History

In a highly visual and appealing format for young readers, this book explores the many forced relocation of Inuit families and communities in the Canadian Arctic from the 1950s to the 1990s. Governments promoted and forced relocation based on misinformation and racist attitudes. These actions changed Inuit lives forever. This book documents the Inuit experience and the resilience and strength they displayed in the face of these measures. Years afterwards, there have been multiple apologies by the Canadian government for its actions, and some measure of restitution for the harms caused.

Included in the book are accounts of a community forced to move to the High Arctic where they found themselves with little food and almost no shelter, of children suddenly taken away from their families and communities to be transported to hospitals for treatment for tuberculosis, and of the notorious slaughter by RCMP officers of hundreds of sled dogs in Arctic settlements.

Though apologies have been made, Inuit in northern Canada still face conditions of inadequate housing, schools that fail to teach their language, and epidemics of infectious diseases like TB. Yet still, the Inuit have achieved a measure of self-government, control over resource development, while they enrich cultural life through music, film, art and literature.

This book enables readers to understand the colonialism and racism that remain embedded in Canadian society today, and the successful resistance of Inuit to assimilation and loss of cultural identity.

Like other volumes in the Righting Canada’s Wrongs series, this book uses a variety of visuals, first-person accounts, short texts and extracts from documents to appeal to a wide range of young readers.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Righting Canada's Wrongs series.

Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

This book is available in French: Réinstallation d'Inuit: Politiques et pratiques coloniales, résilience et résistance d'un peuple.

Additional Information
144 pages | 9.01" x 11.02" | Hardcover 

This inspiring introduction to activism and social justice for young teens shows the important role music plays in changing the world, featuring:

- Musicians young teens will know and love: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, and more!

- Iconic artists from past generations: readers will learn about the extraordinary impact of artists such as Nina Simone, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Neil Young, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman, and more.

- Playlists for each social justice issue: Each chapter includes a playlist with recommended songs about an area of activism, from classic tracks to contemporary hits.

In Rise Up and Sing!, Andrea Warner explores how music has contributed to the fight for social justice. Across eight areas of activism—the climate emergency, Indigenous rights, civil rights, disability rights, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, gender equality, the peace/anti-war movement, and human rights—Warner introduces some of the artists, past and present, who have made a difference both on stage and off.

Through ground-breaking artists and iconic moments, Rise Up and Sing! shows us that a song is never just a song, and that music really does have the power to change the world.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 17.

Includes some Indigenous content.

Curriculum Connections: Activism, Social Justice, Music 

Additional Information
200 pages | 7.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover

Music historian Craig Harris explores more than five hundred years of Indigenous history, religion, and cultural evolution in Rise Up! Indigenous Music in North America. More than powwow drums and wooden flutes, Indigenous music intersects with rock, blues, jazz, folk music, reggae, hip-hop, classical music, and more. Combining deep research with personal stories by nearly four dozen award-winning Indigenous musicians, Harris offers an eye-opening look at the growth of Indigenous music.

Among a host of North America’s most vital Indigenous musicians, the biographical narratives include new and well-established figures such as Mildred Bailey, Louis W. Ballard, Cody Blackbird, Donna Coane (Spirit of Thunderheart), Theresa “Bear” Fox, Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joanne Shenandoah, DJ Shub (Dan General), Maria Tallchief, John Trudell, and Fawn Wood.

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Additional Information
344 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 40 Photos, Index | Paperback

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.

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 

“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

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years.

Steeves discusses the political history of American anthropology to focus on why pre-Clovis sites have been dismissed by the field for nearly a century. She explores supporting evidence from genetics and linguistic anthropology regarding First Peoples and time frames of early migrations. Additionally, she highlights the work and struggles faced by a small yet vibrant group of American and European archaeologists who have excavated and reported on numerous pre-Clovis archaeology sites.

In this first book on Paleolithic archaeology of the Americas written from an Indigenous perspective, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere includes Indigenous oral traditions, archaeological evidence, and a critical and decolonizing discussion of the development of archaeology in the Americas.

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Additional Information
328 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 2 photographs, 8 illustrations, 5 maps, 7 tables, 1 appendix, index | Paperback

One of the few biographies of an Inuk man from the 19th Century—separated from his family, community, and language—finding his place in history.

