Indigenous Peoples in Canada

An enthralling collection of traditional Blackfoot stories revealing the frailty of mankind and the enduring power of narrative.

Napi, the Old Man of the Blackfoot Nation, appears prominently in mythology, sometimes as a quasi-Creator, sometimes a fool, and sometimes a brutal murderer. Although Napi is given credit for creating many of the objects and creatures on Earth, and indeed the Earth itself, the Blackfoot do not consider him to be god-like. Napi stories tell of this mythical figure creating the world and everything in it, but getting into trouble when he starts tinkering with his own creation. Perhaps for this reason, anthropologists have labelled him a trickster/creator.

For thousands of years, people have gathered around the campfire and listened to stories of how Napi blundered and schemed his way through Blackfoot country. They laugh at how Napi was outwitted by a lame fox, how he tried to fly with the geese only to look down when he was told not to and fell to the earth. He makes a perfect subject for telling, listening, and enjoying—and for teaching.

Hugh Dempsey, venerable historian and strong ally of the Blackfoot Nation, has gathered together a number of Napi stories passed on through oral tradition, many recorded and analysed by outsiders, but used by permission of Blackfoot elders. These stories offer complex insight into an ancient and still-thriving culture through the figure of a flawed yet powerful creature—a mirror of humankind itself.

Reviews
"By gathering together a sizeable collection of stories passed down through oral tradition, Dempsey and Koski offer insight into a venerable and still-thriving culture, as well as a piece of history to be kept and passed on to younger generations for years to come." — Vue Weekly

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144 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" 

Lindsay Nixon's nîtisânak honours blood and chosen kin with equal care. A groundbreaking memoir spanning nations, prairie punk scenes, and queer love stories, it is woven around grief over the loss of their mother. It also explores despair and healing through community and family, and being torn apart by the same. Using cyclical narrative techniques and drawing on their Cree, Saulteaux, and Métis ancestral teachings, this work offers a compelling perspective on the connections that must be broken and the ones that heal.

Awards

• 2019 Indigenous Voices Award short-listed
• 2019 The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers

Reviews
"A tremendous gift... unlike any other reading experience I've had" - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 

"A triumph of decolonial and non-normative storytelling." -Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers jury citation

"nitisanak is wildly interesting, thoughtful, and tender, but also utterly uncompromising." -Jessie Loyer, The Capilano Review

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200 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | 

During the 60s Scoop, over 20,000 Indigenous children in Canada were removed from their biological families, lands and culture and trafficked across provinces, borders and overseas to be raised in non-Indigenous households. 

Ohpikiihaakan-ohpihmeh — Raised Somewhere Else delves into the personal and provocative narrative of Colleen Cardinal’s journey growing up in a non- Indigenous household as a 60s Scoop adoptee. Cardinal speaks frankly and intimately about instances of violence and abuse throughout her life, but this book is not a story of tragedy. It is a story of empowerment, reclamation and, ultimately, personal reconciliation. It is a form of Indigenous resistance through truth-telling, a story that informs the narrative on missing and murdered Indigenous women, colonial violence, racism and the Indigenous child welfare system.

Reviews
“With Canadians slowly awakening to the reality of the 60s Scoop and its ongoing repercussions, Cardinal’s inspiring work here is essential reading and will be an integral resource for generations to come.” — Waubgeshig Rice, author of Legacy

“Offers a window through which readers can see why cultural suppression is such a dark chapter in Canada’s history.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“I highly recommend reading this story for anyone interested in learning more about the Sixties Scoop and understanding what’s really happening under the stereotypes put on many Indigenous by those who do not truly understand.” — All Booked

Educator Information
The Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools list recommends this resource for Grades 10-12 for English Language Arts.

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214 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Foreward by Raven Sinclair

Sanikiluaq, a small Inuit community in the Belcher Islands region of the Far North, has a long history of artistic output. But as the demand for stone carvings grew, grass basket sewing—once a traditional skill for Inuit women—faded from the community consciousness. That was until a group of women, including educator and artist Margaret Lawrence, came together to renew the lost art of basket sewing.

In Our Hands Remember: Recovering Sanikiluaq Basket Sewing, Lawrence guides readers through creating their own grass baskets in the unique style of the Sanikiluaq region with step-by-step instructions and photographs. From tips on preparing the grass and forming even coils to the different types of embellishments, this book is accessible to all skill levels.

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120 pages | 9.00" x 8.50" | Colour Photographs

In recent years, Indigenous peoples have lead a number of high profile movements fighting for social and environmental justice in Canada. From land struggles to struggles against resource extraction, pipeline development and fracking, land and water defenders have created a national discussion about these issues and successfully slowed the rate of resource extraction.

But their success has also meant an increase in the surveillance and policing of Indigenous peoples and their movements. In Policing Indigenous Movements, Crosby and Monaghan use the Access to Information Act to interrogate how policing and other security agencies have been monitoring, cataloguing and working to silence Indigenous land defenders and other opponents of extractive capitalism. Through an examination of four prominent movements — the long-standing conflict involving the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, the struggle against the Northern Gateway Pipeline, the Idle No More movement and the anti-fracking protests surrounding the Elsipogtog First Nation — this important book raises critical questions regarding the expansion of the security apparatus, the normalization of police surveillance targeting social movements, the relationship between police and energy corporations, the criminalization of dissent and threats to civil liberties and collective action in an era of extractive capitalism and hyper surveillance.

In one of the most comprehensive accounts of contemporary government surveillance, the authors vividly demonstrate that it is the norms of settler colonialism that allow these movements to be classified as national security threats and the growing network of policing, governmental, and private agencies that comprise what they call the security state.

Reviews
“An accessible must-read for all Canadians concerned about respectful relations with indigenous people and the decline of civil rights in the war-on-terror era.” — Publishers Weekly

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192 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

This gorgeous book offers an incomparable glimpse into the experiences and history of more than one hundred First Nations and Métis elders from Canada’s North —“the last generation born on the land.” These stunning graphite pencil portraits are rendered with love, respect, and painstaking detail, along with gripping intimate profiles assembled from oral accounts and anecdotes. Their poignant facial features, lines, and creases, weathered by the harsh outdoors and a lifetime of challenges, are like badges of their remarkable achievements, sustained resolve, inspired patience, and deep-set defiance to the hardships their people have endured for generations. The masterful realism of Kuehl’s work helps uncover the tales of these seasoned individuals—their many triumphs and trials revealing in turn a greater portrait of life in the communities of Northern Canada, a compelling homage, and an enduring historical legacy. The portraits capture images of Cree, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, Dene and Métis peoples.

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236 pages | 10.03" x 10.03"

Facing the monumental issues of our time.

In a 2012 performance piece, Rebecca Belmore transformed an oak tree surrounded by monuments to colonialism in Toronto's Queens Park into a temporary "non-monument" to the Earth.

For more than 30 years, she has given voice in her art to social and political issues, making her one of the most important contemporary artists working today. Employing a language that is both poetic and provocative, Belmore's art has tackled subjects such as water and land rights, women's lives and dignity, and state violence against Indigenous people. Writes Wanda Nanibush, "by capturing the universal truths of empathy, hope and transformation, her work positions the viewer as a witness and encourages us all to face what is monumental."

Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental presents 28 of her most famous works, including Fountain, her entry to the 2005 Venice Biennale, and At Pelican Falls, her moving tribute to residential school survivors, as well as numerous new and in-progress works. The book also includes an essay by Wanda Nanibush, Curator of Indigenous Art at the AGO, that examines the intersection of art and politics. 

Rebecca Belmore is one of Canada's most distinguished artists. She has won the Hnatyshyn Award (2009), the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2013), and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2016). A member of Lac Seul First Nation, she was the first Aboriginal woman to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale. She has also participated in more than 60 one-person and group exhibitions around the world.

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132 pages | 10.25" x 10.25" | 198 Illustrations

The two major schools of thought in Indigenous-Settler relations on the ground, in the courts, in public policy, and in research are resurgence and reconciliation. Resurgence refers to practices of Indigenous self-determination and cultural renewal whereas reconciliation refers to practices of reconciliation between Indigenous and Settler nations, such as nation-with-nation treaty negotiations. Reconciliation also refers to the sustainable reconciliation of both Indigenous and Settler peoples with the living earth as the grounds for both resurgence and Indigenous-Settler reconciliation.

