Social and Cultural Studies

Indigenous healing is a paradox in the liberal settler colony where efforts to foster well-being can simultaneously undermine distinct Indigenous societies. This book examines the prominence of “Indigenous healing” in Canadian public discourse through a historical and ethnographic lens. It focuses on late twentieth-century Indigenous social histories in Treaty 3 territory and cities in northern and southern Ontario to show practices of re-membering—drawing on traditional ways of being and knowing for social repair and collective rejuvenation—against the backdrop of the social dismemberment of Indigenous Peoples. Expansion of re-membering is often enabled by tactical engagements with the settler state which have fuelled an Indigenized biopolitics from below. Maxwell offers an analysis of the possibilities, tensions, and risks inherent to these biopolitical tactics. Informed by Indigenous feminist scholarship that emphasizes relationality, care, and the everyday, as well as the intimate workings of settler colonialism, this book aims to enrich critical conversations about reconciliation and resurgence politics and challenge their perceived dichotomy.

Reviews
"Indigenous Healing as Paradox is a sophisticated study that explains how Indigenous encounters with settler colonial healthcare systems that could potentially improve their lives also threaten to destroy their collective wellbeing. Beautifully written and tightly focused, it follows Indigenous biopolitical actors navigating this paradox through tactical engagements with the settler state."- Maureen Lux, author of Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada

"Indigenous Healing as Paradox is an important contribution to the historiography of Indigenous health and social wellbeing. Maxwell offers a critical lens on the perils of adopting reconciliation and healing discourses that focus on historic injustices and the individual in need of treatment at the expense of ongoing systemic issues." - Kim Anderson, University of Guelph

"Maxwell is attentive to the complexities of Indigenous people's responses to the insidious violence of settler colonial intrusion and governance. Indigenous Healing as Paradox is an important book that takes an original stance." - Alexandra Widmer, York University

Educator Information
Table of Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Artist Statement
• Introduction: Indigenous Re-Membering and Biopolitics in the Liberal Settler Colony
• Chapter One: Giizhiiganang and Anishinaabe Re-Membering, 1965–1980
• Chapter Two: Re-Membering and Biopolitics in Urban Ontario, 1973–1980s
• Chapter Three: “Family Violence Is Weakening Our Nations”: Indigenous Women, Political Dismemberment, and Family Healing, 1972–1990
• Chapter Four: Biopolitical Tactics under Neoliberal Settler Colonialism: Healing as Public Discourse, 1990–2015
• Conclusion: Towards an Indigenized Politics of Life
• Appendix: Methods and Sources
• Notes
• References
• Index

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

Indigenous Knowledges and Higher Education in Canada explores the intricate relationship between Indigenous knowledges and the evolving landscape of higher education in Canada, revealing their profound influence in shaping institutional policies, practices, and cultures. Grounded in decolonial perspectives, the book addresses the persistent struggle within universities to confront ongoing colonialism and achieve systemic change.

Focused on shifts in institutional governance, policy, teaching, research, innovation, and culture, the book draws on extensive document analysis and personal narratives of Indigenous individuals across various Canadian universities. Embracing a decolonial perspective, it underscores the resilience of Indigenous communities in challenging traditional paradigms of higher education. The book reveals how, through critical grassroots efforts, Indigenous peoples are reclaiming their rightful place in academia, reshaping institutional dynamics from the ground up. It argues that the emergence of Indigenous knowledges within academia is the result of proactive and ongoing efforts by Indigenous individuals asserting their presence in Canadian higher education.

Ultimately, Indigenous Knowledges and Higher Education in Canada advocates for a path of decolonization through intentional learning and unlearning, envisioning a future where Indigenous voices and perspectives are authentically centred in the fabric of academic discourse and practice.

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments

Prologue
Part I: Empowering Quotes
Part II:
Colonialism and the University
Indigenous Knowledges and the University
Theorizing Institutional Change from a Decolonial Perspective
Governance and Policy
Institutional Climate
Teaching and Learning Approaches
Research
Innovation
Conclusion: Indigenous Knowledges as Catalyst for Decolonial Change in Canadian Higher Education

References
Index

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

Internationally renowned as an expert in Aboriginal law and an advocate for Indigenous rights, Bruce McIvor delivers concise, essential information for Canadians committed to truth and reconciliation.

A shortage of trustworthy information continues to frustrate Canadians with best intentions to fulfill Canada’s commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. To meet this demand, lawyer and historian Bruce McIvor provides concise, plain answers to 100 essential questions being asked by Canadians across the country.

