Point (Musqueam, b. 1952) - Dale Campbell (Tahltan, b. 1954) - Marianne Nicolson (Kwakwaka'wakw, b. 1969) - Arlene Ness (Gitxsan, b. 1970s) - Melanie Russ (Haida, b. 1977) - Marika Swan (Nuu-chah-nulth, b. 1982) - Morgan Asoyuf (Ts'msyen, b. 1984) - Cori Savard (Haida, b. 1985) - Cherish Alexander (Gitwangak, b. 1987) - Stephanie Anderson (Wetsuwet'en, b. 1991) - Veronica Waechter (Gitxsan, b. 1995)
Additional Information
160 pages | 9.20" x 1.10" | 120 colour photos | Hardcover
Synopsis:
Dangling in the Glimmer of Hope: Academic Action on Truth and Reconciliation demonstrates actions academics have taken in relation to some of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Poetry, short stories, and children’s stories sit alongside scholarly chapters, mixing personal and academic voices to challenge and engage both the head and the heart about what Truth and Reconciliation—and the Calls to Action—require of us all.
Garry Gottfriedson, Victoria Handford, and their collaborators invite readers not only to explore the diverse facets of Indigenous identity, but also to embark on a transformative, collective journey towards mutual understanding and respect.
Contributions by Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian, Georgann Cope Watson, Garry Gottfriedson, Victoria (Tory) Handford, Sarah Ladd, Patricia Liu Baergen, Tina Matthew, Rod McCormick, Gloria Ramirez, Fred Schaub, and Bernita Wienhold-Leahy.
Educator Information
Table of Contents
Land Acknowledgement
In Your Canada—A Thousand and Counting by Garry Gottfriedson
About the Cover Photograph
List of Poems
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword by Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian
Introduction by Garry Gottfriedson and Victoria Handford
SECTION 1
Language and Culture Calls to Action
Returning from School by Garry Gottfriedson
Disrupting Colonial Practices through Indigenous Language Learning and Research by Gloria Ramirez
SECTION 2
Health Calls to Action
lessons by Garry Gottfriedson
Grave Concerns by Rod McCormick
A Walk Together by Bernita Wienhold-Leahy
Health Care Practices by Bernita Wienhold-Leahy
SECTION 3
Education for Reconciliation Calls to Action
KIRS Curriculum by Garry Gottfriedson
Change Begins with a Whisper by Georgann Cope Watson
SECTION 4
Business and Reconciliation Calls to Action
Too Much by Sarah Ladd
Cultural Dissonance: Job Interviewing and Indigenous Candidates by Sarah Ladd
SECTION 5
Commemoration Calls to Action
An Unholy Act by Garry Gottfriedson
Debwewin by Victoria Handford
Red Bridge by Victoria Handford
SECTION 6
Newcomers to Canada Calls to Action
The Flesh of Ice by Garry Gottfriedson
Encounters by Fred Schaub
Reconciliation and Decolonization: From the Shadows of Settler Shame to the Generosity of an Ethical Relationality by Fred Schaub
Exploring Curriculum as a Lived Experience of Poetic Dwelling in between Place Stories by Patricia Liu Baergen
Afterword by Tina Matthew
Contributors
Appendices
Additional Information
232 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 20 photos | Paperback
Synopsis:
What does it mean to be Secwepemc? And how can an autobiographical journey to recover Secwepemc identity inform teaching and learning? Drumming Our Way Home demonstrates how telling, retelling, and re-storying lived experiences not only passes on traditional ways but also opens up a world of culture-based learning.
Georgina Martin was taken from her mother not long after her birth in a segregated tuberculosis hospital. Her experience is representative of the intergenerational trauma inflicted by the Canadian state on Indigenous peoples. Here she tells her story and invites Elder Jean William and youth Colten Wycotte to reflect critically on their own family and community experiences. Together they journey, exchanging thoughts about personal and collective identity, culture and language, and the challenging process of gaining traditional knowledge.
This process of reaching into memories not only uncovers the pain of separation from culture but also provides a powerful example of reconnection through healing, affirmation, and intergenerational learning. Throughout this journey, Georgina Martin is guided by her hand drum, reflecting on its use as a way to uphold community protocols and honour teachings.
Drumming Our Way Home is evidence of the value of storytelling as pedagogy, demonstrating that it can offer vital lessons in teaching, learning, and meaning making.
This significant contribution to Indigenous pedagogical methodology is an excellent resource for educators, education students, and eduational policy makers. It should also be read by scholars and students in Indigenous studies and anthropology. Those in the helping fields of social work and health, education, and sociology will find the narrative of a personal healing journey inspiring and informative.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Foreword / Jo-ann Archibald
Preface
1 Drumming as Metaphor
2 The Drum Reverberates against the Intergenerational Aspects of Colonialism
3 Honouring the Drummer: Embodied Knowledge from within my community
4 Elder Jean’s Stories: Passing the Drum Forward to the Next Generation
5 Colten’s Stories: Memories and Values
6 Intergenerational Knowledge Transmission
Notes; References; Index
Additional Information
176 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 7 b&w photos, 1 map | Paperback
Synopsis:
Have Indigenous plant knowledge at your fingertips with this gorgeously illustrated card deck from Leigh Joseph, an ethnobotanist and a member of the Squamish Nation.