Critically and constructively analyzing these two schools from a wide variety of perspectives and lived experiences, this volume connects both discourses to the ecosystem dynamics that animate the living earth. Resurgence and Reconciliation is multi-disciplinary, blending law, political science, political economy, women's studies, ecology, history, anthropology, sustainability, and climate change. Its dialogic approach strives to put these fields in conversation and draw out the connections and tensions between them.

By using “earth-teachings” to inform social practices, the editors and contributors offer a rich, innovative, and holistic way forward in response to the world’s most profound natural and social challenges. This timely volume shows how the complexities and interconnections of resurgence and reconciliation and the living earth are often overlooked in contemporary discourse and debate.

Reviews
"Resurgence and Reconciliation provides a broader critical framework from which readers may begin to reset the charged political landscape of reconciliation. In the quickly expanding literature, law, and activism, some of the urgency of reconciliation has been unnecessarily lost. This book calls for quiet contemplation and a peaceful reframing of discussion and negotiations in what has become a noisy, busy field of Canada’s national reconciliation project." - Jeffery G. Hewitt, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor

"This collection represents a sustained and engaged dialogue between eminent and emerging scholars of Indigenous rights as they attempt to conceptualize, critique, collaborate, and document relationships of reconciliation and resurgence. The editors and contributors take on the complex debates, challenges, intersections, and fractions facing Canadians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, making this a profoundly important counter-colonial work." - Jane McMillan, Department of Anthropology, St Francis Xavier University

Additional Information
384 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Melonville. Smokey Hollow. Bannock Town. Fort Tuyau. Little Chicago. Mud Flats. Pumpville. Tintown. La Coulee. These were some of the names given to Métis communities at the edges of urban areas in Manitoba. Rooster Town, which was on the outskirts of southwest Winnipeg, endured from 1901 to 1961.

Those years in Winnipeg were characterized by the twin pressures of depression and inflation, chronic housing shortages, and a spotty social support network. At the city’s edge, Rooster Town grew without city services as rural Métis arrived to participate in the urban economy and build their own houses while keeping Métis culture and community as a central part of their lives.

In other growing settler cities, the Indigenous experience was largely characterized by removal and confinement. But the continuing presence of Métis living and working in the city, and the establishment of Rooster Town itself, made the Winnipeg experience unique.

Rooster Town documents the story of a community rooted in kinship, culture, and historical circumstance, whose residents existed unofficially in the cracks of municipal bureaucracy, while navigating the legacy of settler colonialism and the demands of modernity and urbanization.

Using extensive first-hand interviews with both Witsuwit'en and settler elders, Shared Histories describes what happened in the 50 years after the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway established Smithers in the middle of Witsuwit'en territory in northwest British Columbia. By examining these relationships in the context of the history of colonization throughout the province, the author has written an open and honest portrayal of the ways in which the Witsuwit'en were marginalized, but still managed to create and maintain a place for themselves in a community that didn't want them.

Written with extensive consultation with members of the Witsuwit'en community and some of the town's earliest settler families, Shared Histories brings to life the often unwritten history of the ways in which these communities both clashed and joined forces. Its careful use of academic sources and the lived experience of participants make it the kind of history we all need to read.

This book will appeal to history buffs, educators, and academics and to those interested in First Nations and British Columbia history, truth, and reconciliation projects.

Awards

• Winner of the 2019 Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing

Additional Information
200 pages | 9.50" x 9.00"

In Solemn Words and Foundational Documents, Jean-Pierre Morin unpacks the complicated history of Indigenous treaties in Canada. By including the full text of eight significant treaties from across the country—each accompanied by a cast of characters, related sources, discussion questions, and an essay by the author—he teaches readers how to analyze and understand treaties as living documents. 

The book begins by examining treaties concluded during the height of colonial competition, when France and Britain each sought to solidify their alliances with Indigenous peoples. It then goes on to tell the stories of treaty negotiations from across the country: the miscommunication of ideas and words from Crown representatives to treaty text; the varying ranges of rights and promises; treaty negotiations for which we have a rich oral history but limited written records; multiple phases of post-Confederation treaty-making; and the unique case of competing treaties with radically different interpretations.

Educator Information

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Timeline
Introduction: Reading a Treaty and Overview of Treaties Addressed by Chapter
1. 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty
2. 1760 Huron-British Treaty
3. 1805 Treaty 13 (Toronto Purchase)
4. 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaty
5. 1852 Saanich Treaty
6. 1871 Treaty 1
7. 1899 Treaty 8
8. 1923 Williams Treaty
Appendix 1: Cast of Characters
Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms

Reviews
"Solemn Words and Foundational Documents heeds the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for a better understanding of treaties in what is now Canada. Using a case-study approach, Morin provides students with important and accessible information about the treaties themselves, their continued significance, and the relationship between oral and written historical sources. Aimed at senior undergraduate students, the discussion questions, format, and perspectives included in the text make for a valuable pedagogical tool." - Lianne C. Leddy, Wilfrid Laurier University

"In order for reconciliation to occur, Canadians need to better understand how we came to live on Indigenous land, and Morin’s important new book helps to do just that. Historical documents related to treaty history are often scattered across archives and hard to access. This book brings together the treaties themselves, along with related documents and a sharp analysis. The result is a valuable book that will be read by students, scholars, and the general public who are increasingly coming to realize that still today, we are living in treaty relationships with First Nations." - Alison Norman, Trent University

Additional Information
280 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

The tragic consequences of systemic racism.

Structures of Indifference examines an Indigenous life and death in a Canadian city and what it reveals about the ongoing history of colonialism. At the heart of this story is a thirty-four-hour period in September 2008. During that day and a half Brian Sinclair, a middle-aged, non-Status Anishinaabeg resident of Manitoba’s capital city, arrived in the emergency room of the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg’s major downtown hospital, was left untreated and unattended to, and ultimately died from an easily treatable infection. His death reflects a particular structure of indifference born of and maintained by colonialism.

McCallum and Perry present the ways in which Sinclair, once erased and ignored, came to represent diffuse, yet singular and largely dehumanized ideas about Indigenous people, modernity, and decline in cities. This story tells us about ordinary indigeneity in the city of Winnipeg through Sinclair’s experience and restores the complex humanity denied him in his interactions with Canadian health and legal systems, both before and after his death.

Structures of Indifference completes the story left untold by the inquiry into Sinclair’s death, the 2014 report of which omitted any consideration of underlying factors, including racism and systemic discrimination.

Contents

Introduction: Thirty-Four Hours
Ch. 1: The City
Ch. 2: The Hospital
Ch. 3: Brian Sinclair
Conclusion

Reviews
“You can’t really sugarcoat the colonial genealogy that killed Brian Sinclair. Structures of Indifference is a necessary book. It offers a short, direct framing of the death of Brian Sinclair as a clear instance of racism, a racism that is the basis of Canadian settler colonialism.” – Sherene H. Razack, UCLA, author of Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody

Additional Information
192 pages | 4.25" x 7.12"

Talking Back to the Indian Act is a comprehensive "how-to" guide for engaging with primary source documents. The intent of the book is to encourage readers to develop the skills necessary to converse with primary sources in more refined and profound ways. As a piece of legislation that is central to Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples and communities, and one that has undergone many amendments, the Indian Act is uniquely positioned to act as a vehicle for this kind of focused reading.

Through an analysis of thirty-five sources pertaining to the Indian Act—addressing governance, gender, enfranchisement, and land—the authors provide readers with a much better understanding of this pivotal piece of legislation, as well as insight into the dynamics involved in its creation and maintenance.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list for grades 11 and 12 for English Language Arts, Law, and Social Studies.

Additional Information
248 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Lacrosse has been a central element of Indigenous cultures for centuries, but once non-Indigenous players entered the sport, it became a site of appropriation – then reclamation – of Indigenous identities. The Creator’s Game focuses on the history of lacrosse in Indigenous communities from the 1860s to the 1990s, exploring Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations and Indigenous identity formation. While the game was being appropriated in the process of constructing a new identity for the nation-state of Canada, it was also being used by Indigenous peoples to resist residential school experiences, initiate pan-Indigenous political mobilization, and articulate Indigenous sovereignty. This engaging and innovative book provides a unique view of Indigenous self-determination and nationhood in the face of settler-colonialism.

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364 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 56 photos