During his nearly three decades advocating for Indigenous rights and teaching Aboriginal law, McIvor has recorded the fundamental questions that Canadians from all corners of society have asked to advance reconciliation: Why do Indigenous people have special rights? What is the Doctrine of Discovery? Who are the Métis? Why was the Calder decision important? What is reconciliation? McIvor supplies the answers Canadians are looking for by scrapping the technical language that confuses the issues, and speaks directly to everyone looking for straight answers. Throughout, McIvor shares his perspective on why reconciliation as envisioned by the courts and Canadian governments frustrates Indigenous people and what needs to change to overcome the impasse. McIvor’s explanations of complex legal issues demonstrate a unique mix of a deep knowledge of the law, the ability to write clearly and concisely, practical experience from the frontlines of advocating for First Nations in courtrooms and at negotiation tables across the country, and a profound passion for justice rooted in his work and personal history.

To ensure the country’s reconciliation project progresses from rhetoric to reality, ordinary Canadians need straightforward answers to fundamental questions. McIvor provides the answers and context to support a thoughtful and respectful national conversation about reconciliation and the fulfillment of Canada’s commitment to a better future for Indigenous people.

Additional Information
208 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 25 colour and b&w photographs | Paperback

Indigenous Spiritualities and Religious Freedom investigates the complex relationship between Indigenous legal orders and Canadian law, emphasizing the richness of Indigenous spiritual practices alongside their historical and ongoing suppression by the Canadian state. It critically examines the role and limitations of the Canadian Charter of Right’s section 2(a), which guarantees freedom of religion, in protecting the spiritual lives of Indigenous communities.

The book highlights the holistic nature of Indigenous spiritual beliefs, which view the spiritual as immanent and closely tied to land and specific locations. The book reveals how, by contrast, the Anglo-American conception of religious freedom often separates spiritual and religious matters from civic and political concerns, and so fails to provide meaningful protection for Indigenous cultural and spiritual practices.

Many essays in this collection propose alternative approaches to the relationship between Canadian law and Indigenous legal orders, particularly regarding Indigenous spiritual practices. Ultimately, Indigenous Spiritualities and Religious Freedom reveals the challenges – and perhaps the futility – of seeking significant protection for Indigenous spiritual practices within the existing framework of religious freedom.

Educator Information
Chapters
Introduction
Jeffery Hewitt, Beverly Jacobs, and Richard Moon
1. Water Is Life: Haudenosaunee Responses to Climate Change and Water Security - Dawn Martin-Hill
2. The Gaya’shra’gowa’ in the Twenty-First Century: Traditional Indigenous Governance and the Problem of Canadian Settler Colonial Law - Theresa McCarthy
3. An Imaginary for Our Sisters: Spirits and Indigenous Law - Val Napoleon
4. Indigenous Religious Rights: Reconciling Religious Views and Decolonizing Section 2(a) of the Charter - Natasha Bakht
5. Is State Neutrality Bad for Indigenous Religious Freedom? - Benjamin L. Berger
6. Ktunaxa and the Shape of Religious Freedom - Richard Moon
7. Beyond Experience? Objectivity, Indigeneity, and Freedom of Religion - John Borrows
8. Ancestors in the Land: Indigenous Burial Sites and Religious Freedom - Senwung Luk and Howard Kislowicz
9. Posing the Land Question: An Analysis of Servatius v. Alberni School District No. 70 - Ardith Walkem
10. The Perils of Rights and Reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples - Karen Drake
Contributors

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

Immerse yourself in Indigenous Voices, an inspiring volume of quotations by Indigenous thought leaders, activists, politicians, and scholars illustrated with stunning artwork by Indigenous artists.

This captivating book weaves together the timeless wisdom of Indigenous people from various nations and regions through a mosaic of more than 60 quotes, words, and stories by elders, leaders, activists, scholars, and influential contemporaries spanning all walks of life. Discover the diverse and unique heritage of extraordinary people like:

• Shina Novalinga – A member of the Inuk living in Montreal, Canada, Shina Novalinga is a content creator, singer, and activist who shares her Inuk culture across social media, of which an important aspect is traditional throat singing with her mother.
• Natali Segovia – A member of the Quechua, Natali Segovia is the Executive Director of the Water Protector Legal Collective and a human rights attorney. Her advocacy focuses on defending Water Protectors and human rights defenders facing repression for their activism.
• Corrina Gould – Of the Ohlone, Corrina Gould is the chair and spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, the Co-Director for the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, and the lead organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change.
• Elias Not Afraid – A member of the Apsáalooke (Crow), Elias Not Afraid is a mega-award-winning queer beader and fashion designer. He says, “When people think of native beadwork, they think trinkets and good luck charms and dream catchers but it’s far from it. I create wearable art that is durable and can be used daily and last over a lifetime and be used as a family heirloom.”
• Lily Gladstone – An American actress from the Blackfeet Reservation, Gladstone is of Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce, and European heritage. They earned critical acclaim for portraying Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman who survived the Osage Indian murders in Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon, among other important roles in film and television.
• Kola Shippentower – A member of the Umatilla, Shippentower is the first Native American player for the Oregon Ravens, a tackle football team for women and non-binary players.
• Shiloh Maples – Of the Odawa, Maples is a citizen of the Little River Band of Indians based in Michigan. Through her interest in Indigenous food systems and her own Ojibwe and Odawa heritage, she developed the program Sacred Roots for the American Indian Health and Family Services in Detroit, where she taught cooking classes and promoted dishes using traditional, seasonal, and local ingredients in a way that improved participants’ health while connecting them with their culture.
• Alvera Sargent – Sargent, of the Akwesasne Mohawk, worked with the Akwesasne Freedom School, one of the oldest Indigenous language schools in North America. “My hope for our tribal community at large is that more of our people come back to our traditional space. I am grateful that our time has come as Indigenous people are being recognized for their traditional knowledge systems. The community is recognizing that Indigenous people do have the wisdom of our ancestors to share, which helps all areas of our society.”
• And more!

Indigenous Voices offers a unique opportunity to connect with ancient traditions, refresh your perspective with modern insight, and gain awareness and understanding that resonate across cultures and generations.

Additional Information
192 pages | 7.5" x 8.6" | Hardcover 

A sweeping and trenchant exploration of the history of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life.

From the mid-nineteenth century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their tribal communities to attend boarding schools whose stated aim was to "save the Indian" by way of assimilation. In reality, these boarding schools—sponsored by the U.S. government, but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation—were a calculated attempt to dismantle tribes by pulling apart Native families. Children were beaten for speaking their Native languages; denied food, clothing, and comfort; and forced to work menial jobs in terrible conditions, all while utterly deprived of love and affection.

Amongst those thousands of children was Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother, who was was sent to a boarding school in northern Wisconsin at age five. The trauma of her experience cast a pall over Pember's own childhood and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, Medicine River paints a stark but hopeful portrait of communities still reckoning with the trauma of acculturation, religion, and abuse caused by the state. Through searing interviews and careful reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of Native cultures and nations in relation to the country that has been intent on eradicating them.

Reviews
“A devastating history. . . . Weaving into her narrative her own mother’s experiences . . . Pember explores the psychological ramifications the schools had on subsequent generations. She comes to many quietly ruinous insights about the emotional neglect she herself suffered at the hands of her wounded mother. . . . Concluding with a searing call for accountability, this strikes a chord.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[Pember’s] extensive research illuminates the attempted cultural erasure by government and religious institutions. Her mother’s story provides a heartbreaking, personal focus.” —Booklist

“Elegantly weaving together her mother’s stories, those of other boarding school students, and concise accounts of federal assimilationist policies and common institutional practices, [Pember] provides an informed and unsettling perspective on the schools’ individual and collective impact. . . . A gripping, often harrowing account of the personal and communal toll of cultural genocide.”—Kirkus

"Mary Annette Pember has left it all on the line. Through her, her Ojibwe ancestors speak boldly about how the US government has treated them and every Indigenous nation in these so-called-United States. I have never read a book that has changed me so profoundly. Pember not only points to what has been done, but also offers a way forward. Everyone, absolutely everyone, should read this book." —Javier Zamora, author of Solito

“So much writing about historical trauma casts a vague, impenetrable cloud over its subjects’ lives. But with electric precision and rigorous care, Mary Annette Pember pierces through, illuminating the real mechanisms by which pain has accumulated and reverberated through generations of boarding school survivors and their descendants, as well all the beauty, love, and humor these same lives contain. In showing us how trauma is made, Pember helps us see that it can be unmade. ‘History flows through us,’ she writes, and nowhere has this idea been so well rendered as here, in this stunning, essential book.”—Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country

“Pember has written a searing exploration of the multi-generational trauma visited upon Native people by the boarding school experience, as well as a brilliant account of Indigenous survivance.” —Michael Witgen, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, author of Seeing Red

"I have a shelf full of books on the Indian boarding schools, but nothing quite like this one. Anyone who questions why the U.S. government has finally apologized for these schools and for its brutal assaults on Native children and their families should read Medicine River." —Colin G. Calloway, Professor of History and Native American Studies, Dartmouth College

"Mary Annette Pember reveals that the trauma and rage of surviving the St. Mary’s Catholic Indian Boarding School permeates through the generations. Pember has chronicled a deeply personal and first-person account of the dark legacy of incarceration at a ‘civilized’ boarding school and how the trauma of those youngsters impact their living descendants. Pember tells us that resistance and accountability is attainable, and I believe her. This is an essential read."—Devon Mihesuah, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, author of The Bone Picker

"A dauntless and visceral excavation of one family’s residential boarding school legacy. In Medicine River, we can see pain ripple through generations, eclipsed only by Mary Annette Pember's courage and her conviction that, in the search for answers, we can heal."—Anton Treuer, author of Where Wolves Don't Die

Additional Information
304 pages | 6.42" x 9.55" | Hardcover

"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

Part of the inaugural Kanata Classics list, with a new introduction by David Chariandy, NISHGA is a groundbreaking, deeply personal, and devastating autobiographical meditation that attempts to address the complicated legacies of Canada’s residential school system and contemporary Indigenous existence.

As a Nisga'a writer, Jordan Abel often finds himself in a position where he is asked to explain his relationship to Nisga'a language, Nisga'a community, and Nisga'a cultural knowledge. However, as an intergenerational survivor of residential school--both of his grandparents attended the same residential school--his relationship to his own Indigenous identity is complicated to say the least.

NISHGA explores those complications and is invested in understanding how the colonial violence originating at the Coqualeetza Indian Residential School impacted his grandparents' generation, then his father's generation, and ultimately his own. The project is rooted in a desire to illuminate the realities of intergenerational survivors of residential school, but sheds light on Indigenous experiences that may not seem to be immediately (or inherently) Indigenous.

Drawing on autobiography and a series of interconnected documents (including pieces of memoir, transcriptions of talks, and photography), NISHGA is a book about confronting difficult truths and it is about how both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples engage with a history of colonial violence that is quite often rendered invisible.

Reviews
“With NISHGA, Jordan Abel has reinvented the memoir, incorporating personal anecdotes, archival footage, legal documentation, photos and concrete poetry to create an unforgettable portrait of an Indigenous artist trying to find his place in a world that insists Indigeneity can only ever be the things that he is not. Abel deftly shows us the devastating impact this gate-keeping has had on those who, through no decisions of their own, have been ripped from our communities and forced to claw their way back home, or to a semblance of home, often unassisted. This is a brave, vulnerable, brilliant work that will change the face of nonfiction, as well as the conversations around what constitutes Indigenous identity. It's a work I will return to again and again.” —Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

“In NISHGA, Jordan Abel puts to use the documentary impulse that has already established him as an artist of inimitable methodological flair. By way of a mixture of testimonial vignettes, recordings of academic talks, found text/art, and visual art/concrete poetry, Abel sculpts a narrative of dislocation and self-examination that pressurizes received notions of “Canada” and “history” and “art” and “literature” and “belonging” and “forgiveness.” Yes, it is a book of that magnitude, of that enormity and power. By its Afterword, NISHGA adds up to a work of personal and national reckoning that is by turns heartbreaking and scathing.” —Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of NDN Coping Mechanisms and A History of My Brief Body

"This is a heart-shattering read, and will also be a blanket for others looking for home. NISHGA is a work of absolute courage and vulnerability. I am in complete awe of the sorrow here and the bravery. Mahsi cho, Jordan.” —Richard Van Camp, author of Moccasin Square Gardens

“Jordan Abel digs deeply into the questions we should all be asking. Questions that need no explanation but ones that require us to crawl back into our bones, back into the marrow of our understanding. NISHGA is a ceremony where we need to be silent. Where we need to listen.” —Gregory Scofield, author of Witness, I Am

Educator & Series Information
This edition of Nishga is part of the Kanata Classics series, which celebrates timeless books that reflect the rich and diverse range of voices in Canadian literature. 

Additional Information
304 pages | 5.54" x 8.26" | Paperback

From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world.

Before Martha’s Vineyard became one of the most iconic vacation destinations in the country, it was home to the Wampanoag people. Today, as tourists flock to the idyllic beaches, the island has become increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Growing up Aquinnah Wampanoag, journalist Joseph Lee grappled with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can continue to grow, and more broadly, what it means to be Indigenous.

In Nothing More of This Land, Lee weaves his own story and that of his family into a panoramic narrative of Indigenous life around the world. He takes us from the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard to the icy Alaskan tundra, the smoky forests of Northern California to the halls of the United Nations, and beyond. Along the way he meets activists fighting to protect their land, families clashing with their own tribal leaders, and communities working to reclaim tradition.

Together, these stories reject stereotypes to show the diversity of Indigenous people today and chart a way past the stubborn legacy of colonialism.

Reviews
"Nothing More Of This Land is a stark, beautifully rendered reminder of all that had to occur for the happening of our existences to take place, and all who lived and fought against their own erasure to maintain a semblance of a legacy. This is a profound, and moving book, a powerful indictment of the colonial mindset that firmly balances an ode to people, to place, to remaining."—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This Year

"A forcefully illuminating and utterly compelling blend of personal narrative and vivid reportage, Joseph Lee’s Nothing More of this Land is a triumph of complexity and insight. We follow Lee from the red clay cliffs of Aquinnah to the halls of the UN, from the Klamath River basin to a feast of muktuk and tundra greens in Bethel, Alaska; and very early on I realized I’d follow him anywhere. Lee has given us a timely reckoning with Native sovereignty and community that is adroitly committed to the mess and nuance of lived experience, rather than sentimentalized accounts of victimhood or resilience. Nothing More of this Land is tender, ferocious, surprising, and tenaciously thoughtful; its existence makes the world a bigger and truer place."—Leslie Jamison, bestselling author of The Empathy Exams

Additional Information
256 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover 

An unflinching examination of the impacts of settler colonialism from first contact to the contemporary nation state.

On Settler Colonialism in Canada: Lands and Peoples is the first installment in a comprehensive collection investigating settler colonialism as a state mandate, a structuring logic of institutions, and an alibi for violence and death. The book examines how settler identities are fashioned in opposition to nature and how eras of settler colonialism have come to be defined. Scholars and thinkers explore how settlers understood themselves as servants of empire, how settler identities came to be predicated on racialization and white supremacy, and more recently, how they have been constructed in relation to multiculturalism.

Featuring perspectives from Indigenous, Black, mixed-race, and other racialized, queer, and white European-descended thinkers from across a range of disciplines, On Settler Colonialism in Canada: Lands and Peoples addresses the fundamental truths of this country. Essays engage contemporary questions on the legacy of displacement that settler colonialism has wrought for Indigenous people and racialized settlers caught up in the global implications of empire.

Asserting that reconciliation is a shared endeavor, the collection’s final section exposes the myth at the heart of Canada’s constitutional legitimacy and describes the importance of affirming Indigenous rights, protecting Indigenous people (especially women) from systemic violence, and holding the Canadian settler nation state—which has benefited from the creation and maintenance of genocidal institutions for generations—accountable.

Reviews
“Remarkable...likely to become a landmark reference work for scholars and interested individuals alike.” — Lorenzo Veracini, author of Colonialism: A Global History

“Positive shared futures with all our relations depend on perpetual truth-telling and (re)conciliation. This book guides us through the dark and toward the light.”— David Garneau, author of Dark Chapters

"A thought-provoking and insightful ‘must read’ for all those seeking reconciliation based on truth, justice, and accountability.” — Paulette Regan, author of Unsettling the Settler Within and former research director for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off! That observation best describes the power of this fabulous book that every Canadian should read.”— Val Napoleon, Professor and Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance, University of Victoria

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the On Settler Colonialism in Canada series.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 
Contributor Biographies

David B MacDonald and Emily Grafton, “Introduction: Critical Engagements with Canadian Settler Colonialism: Colonization, Land Theft, Gender Violence, Imperialism, and Genocide” 

Section 1: Considering Violence and Genocide in the Canadian Settler State

Karine Duhamel, “I feel like my spirit knows violence: interrogating the language of temporality and crisis for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ people.”

James Daschuck, “The Battleford hangings and the rise of the settler colonial state.”

David B MacDonald, “Match and Exceed: Why Recognizing Genocide in Canada is Only the First Step in Promoting Indigenous Self-Determination.”

Malissa Bryan, “Unsettled Arrivants: Imagining Black & Indigenous Solidarity Under Settler Colonialism.”

Angie Wong, “Labouring and Living in Canada: Early Chinese Arrivants and Making Settler Colonial Canada.” 

Section 2: Logics of Empire, Colonialism, and Unsettlement

Liam Midzain-Gobin, “Imperial circulation, implicatedness and co-conspiracy, racialized interruptions of settler colonialism in Canada.”

Peter Kulchyski, “A Contribution to Periodizing Settler Colonial History in Canada”

Ajay Parasram, “Learning Settler Colonialism: Double Diaspora and Transnational Imperial Refraction.”

Andrew Woolford, “Settler natures: becoming settler against water.” 

Section 3: Settler colonial society: Relating, Reckoning, and Unreconciliation

Chris Lindgren and Michelle Stewart, “Reckoning and Unreconciled: Neil Stonechild, Starlight Tours, and Racialized Policing in the Settler State.”

Fazeela Jiwa, “On shitheads and revolutionaries: claiming my displaced kin.”

Jerome Melancon, “Relying upon the Colonial Project: Francophone Communities in Minority Settings within the Bilingual Settler Colonial State.”

Desmond McAllister, “Straddling Different Worlds.”

Bernie Farber and Len Rudner, “B’Chol Dor v’Dor: In each and Every Generation.” 

Section 4: Asserting Indigenous Knowledges in settler colonial Canada

Solomon Ratt (poetry) “stolen childhood” and “asastîwa – They pile up”

Joyce Green, “Being and Knowing Home.”

Rebecca Major, “Surviving Institutions in Canada’s Polite Society.”

Paul Simard Smith, “On the Illegitimacy of the Canadian Constitutional Order.”

Emily Grafton, “Resistance and Resurgence: Asserting Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Settler Colonial Canada.” 

“Afterword,” Jeremy Patzer

Additional Information
384 pages | 6.02" x 9.01" | Paperback

With evidence of human habitation dating back to the last ice age, British Columbia boasts a fascinating array of archaeological sites. In this thoroughly up-to-date survey, professional archaeologist Robert Muckle takes readers to some exciting locations to explain what archaeology is (and isn’t), how research is undertaken in BC, and what it contributes to our broader understanding of human history.

Once upon This Land introduces readers to some of the most notable archaeological investigations in the province, including footprints left in mud on Calvert Island 13,000 years ago, the remains of a First Nations village near Lillooet, and the body of a man frozen in ice for centuries in the Tatshenshini region. He also explores more recent phenomena, such as a First World War internment camp near Fernie, a Japanese logging camp in North Vancouver, shipwrecks, airplane crashes, and even the remnants of COVID-19 left behind in urban landfills.

This unique book will appeal to readers who want to understand how and where archaeology happens in British Columbia, including those interested in a career in the field. It is also for those who would like to explore and know more about the province’s archaeological sites and history.

Reviews
"May this book offer all who read it a glimmer of understanding of the fourteen thousand years of documented relationships between Indigenous peoples and the land which has sustained us."— From the foreword by archaeologist Karen Rose Thomas

"Bob Muckle’s beginner’s guide to archaeology in what is now British Columbia requires no experience with the discipline to grasp vocabulary and ideas currently used by archaeologists. His clear, plain-language narrative peels back the layers of earth to reveal a story contained in the soil of this province." — Eldon Yellowhorn, Indigenous Studies, Simon Fraser University

"I have always wished for an archaeology of BC book like this that I could use in teaching my own classes. While the writing style is accessible and never condescending, Once upon This Land will help inquisitive readers appreciate just how complex and vast the archaeological history of the northwest part of North America really is." — Brian Pegg, Department of Anthropology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Foreword: An Indigenous Archaeologist’s Perspective / Karen Rose Thomas

Introduction

1 Archaeology as Storytelling and a Profession

2 The Distant Past: The Ice Age to 5,000 Years Ago

3 The Human Story: 5,000 to 200 Years Ago

4 Recent Times: The 1800s and 1900s

5 Archaeology in Contemporary Times

Epilogue: Ten Important Things to Remember

Glossary; Further Reading; Index

Additional Information
222 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 14 colour photos, 15 b&w photos, 2 colour illus., 2 b&w illus., 1 map | Paperback 

Mapping Métis history and cultural heritage through women's work.

Centring kinship and the strength of women, Putting Down Roots reframes Métis road allowance communities as sites of profound resistance and resilience, restoring Métis life in places, times, and scholarship where it has been obscured by settler narratives. These communities were not peripheral spaces where Métis lived as squatters, but places where families culturally thrived by visiting each other, telling stories, sharing food, and providing mutual aid. With stories of Métis li vyeu (Elders) as its foundation, this innovative study reveals the agency embedded in the everyday actions of women's work, which sustained Métis identity, family systems, and relationships to land.

Cheryl Troupe charts a century of Métis presence and persistence in the Qu'Appelle Valley, from the end of the buffalo hunt in the 1850s, through displacement following the northwest resistances, resettlement on fringe Crown lands, ongoing political activism and opposition to Canadian land-use practices, and finally the dissolution of the road allowance community along Katepwa Lake in the 1950s. Focusing on female kinship relationships and food production, Putting Down Roots illuminates the ways women created the stability necessary to adapt to the rapidly changing economic, social, and political conditions that defined this period of Canadian history.

Troupe's sophisticated use of oral histories, archival sources, genealogies, photographs, and deep mapping links people and their stories to the spaces that are important to them. Adding a new dimension to the study of Métis history, Putting Down Roots brings to life the tremendous cultural strength that characterized Métis road allowance communities.

Reviews
"Engaging and well-documented, Putting Down Roots details the economic production of Métis women and should serve to permanently dispel the trope that Métis men were the dominant breadwinners in their society. Compelling anecdotes provided through the collected oral histories clearly delineate the major role of Métis women in family and community formation."— Heather Devine

Educator Information
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. “Down there in the Valley”: Introducing Bob and Margaret
Chapter 2. Daughters of the Country: Women’s Labour in the Métis World
Chapter 3. Petitioning for Rights and Taking up Agriculture
Chapter 4. Asserting Sovereignty to Secure Land
Chapter 5. Securing Land Tenure: The North-West Half-Breed Scrip Commission and Homesteading
Chapter 6. “We Got Our House Built by Seneca Roots”: Life on the Road Allowance
Chapter 7. Going Hunting Rabbits: Women’s Labour in Feeding the Family
Chapter 8. Contesting Government Intervention into Harvesting Spaces
Chapter 9. “This is a Michif Road”: Métis Labour and Relief
Conclusion
Bibliography
Notes

Additional Information
408 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 29 b&w illustrations, 10 b&w tables, 14 maps, index, bibliography | Paperback

While awareness of the sexual and gendered colonial violence faced by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people has grown, the field of Indigenous law and beyond has yet to fully engage with Indigenous feminisms, gender, and sexuality in a sustained way. Ravens Talking challenges this gap, treating Indigenous feminisms as essential, insightful, and deeply transformative.