Plants can be a great source of healing as well as nourishment, and the practice of growing and harvesting from trees, flowering herbs, and other plants is a powerful way to become more connected to the land. The Indigenous Peoples of North America have long traditions of using native plants as medicine as well as for food. Held by the Land Deck includes 45 cards of indigenous plants and their properties and a 48-page booklet to guide you along the way. Here are some of the things you will find:
- Tips to build your own home apothecary
- Notes on how to mindfully harvest and connect to the land you’re on
- Recipes for infused oils and salves
- A botanical glossary to help out with some of the more technical language
- Checklists for safe and sustainable harvesting
This beautifully illustrated card deck includes plants that are culturally significant to the Pacific Northwest, including Western Red Cedar, Devil’s Club, Broad-Leaved Plantain, Camas, Wapato, and Red Laver. Special features in the booklet include recipes for food and beauty products along with stories and traditions around the plants.
This elegant, full-color card deck and booklet is your go-to guide for Indigenous plants and will give you new insights into the power of everyday nature.
Additional Information
48 pages | 4.50" x 5.90" | 45 Cards and 48-Page Booklet
Synopsis:
A personal account of one man’s confrontation with colonization that illuminates the philosophy and values of a First Nation on the front lines of the fight against an extractive industry, colonial government, and threats to the life-giving Salish Sea.
It Stops Here is the profound story of the spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence of a nation taking action to reclaim their lands, waters, law, and food systems in the face of colonization. In deeply moving testimony, it recounts the intergenerational struggle of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to overcome colonial harms and the powerful stance they have taken alongside allies and other Indigenous nations across Turtle Island against the development of the Trans Mountain Pipeline—a fossil fuel megaproject on their unceded territories.
In a firsthand account of the resurgence told by Rueben George, one of the most prominent leaders of the widespread opposition to the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, It Stops Here reveals extraordinary insights and revelations from someone who has devoted more than a decade of his life to fighting the project. Rueben shares stories about his family’s deep ancestral connections to their unceded lands and waters, which are today more commonly known as Vancouver, British Columbia and the Burrard Inlet. He discloses how, following the systematic cultural genocide enacted by the colonial state, key leaders of his community, such as his grandfather, Chief Dan George, always taught the younger generations to be proud of who they were and to remember the importance of their connection to the inlet.
Part memoir, part call to action, It Stops Here is a compelling appeal to prioritize the sacred over oil and extractive industries, while insisting that settler society honour Indigenous law and jurisdiction over unceded territories rather than exploiting lands and reducing them to their natural resources.
Additional Information
288 pages | 5.13" x 7.98" | 31 b+w images throughout | Paperback
Synopsis:
From bestselling true-crime author Peter Edwards and Governor General's Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring, two sons of Lytton, BC, the town that burned to the ground in 2021, comes a meditation on hometown―when hometown is gone.
Before it made global headlines as the small town that burned down during a record-breaking heat wave in June 2021, while briefly the hottest place on Earth, Lytton, British Columbia, had a curious past. Named for the author of the infamous line, “It was a dark and stormy night,” Lytton was also where Peter Edwards, organized-crime journalist and author of seventeen non-fiction books, spent his childhood. Although only about 500 people lived in Lytton, Peter liked to joke that he was only the second-best writer to come from his tiny hometown. His grade-school classmate’s nephew Kevin Loring, Nlaka’pamux from Lytton First Nation, had grown up to be a Governor General's Award-winning playwright.
The Nlaka’pamux called Lytton “The Centre of the World,” a view Buddhists would share in the late twentieth century, as they set up a temple just outside town. In modern times, many outsiders would seek shelter there, often people who just didn’t fit anywhere else and were hoping for a little anonymity in the mountains. You’ll meet a whole cast of them in this book.
A gold rush in 1858 saw conflict with a wave of Californians come to a head with the Canyon War at the junction of the mighty Fraser and Thompson rivers, one that would have changed the map of what was soon to become Canada had the locals lost. The Nlaka’pamux lost over thirty lives in that conflict, as did the American gold seekers. A century later, Lytton hadn’t changed much. It was always a place where the troubles of the world seemed to land, even if very few people knew where it was.
This book is the story of Lytton, told from a shared perspective, of an Indigenous playwright and the journalist son of a settler doctor who quietly but sternly pushed back against the divisions that existed between populations (Dr. Edwards gladly took a lot of salmon as payment for his services back in the 1960s). Portrayed with all the warmth, humour and sincerity of small-town life, the colourful little town that burned to the ground could be every town’s warning if we don’t take seriously what this unique place has to teach us.
Additional Information
376 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover