Language / Literary Studies

The groundbreaking Indigenous style guide every writer needs.

The first published guide to common questions and issues of Indigenous style and process for those who work in words and other media is back in an updated new edition. This trusted resource offers crucial guidance to anyone who works in words or other media on how to work accurately, collaboratively, and ethically on projects involving Indigenous Peoples.

Editor Warren Cariou (Métis) and contributing editors Jordan Abel (Nisga’a), Lorena Fontaine (Cree-Anishinaabe), and Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) continue the conversation started by the late Gregory Younging in his foundational first edition. This second conversation reflects changes in the publishing industry, Indigenous-led best practices, and society at large, including new chapters on author-editor relationships, identity and community affiliation, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer identities, sensitivity reading, emerging issues in the digital world, and more.

This guide features:

• Twenty-two succinct style principles.
• Advice on culturally appropriate publishing practices, including how to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, when and how to seek the advice of Elders, and how to respect Indigenous Oral Traditions and Traditional Knowledge.
• Terminology to use and to avoid.
• Advice on specific editing issues, such as biased language, capitalization, citation, accurately representing Indigenous languages, and quoting from historical sources and archives.
• Examples of projects that illustrate best practices.

Additional Information
208 pages | 5.50" x 7.50" | Paperback

Since the earliest days of human memory, countless generations have turned their eyes to the skies in wonder, drawing patterns, understanding the stars’ connection to cycles and events, and carrying their stories and teachings forward to subsequent generations.

The Song of the Stars offers a unique journey through the skies, linking us to generations of ancestors who marvelled at the same stars we still gaze upon today. The book brings together Anishinaabe cultural teachings about the cosmos and the Anishinaabemowin language with scientific insights to demonstrate how both viewpoints can help us foster deeper and more meaningful relationships to the Earth and the cosmos. Robert Animikii Horton, Anishinaabemowin educator, proves that this dual perspective can be a source of awe and wonder, inspiring in us a love of both language and science.

Demonstrating how Anishinaabe cultural teachings and scientific insights can complement one another and need not be irreconcilable opposites, The Song of the Stars provides a combination of perspectives that cultivates a deeper understanding of the vast mystery surrounding our place in the universe.

Educator Information
Contents
1. In Awe of the Awe-Inspiring
2. Aki: The Earth
3. Giizis: The Sun
4. Gichi-giizis: The Solar Eclipse
5. Naawakwe: Solar Noon
6. Ma’iingan Omiikana: The Sun’s Ecliptic
7. Aadwaa’amoog: Orion’s Belt
8. Waawaate: The Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
9. Jiibay Miikana: The Milky Way
10. Gookomisinaan Dibiki-giizis: The Moon
11. Gaagige-giizhig: The Universe
12. Anang: Star
13. Ojiig Anang: Fisher Star
14. Ojiig: The Big Dipper
15. Gichi-Ogimaa Anang: Vega
16. Gaa-bibooniked: The Wintermaker
17. Maang: The Little Dipper
18. Bagonegiizhig: The Pleiades
19. Moonz: Pegasus
20. Onwaajige Anang: Halley’s Comet
21. Madoodiswan: Corona Borealis
22. Ma’iingan: Canis Major
23. Nanaboozhoo: Scorpius
24. Waaban Anang: The Morning Star
25. Biidaaban, Waaban, Zaagajiwens, & Mooka’am: The Process of Sunrise
26. Mishibizhiw: Leo, Cancer, and Hydra
27. Gaa-madoodood: Hercules
28. Bangishin Anang: Falling Star
29. Binesi: Cygnus
30. Mishiginebig: Draco
31. Ikwe Anang: Venus
32. Directions and More

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

The first book published in Tsuut’ina—a critically endangered language—in over a century!

With fewer than 150 speakers, Tsuut’ina is a critically endangered language. Isúh Áníi / As Grandmother Said brings together nine traditional narratives and historical accounts in the Tsuut’ina language, originally narrated by Elders Dátł’ìshí Ts’ìká Bessie Meguinis (1883–1987) and Ninàghá Tsìtł’á Willie Little Bear (1912–1989). At once an act of language preservation and a learning resource, each story is retold in Tsuut’ina by Dit’óní Didlíshí Dr. Bruce Starlight and is presented with English translations and a Tsuut’ina-to-English glossary.

The narratives included in this collection cover considerable ground, ranging from the creation of the world in the caring hands of Xàlítsa-tsii and his animal helpers, to accounts of separation, migration, and cross-cultural contact that mark major turning points in Tsuut’ina history, and to important cultural and ceremonial items and practices that the Tsuut’ina Nation maintains to this day.

These stories will be of lasting value to Tsuut’ina language learners and teachers, and will share the legacy of Elders Bessie Meguinis and Willie Little Bear with generations of Tsuut’ina to come.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the First Nation Language Readers series. With a mix of traditional and new stories, each First Nations Language Reader introduces an Indigenous language and demonstrates how each language is used today. 

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

Aided by Grandmother Spider, Star Woman discovers the Hole-in-the-Sky, opening a pathway for the Star People to experience the wonder of life on earth. But the world falls into the hands of the Paper People, jeopardizing the sacred harmony between nature and the cosmos. And so Little Spirit, a young boy, must search for meaning and find redemption in the care of Grandmother Moon.

An epic narrative, The Star Poems explores the black hole of colonial history—Residential Schools, the loss of the father, youth suicide—and the vital role of women in reclaiming our traditional knowledge, the teachings that stitch together the fabric of the universe.

The Star Poems creatively engages Cree oral tradition in a new way, connecting Indigenous spirituality and quantum physics to honour and adapt some of our most ancient stories about the origins of life and our place in the universe. Presented in both English and Cree, The Star Poems is a timely contribution to the revitalization of the Cree language—and the fascinating world of star stories.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 15+

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

In this poignant display of the resilience of language, culture, and community in the face of the profound changes brought by settlers, Kluane First Nation Elders share stories from their lives, knowledge of their traditional territory (A si Keyi, "my grandfather's country"), and insights on the building of their self-governing First Nation.

With generosity, diligence and deep commitment to their community, Elders from Lhu'aan Man Keyi (Kluane First Nation) recorded oral histories about their lives in the southwest Yukon. They shared wisdom, stories and songs passed down from grandparents, aunties and uncles, in Dan k'e (Southern Tutchone, Kluane dialect) and English. This years-long project arose from the Elders' desire for their children and future generations to know the foundations of language, culture, skills and beliefs that will keep them proud, healthy and strong. The Elders speak of life before the Alaska Highway, when their grandparents drew on thousands of years of traditional knowledge to live on the land through seasonal rounds of hunting and gathering; the dark years after the building of the Alaska Highway, when children were taken away to residential schools and hunting grounds were removed to form the Kluane Game Preserve and National Park; and the decades since, when the community worked through the Yukon land claims process to establish today's self-governing First Nation.

Inclusivity is a key community value. The Elders' stories are accompanied by the voices of youth and citizens of all ages, along with a history of the Kluane region. The book is beautifully illustrated with Elders' photographs, historical images and art work, and photos showing breathtaking views of Kluane mountains, lakes, sites, trails, and activities in the community today. With passionate and deeply informed voices, this is a stirring portrait created by a community that has shown resilience through massive changes and remains dedicated to preserving their culture, language and lands for the generations to come.

Awards

• 2024 Indigenous History Book Prize 

Educator Information
Some of the wisdom, stories, and songs are in Dan k'e (Southern Tutchone, Kluane dialect).

Additional Information
384 pages | 11.25" x 9.00"| 150 colour and b&w photos | Hardcover 

A vital collection weaving history, personal experience, and Indigenous resilience.

Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân is a wonder. It plays with form, space, and language, comparing meanings in English and nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree). The reader’s attention is drawn to the restrictive and imposed constructs of English grammar, the way it boxes in interpretation and cadence.

With inspiring defiance, Wanda John-Kehewin demonstrates which magics cannot be suppressed. Broken into three sections, Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead looks at the sickening grip of colonialism: its ongoing detriment to the mental health of Indigenous people, its theft of language, and the scope of its intergenerational harms. The author places herself, her work, and her family’s personal experiences in the context of a historical timeline running from the so-called doctrine of discovery to the present day. Recounting the two in tandem reveals the unrelenting nature of violence and, in turn, resistance. There is great power in truth; John-Kehewin “stands in her truth” so that other survivors may stand in theirs.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools resource collection as being useful for grades 11 and 12 for English Language Arts, English First Peoples, Social Studies.

Content Warning: Coarse language, mature content: references to abuse, trauma, suicide.

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

Brandi Bird's frank, transcendent poetry explores the concepts of health, language, place, and memory in this long-anticipated debut collection.

Brandi Bird's long-anticipated debut poetry collection, The All + Flesh, explores the concepts of health, language, place, and memory that connect its author to their chosen kin, blood relatives, and ancestral lands. By examining kinship in broader contexts, these frank, transcendent poems expose binaries that exist inside those relationships, then inspect and tease them apart in the hope of moving toward decolonial future(s). Bird's work is highly concerned with how outer and inner landscapes move and change within the confines of the English language, particularly the "I" of the self, a tradition of movement that has been lost for many who don't speak their Indigenous languages or live on their homelands. By exploring the landscapes the poet does inhabit, both internally and externally, Bird's poems seek to delve into and reflect their cultural lineages-specifically Saulteaux, Cree, and Métis-and how these transformative identities shape the person they are today.

I am made of centuries & carbohydrates
the development of my molars
the hunger the teeth grew
has been with me since childhood
I can't escape the mouths of others

Awards

• 2024 Poetry in English, Indigenous Voices Awards 

Reviews
"Since hearing Brandi Bird at a reading in a park in summertime recite the lines, "I know / then that there is hope / until I die & then / there is other / people's hope," I have thought about them many times, they have merged with my own consciousness. That's the power of Bird's poems-they resonate at such a visceral and cerebral level that they become a part of you. The All + Flesh marks the arrival of an endlessly moving and astounding voice in Indigenous poetry. I, for one, will be reading these poems for the rest of my life." — Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A MINOR CHORUS

"In The All + Flesh, Brandi Bird maps the psychic space between 'NDN compartmentalization' and split prairies, from bus depots to 'endocrine storms,' from LiveJournal to a living history of relocation under land theft. 'My body is not an empire but first contact happened at / birth' and 'I eat / until my mouth needles / the dark.' With exacting lucidity, Bird's lyrics chart the body as a reservoir for colonial malice, a site of resistance, and a conduit for a voice that is visceral, immediate, and uncompromising. An absolute triumph of a debut."— Liz Howard, author of Letters in a Bruised Cosmos

Additional Information
96 pages | 6.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

A Little Plains Cree Book for Children contains useful noun categories, phrases, and some basic rules for the Plains Cree language. Following the themes of the Saskatchewan Curriculum Guide for Kindergarten to Grade 12 on Aboriginal Languages, the content focuses on terms familiar to the First Nations Cree people of Saskatchewan. This book should also be supplemented by total physical response (TPR) methods, in addition to teaching materials such as songs, games, and flash cards. Our hope is to encourage a basic understanding of the language so that learners are able to converse with Plains Cree speakers. The best path to fluency in the Plains Cree language is immersion, but learning one word at a time is a good place to start!

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 5+

A teaching guide can be found here: nēhiyawēwin awāsi-masinahikanis: A Little Plains Cree Book for Children—Teaching Guide

Find a colouring book here: A Little Plains Cree Colouring Book: Plains Cree People

Additional Information
96 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Paperback

An important language resource that helps intermediate nêhiyawêtan learners begin to understand more advanced grammar of the language.

Let’s keep on speaking Cree:
In our language is our life;

Let’s keep on speaking Cree:
In our language is our identity.

Building on mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree, Solomon Ratt’s first influential Cree language resource, âhkami-nêhiyawêtân / Let’s Keep Speaking Cree helps intermediate nêhiyawêtan learners begin to understand more advanced grammar of the language. The textbook is more than a language textbook though: it includes a series of the author’s original stories written in Cree, complete with comprehension questions, making it ideal for self-study as well as classroom use.

Educator & Series Information
This book builds on mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree.

Latest Cree language workbook by highly respected author and educator Solomon Ratt, intended for intermediate readers/speakers/
learners

First title in the Continuing Language series, which will build upon our introductory Indigenous language learner texts

Includes sections on going to the doctor, Cree culture and values, protocols, faith, humility, teachings, and more.

Additional Information
304 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Spiral Bound

A first-hand account of a Swampy Cree boy’s experiences growing up in the Saskatchewan River Delta, one of the world’s largest inland deltas and one of North America’s most important ecosystems.

Depicting an Indigenous lifestyle that existed in Northern Saskatchewan way past the Fur Trade era, Ken Carriere shares his first-hand account of experiences as a young boy helping his father trapping, fishing, and hunting in the Saskatchewan River Delta.

Opimōtēwina wīna kapagamawāt Wītigōwa / Journeys of The One to Strike the Wetigo contains interviews with elders, stories, personal photographs, and poetry, along with some original Swampy Cree translations.

Creating a vivid portrait of what it was like to live off the land, Carriere also reveals how hydro-electric dams and other Western endeavours have impacted the livelihoods of so many Northern communities.

Reviews
"Wow! This is an excellent resource for those engaged in, or interested in, land-based education. It gives a wonderful, engaging account of living on the land in the past and, to some extent, in the present day. It's also a good resource for N-dialect speakers." —Solomon Ratt, author of The Way I Remember and Beginning Cree

Additional Information
328 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings is the second book in a series by renowned Ojibwe storyteller Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch, following on The Trail of Nenaboozhoo and Other Creation Stories (2019). Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings is a collection of traditional Ojibwe/Anishinaabe stories transliterated directly from Murdoch's oral storytelling. Part history, legend, and mythology, these are stories of tradition, magic and transformation, morality and object lessons, involving powerful spirit-beings in serpent form. The stories appear in both English and Anishinaabemowin, with translations by Patricia BigGeorge. Murdoch's traditional-style Ojibwe artwork provides beautiful illustrations throughout.

Reviews
"'When the Thunderbirds and Serpents fight, they feed off each other, you know great medicine gets cast across the land. We get our life from that.' So writes storyteller Isaac Murdoch as he shares his Elders' stories about tunnels beneath the earth, rich laws, philosophies, teachings, power from up there, down there, and all around us, until we too hear the thunders as they bring us into the world of wahkotowin, all our relations. How privileged and blessed we are to be able to read the Ahtyokaywina of our people."--Maria Campbell, author of Halfbreed

"Gather around, for here are oral stories transcribed so they retain the flavour of a narrative spoken aloud, and translated into Anishinaabemowin; perfect for language-learners. I love the way these stories infuse the spirit world into an every-day context, these are not dusty old legends, but a living way of seeing the world around us in the here and now."--Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, author of Ghost Lake

Educator & Series Information
Dual-Language: English and Anishinaabemowin.

Anishinaabemowin translation by Patricia BigGeorge, who is an Anishinaabemowin speaker and translator.

This book is Vol. 2 in the Ojibwe History Series.

Additional Information
100 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 20 illustrations | Paperback 

In Siksikaitsitapi: Stories of the Blackfoot People, seven authors share their stories that come from both from legend and from their personal experiences, with many of the stories in both Blackfoot and English languages. The book is illustrated with beautiful full-colour pictures and photos which help convey these stories from Blackfoot traditional and contemporary traditions and cultures. The Blackfoot Confederacy is made up of the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, and Amskapi Piikuni Nations of Southern Alberta and Montana.

Payne Many Guns' story captures the ways the Blackfoot People live in harmony with the land, animals, and stars in their traditional lands.

Crystal Many Fingers tells a delightful, modern story about animals, their gifts, and why they were put on Earth.

Sheena Potts' story beautifully illustrates the many ways love is alive in Blackfoot traditions and culture.

Tim Fox tells a humerous story about mice who are having a celebration that the raven Napi and a group of dogs want to join.

Marlene Yellow Horn shares her personal story of the teachings she learned as a child about the Elders' traditional and sacred knowledge.

DerRic Starlight tells the tale of Morning Star's diverse and loving family life.

Foreword is by Alayna Many Guns.

Educator & Series Information
The publisher recommends this title for grades 6 to 12, but these stories will appeal to children of all ages. 

This book is part of the Indigenous Spirit of Nature series.

"These Blackfoot children’s book chapters share common knowledge stories which have been shared to our authors. Common knowledge includes everyday lessons and norms. The book provides us with an opportunity to reclaim our truths. In the past, sitting with an Elder and listening to traditional stories of the stars, the animals, Napi, and our purpose was a great gift. Today, this is more important than ever. Elders gift us with purpose, strength, knowledge, and love." - Alayna Many Guns, from the foreword 

Additional Information
144 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Colour illustrations | Paperback

In A Short History of the Blockade, award-winning writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson uses Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg stories, storytelling aesthetics, and practices to explore the generative nature of Indigenous blockades through our relative, the beaver—or in Nishnaabemowin, Amik. Moving through genres, shifting through time, amikwag stories become a lens for the life-giving possibilities of dams and the world-building possibilities of blockades, deepening our understanding of Indigenous resistance, as both a negation and an affirmation. Widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation, Simpson’s work breaks open the intersections between politics, story, and song, bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. A Short History of the Blockade reveals how the practice of telling stories is also a culture of listening, “a thinking through together,” and ultimately, like the dam or the blockade, an affirmation of life.

Educator Information
Subjects & Keywords: Social Sciences, Literary Criticism, Indigenous Studies; Indigenous resistance, blockades, beaver dams, Nishnaabeg storytelling, regeneration, generative resistance, Canadian Indigenous literature, land defenders, water defenders, practice of wisdom, Indigenous stories, Indigenous authors.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools collection for grades 10 to 12 for these subjects: Social Studies, English Language Arts, English First Peoples

Additional Information
88 pages | 5.25" x 9.00"

The voices of Blue Marrow sing out from the past and the present. They are the voices of the Grandmothers, both personal and legendary. They share their wisdom, their lives, their dreams. They proclaim the injustice of colonialism, the violence of proselytism, and the horrors of the residential school system with an honesty that cuts to the marrow. Speaking in both English and Cree, these are voices of hopefulness, strength, and survivance. Blue Marrow is a tribute to the indomitable power of Indigenous women of the past and of the present day.

Educator Information
This is the 3rd Edition of this book.  More than twenty years since its first publication, this critically acclaimed collection is available in a redesigned edition, including an all-new interview with its celebrated author, Louise B. Halfe - Sky Dancer.

Some of the text is written in Cree.

Additional Information
120 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | paperback | 8 illustrations

Châhkâpâs: A Naskapi Legend shares the story of Châhkâpâs, a heroic figure in First Nations storytelling, who performs feats of strength and skill in spite of his diminutive size.

The book shares this traditional legend as originally recorded in the Naskapi community in northern Quebec in 1967 when it was narrated by John Peastitute, a Naskapi Elder and accomplished storyteller. Transcribed in the Naskapi language and syllabic orthography, the book offers a literary resource for the Naskapi language community, and the English translation enables those unfamiliar with the language, or the story, to discover this important legend.

The book also contains extensive analysis of stories about Châhkâpâs, notes about the provenance of the recordings, a biography of the storyteller, and a history of the Naskapi people. Lavish illustrations from Elizabeth Jancewicz—an artist raised in the Naskapi community—provide a sensitive and accurate graphical account of the legend, which has also been approved by Naskapi speakers themselves.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the First Nation Language Readers series. With a mix of traditional and new stories, each First Nations Language Reader introduces an Indigenous language and demonstrates how each language is used today. 

By John Peastitute
Edited by Marguerite MacKenzie
Translated by Julie Brittain and Silas Nabinicaboo 
Illustrated by Elizabeth Jancewicz 
Contributions by Bill Jancewicz

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