Through critical feminist analyses, this book examines key issues in Indigenous law, demonstrating how legal understandings shift when gender is consistently, meaningfully, and creatively engaged. The contributors to this collection confront the forms of power shaping these essential conversations and bring to the fore intergenerational Indigenous feminisms; Indigenous law and gender; the forms of expression and translation between and across legal and political worlds; and the rich array of disagreements and conflicts between Indigenous women. Ravens Talking intends to capture the complexities arising from Indigenous feminisms in living contexts to provoke questions and develop critical perspectives.

Both intellectually rigorous and practically grounded, Ravens Talking is a vital contribution encouraging dialogue on Indigenous legal traditions, justice, and sovereignty.

Educator Information
Chapters
1. Indigenous Women Talking: The Work of Indigenous Feminisms in the World
2. Introduction: Indigenous Feminist Legal Studies
3. Nêhiyaw Ceremony, Gendered Protocols, and Nêhiyaw Law
4. Understanding Indigenous Womxn’s Economic Sovereignty through Story
5. Giving Voice to Jigonsaseh: A Feminine Perspective on the Haudenosaunee Legal Order
6. What if Survivors Wrote the Laws? An Indigenous Feminist Audit of Tribal Sexual Assault in the United States
7. Deliberating Feminist Legal Strategies in R v Barton
8. Visualizing Violence Against Indigenous Women: Documentary Film as Disruption in Finding Dawn and American Outrage
9. Sovereign Refusals: Spending Time with Apak in the Journals of Knud Rasmussen
10. Thoughts and Questions and Questions

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

A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes.

In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable. Campaigns will be lost. Mental health crises will occur. Social ills, like gender-based violence, will manifest themselves in movement spaces. People will experience profound personal losses. Grief, alienation, and despair can grind us under. Sometimes, we need accompaniment. Sometimes, we need to be met where we’re at by a caring voice of experience. Read This When Things Fall Apart is a care package for activists and organizers building power under fascistic, demoralizing conditions. It’s an outstretched hand, offering history lessons, personal anecdotes, and practical advice about how to navigate the woes of justice work. A survival guide for the heart, this is a book for activists to keep close, and to share with co-strugglers in need.

Personal, reflective, and hopeful, Read This When Things Fall Apart harnesses the writers' individual moments of despair into living, breathing wisdom that chips away at the supposed inevitability of fascist life. Restorative like a letter from a trusted friend and invigorating like a story from a mentor, the book is an indispensable companion for all of us navigating challenging times. Featuring letters from Mariame Kaba, Ashon Crawley, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Eman Abdelhadi, Brian Merchant, and more.

Reviews
"This marvelous book is essential reading for the times we find ourselves in."—Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

"What a gift! We all need these letters, not just in times of crisis or defeat. It is the only book you’ll hold that will hold you, free you, permit you to fail, rest, retreat, grieve, live, laugh, fight, and heal—to be human. This book must never go out of print." —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

"Read this When Things Fall Apart is a balm of these dark times. This is the book I wish I'd had as a young organizer. It is a necessary text that sent me through the full kaleidoscope of emotions—spanning rage, laughter, and sadness—but more importantly, helped ground me in times of crisis and unrelenting brutality." —Robyn Maynard, co-author of Rehearsals for Living

“If you need an antidote to despair, this book is for you. It’s a repository of fortifying collective wisdom, a tonic for our troubled times. The letters Kelly Hayes has collected offer vital insights amid the darkness, shrewd strategic advice for aspiring change-makers, and a reminder none of us are in the fight alone.” —Astra Taylor, co-author of Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea

“For years I've had a saying: resist the pleasures of doom. It can feel perversely good to tell ourselves that the situation is so bad we simply can't do anything, to throw up our hands and give up. This book is an antidote to the pleasures of doom—it offers the deeper, more sustaining pleasure of solidarity, in beautiful specificity, from committed organizers in a variety of movements. They have felt despair, stared into the void of defeat, and they share concrete advice about the ways we can keep going when all feels hopeless. This book is a profound act of care.” —Sarah Jaffe, author of From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire

“Read this When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis is a signpost for activists who feel unsettled about themselves and the future. The contributors offer their truths and wisdom with raw vulnerability. Read this When Things Fall Apart is a resource for anyone who believes hope will guide us through the darkest of times.” —Alice Wong, editor of Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire

"These letters are like seeds in a pomegranate—gorgeous gems full of nourishment, nestled together, shaped by one another, juicy, sweet and alive. The intimacy and urgency of these wise messages, written by people who have given so much to our movements and seen so much, is just what we need right now, in harrowing times, to help new people cross the threshold to collective action and to bolster the spirits of all who continue to press on, against difficult odds. I cannot wait to give this book to my students and the people I've been working with for decades. We all need what is in here." —Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)

“In this time of monsters burying us in grief and despair, this extraordinary collection is a steady hand with advice, analysis and affirmation. Each generous and generative letter centers our love for ourselves and our people as methodology. This book is a compelling reminder that we need each other as comrades and community, that we all have gifts to contribute to movements, and that—through uncertainty and one million experiments—we will win.” —Harsha Walia, author of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism

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

Join the dance of North American Indigenous interpretations of Christian Scripture

In Reading the Bible on Turtle Island, Indigenous scholars Chris Hoklotubbe and Danny Zacharias explore what it means to read the Bible from the lens of Indigenous peoples in North America. Exploring the intersection of Scripture, Cultural Traditions, Hearts and Minds, and Creation, they affirm Creator's presence with Indigenous people since the beginning. By recovering these rich histories, this book offers a fresh reading of Scripture that celebrates the assets, blessings, and insights of Indigenous interpretation.

Indigenous culture has often been dismissed or deemed problematic within Western Christian circles, and historical practices have often communicated that Indigenous worldviews have little to offer the church or its understanding of Scripture. Hoklotubbe and Zacharias challenge this perspective, reasserting the dignity of these cultures that were condemned through colonial practices and showing how Indigenous interpretations bring invaluable insights to all of God’s people.

In Reading the Bible on Turtle Island, Hoklotubbe and Zacharias

• Affirm the dignity and value of Indigenous cultures and their contributions to hermeneutics.
• Explore the intersection of the Bible with Indigenous traditions.
• Delve deeply into the stories of Scripture alongside the complex histories of Indigenous communities in North America.
• Celebrate the unique blessings and insights of Indigenous interpretation.
• Offer a fresh, transformative reading of the Bible that speaks to all of God’s people.

Reading the Bible on Turtle Island is a vital resource for scholars who are interested in the intersection of biblical studies and social location, who are seeking to explore Scripture through an Indigenous hermeneutic, or who desire to learn more about the contributions of Indigenous worldviews to Biblical interpretation. 

Reviews
"We have been waiting for a book like this—one that presents indigenous biblical interpretation. T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and Daniel Zacharias call their approach to biblical interpretation Turtle Island Hermeneutics. I call it groundbreaking, urgent, and necessary at this present moment. Now students studying the Bible in seminary or college will have a text that will help them do what few books on interpretation can do—take the dirt, the water, the air, our animal kin, and of course, indigenous thought and life seriously. We are now in a new day for biblical scholarship." — William James Jennings, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School

"Some years ago, I was told that Indigenous contributions to biblical scholarship would, at best, be superficial. The real work, after all, had already been done by European scholars. Reading the Bible on Turtle Island justifies my contention that this was not so. T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and Daniel Zacharias unpack Indigenous understandings of the biblical narrative for us in profoundly earthy and culturally complex ways. For the first time ever, many Indigenous people have read themselves into the biblical story and, together with the authors, have answered Lamin Sanneh's 2003 question, 'Whose religion is Christianity?' 'It's ours,' they have said!"— Terry LeBlanc, director emeritus and elder in residence of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community

"Reading the Bible on Turtle Island introduces us to the riches of Indigenous interpretation of Scripture and invites us to gather around the council fire and learn from the ongoing discussion Indigenous disciples of Jesus are having about how to 'seek Creator in the Good Medicine Way of Jesus.' T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias not only create a dialogue between biblical scholarship, Indigenous history and wisdom, and ongoing debates about how to relate the gospel to culture, they do so in a way that is simultaneously accessible, deeply moving, gracious enough to create room for disagreement and ongoing debate, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Yet the book also offers a challenge, that the path to the healing of the nations and the Western church includes learning from Indigenous disciples who bear witness to the good word of Creator-made-flesh."— Michael J. Rhodes, author of Just Discipleship and lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College

"How we read ourselves into the Bible shapes the theology we develop. This book offers all Christians another reading, a reading that takes our stories seriously and provides an opportunity to develop an Indigenous theology rather than simply reconciling ourselves to a theology rooted in European priorities." — Patty Krawec, author of Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future and Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds

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