Augustine Tataneuck was an Inuk man born near the beginning of the 19th century on the northwestern coast of Hudson Bay. Between 1812 and 1834, his family sent him to Churchill, Manitoba, to live and work among strangers, where he could escape the harsh Arctic climate and earn a living in the burgeoning fur trade. He was perhaps the first Inuk man employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company as a labourer, and he also worked as an interpreter on John Franklin’s two overland expeditions in search of the northwest passage.

Tataneuck’s life was shaped by the inescapable, harsh environments he lived within, and he was an important, but not widely recognized, player in the struggle for the possession of northwest North America waged by Britain, Russia, and the United States. He left no diaries or letters.

Using the Hudson’s Bay Company’s journals and historical archives, historian Renee Fossett has pieced together a compelling biography of Augustine and the historical times he lived through: climate disasters, lethal disease episodes, and political upheavals on an international scale.

While The Life and Times of Augustine Tataneuck is a captivating portrait of an Inuk man who lived an extraordinary life, it also is an arresting, unique glimpse into the North as it was in the 19th century and into the lives of trappers, translators, and labourers who are seldom written about and often absent in the historical record.

Reviews
"Renee Fossett's careful research ensures that the life of Augustine Tataneuck, Inuk interpreter and guide, will be remembered, with respect." —Julie Rak, co-editor of Life Among the Qallunaat

Additional Information
504 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 4 Maps, 1 Illustration | Paperback

An intriguing look at the connections between Alberta premier Peter Lougheed and his Métis grandmother, Isabella Clarke Hardisty Lougheed, exploring how Métis identity, political activism, and colonial institutional power shaped the lives and legacies of both.

Combining the approaches of political biography and historical narrative, The Premier and His Grandmother introduces readers to two compelling and complex public figures. Born into a prominent fur trading family, Isabella Clarke Hardisty Lougheed (1861–1936) established a distinct role for herself as an influential Métis woman in southern Alberta, at a time when racial boundaries in the province were hardening and Métis activists established a firm foundation for the Métis to be recognized as distinct Indigenous Peoples.

Isabella’s grandson Edgar Peter Lougheed (1928–2021) served as premier of Alberta at a time when some of that activism achieved both successes and losses. Drawing on Peter Lougheed’s personal papers, family interviews, and archival research, this book analyzes his political initiatives in the context of his own identity as a person of Métis ancestry. While there are several publications that refer to Peter Lougheed in the context of his role as premier, few of those publications have acknowledged his connection to an important Métis pioneer family and his connection to his Indigenous ancestors.

Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | b&w photographs | Paperback

“’There’s an opening above me, but it’s far, and I have to stack up rocks to jump up, and it’s almost impossible to get out.’ That’s when I realized that I was stripped of my identity, and there was nothing of my culture left in me. It was like I wasn’t in my body anymore. It was bare and desolate and empty and cold, lifeless in my body. Where was I? Where had I gone?”

In this visceral graphic memoir, Monica Ittusardjuat brings readers with her from residential school classrooms to government apologies on her journey to rediscovering what it means to be Inuk. Born prematurely in an iglu on Baffin Island, Monica attended three residential schools over eleven years. She details her resulting struggles with addiction, mental health, and domestic violence, which haunted her into adulthood.

Equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful, Monica’s memoir is a testimony to the lasting impacts of residential schools and one woman’s fight to reclaim what she lost.

The Scarf and the Butterfly is a stunning new addition to Qinuisaarniq ("resiliency"), a collection of books created to educate readers about the history and impacts of residential schools.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 14 to 18.

This book exposes readers to the experience and perspective of an Inuk residential school survivor.

This book is part of the Qinuisaarniq program. Qinuisaarniq (“resiliency”) is a program created to educate Nunavummiut and all Canadians about the history and impacts of residential schools, policies of assimilation, and other colonial acts that have affected the Canadian Arctic.

Each resource has been carefully written and reviewed to include level-appropriate opportunities for students to learn about colonial acts and policies that have affected Inuit. These acts and policies created long-lasting impacts on Inuit individuals and communities, which are still being felt today.

Additional Information
68 pages | 7.00" x 10.00" | Hardcover

For over two centuries, the Métis have fought for recognition as an Indigenous people and as a Nation. This struggle has played out on the battlefield, in the courts, and at the negotiating table, often over issues of governance, land rights, and resources. It wasn’t until 1982, when the government patriated the Constitution, that Métis rights were officially recognized by Canada. The True Canadians chronicles Métis challenges and achievements over those 40 years and well before. Focused on Alberta, the book traces the growth of the Métis Nation of Alberta, which in 2022 ratified its own Constitution, the same year as the 40th anniversary of Canada’s Constitution Act. The title refers to the fact the Métis are the people born of this land.

Additional Information
11.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover

Unikkaaqtuat is the Inuktitut word meaning "to tell stories."

This definitive collection of Inuit legends is thoughtfully introduced and carefully annotated to provide the historical and cultural context in which to understand this rich oral tradition. Fascinating and educational, this little-known part of Canada's heritage will captivate readers of all ages. As a work of historical and cultural preservation, this textbook will be invaluable to those studying Inuit.

Additional Information
320 pages | 8.00" x 10.00" | 100 b&w line drawings | Hardcover | 2nd Edition

In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (c̓uumaʕas) brings sockeye salmon (miʕaat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. C̓uumaʕas and miʕaat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community’s efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge.

In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Coté shares contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Coté offers evocative stories of her Tseshaht community’s and her own work to revitalize relationships to haʔum (traditional food) as a way to nurture health and wellness. As Indigenous peoples continue to face food insecurity due to ongoing inequality, environmental degradation, and the Westernization of traditional diets, Coté foregrounds healing and cultural sustenance via everyday enactments of food sovereignty: berry picking, salmon fishing, and building a community garden on reclaimed residential school grounds. This book is for everyone concerned about the major role food plays in physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Reviews
"A powerful philosophy of food sovereignty. Coté successfully navigates myriad scholarly and nonscholarly voices, telling a compelling comprehensive story that helps us understand the practices and policies needed to make change in our food systems." — Kyle Whyte, Michigan State University

"Adeptly uses a deep storytelling method, including both lived experience and critical analysis of history and theory, to examine experiences and transformations of Indigenous foodways." — Hannah Wittman, University of British Columbia

"I am so grateful for Charlotte Cote’s A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, which creates a path into the living foodways and thoughtways of her people. Her warm, storytelling voice and sharing of collective knowledge embody the generous spirit of a feast, and this book itself, is a feast." — Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi), SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry

Additional Information
208 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 17 b&w illustrations | 2 maps | Paperback

In Aboriginal™, Jennifer Adese explores the origins, meaning, and usage of the term “Aboriginal” and its displacement by the word “Indigenous.” In the Constitution Act, 1982, the term’s express purpose was to speak to specific “aboriginal rights”. Yet in the wake of the Constitution’s passage, Aboriginal, in its capitalized form, became increasingly used to describe and categorize people.

More than simple legal and political vernacular, the term Aboriginal (capitalized or not) has had real-world consequences for the people it defined. Aboriginal™ argues the term was a tool used to advance Canada’s cultural and economic assimilatory agenda throughout the 1980s until the mid-2010s. Moreover, Adese illuminates how the word engenders a kind of “Aboriginalized multicultural” brand easily reduced to and exported as a nation brand, economic brand, and place brand—at odds with the diversity and complexity of Indigenous peoples and communities.

In her multi-disciplinary research, Adese examines the discursive spaces and concrete sites where Aboriginality features prominently: the Constitution Act, 1982; the 2010 Vancouver Olympics; the “Aboriginal tourism industry”; and the Vancouver International Airport. Reflecting on the term’s abrupt exit from public discourse and the recent turn toward Indigenous, Indigeneity, and Indigenization, Aboriginal™ offers insight into Indigenous-Canada relations, reconciliation efforts, and current discussions of Indigenous identity, authenticity, and agency.

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272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

We find our way forward by going back.

The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home."

Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Settler colonialism tried to force us into one particular way of living, but the old ways of kinship can help us imagine a different future. Krawec asks, What would it look like to remember that we are all related? How might we become better relatives to the land, to one another, and to Indigenous movements for solidarity? Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, Krawec crafts a stunning, forceful call to "unforget" our history.

This remarkable sojourn through Native and settler history, myth, identity, and spirituality helps us retrace our steps and pick up what was lost along the way: chances to honor rather than violate treaties, to see the land as a relative rather than a resource, and to unravel the history we have been taught.

Additional Information
224 pages | 5.81" x 8.53" | Hardcover