2021 - 2022 Selections

Eli must embrace his unique heritage and make an impossible decision about his future, and the future of Misewa, in this thrilling last adventure in the award-winning, Narnia-inspired Indigenous middle-grade fantasy series.

Eli, Morgan and Emily manage to free themselves from captivity as the battle between the humans, animal beings, and Bird Warriors rages on. But there's another, more personal battle, as Eli and an unlikely ally fight to save Mahihkan’s life through a previously forbidden portal. When the Sleeping Giant rumbles to life, the stakes hit an all-time high, and Eli has to reach deep within himself to summon the power so that he can protect Misewa against the dangers of colonization . . . forever.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended ages 10+.

This is Book 6 of the Misewa Saga. Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in this epic middle-grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.

Additional Information
280 pages | 5.50" x 8.25" | Hardcover

Orange Shirt Day, observed annually on September 30th, is also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is an official day to honour Residential School Survivors and their families, and to remember the children who did not come home. What was initially envisioned as a way to keep the conversations going about all aspects of Residential Schools in Williams Lake and the Cariboo Region of British Columbia, Canada, has now expanded into a movement across Turtle Island and beyond. Orange Shirt Day: September 30th aims to create champions who will walk a path of reconciliation and promote the message that 'Every Child Matters'. This award-winning book explores a number of important topics including the historical, generational, and continual impacts of Residential Schools on Indigenous Peoples, the journey of the Orange Shirt Day movement, and how you can effectively participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. With end of chapter reflection questions and a series of student art submissions, readers are guided to explore how they, and others, view and participate in Residential School reconciliation.

Awards

• 2021 First Nation Communities Read 2021 Winner 

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 10+

Orange Shirt Day was inspired by the story of a survivor named Phyllis Webstad. When Phyllis was 6 years old she went to residential school for the first time wearing a brand new shiny orange shirt. When she arrived at the school her shirt was taken away and never to be seen again. To Phyllis the colour orange was a symbol that she did not matter. Today she has learned to accept the colour and even have fun with it and now the orange shirt has become a symbol of hope and reconciliation. By wearing an orange shirt on Orange Shirt Day, you make a powerful statement that residential schools were wrong and commit to the concept that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

The Orange Shirt Society is a non-profit organization with its home in Williams Lake, BC where Orange Shirt Day began in 2013. The society has both Indigenous and non-Indigenous board members, and one of the editors of this book, Phyllis Webstad, is Indigenous.  Therefore, the Authentic Indigenous Text label has been applied. It is up to readers to determine if this book is authentic for their purposes.

This is the Revised 2023, 2nd Edition

Additional Information
156 pages | 8.23" x 11.06" | Revised, 2nd Edition

A slim but electrifying debut memoir about the preciousness and precariousness of queer Indigenous life.

Opening with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life on the Driftpile First Nation, Billy-Ray Belcourt delivers a searing account of Indigenous life that’s part love letter, part rallying cry.

With the lyricism and emotional power of his award-winning poetry, Belcourt cracks apart his history and shares it with us one fragment at a time. He shines a light on Canada’s legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it. He revisits sexual encounters, ruminates on first loves and first loves lost, and navigates the racial politics of gay hookup apps. Among the hard truths he distills, the outline of a brighter future takes shape.

Bringing in influences from James Baldwin to Ocean Vuong, this book is a testament to the power of language—to devastate us, to console us, to help us grieve, to help us survive. Destined to be dog-eared, underlined, treasured, and studied for years to come, A History of My Brief Body is a stunning achievement from one of this generation’s finest young minds.

Awards

• Winner of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize

Reviews
“Bursting with all the movements of sex, riot, and repose, this book presents us with a shock of recognition and reclamation, and we are better for it―punch drunk and aching but, oh, so much better. I’m gutted by his brilliant mind.” ―Cherie Dimaline

“Displays a pervading lucidity, akin to dreaming while standing wide awake, feet firmly on the soil . . . [A] fascinating exploration of the impact of colonialism in all its ramifications.” —Quill & Quire

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.01" x 7.50" | Paperback

A son who grew up away from his Indigenous culture takes his Cree father on a trip to their family's trapline, and finds that revisiting the past not only heals old wounds but creates a new future.

The son of a Cree father and a non-Indigenous mother, David A. Robertson was raised with virtually no knowledge or understanding of his family’s Indigenous roots. His father, Don, spent his early childhood on a trapline in the bush northeast of Norway House, Manitoba, where his first teach was the land. When his family was moved permanently to a nearby reserve, Don was not permitted to speak Cree at school unless in secret with his friends and lost the knowledge he had been gifted while living on his trapline. His mother, Beverly, grew up in a small Manitoba town with not a single Indigenous family in it. Then Don arrived, the new United Church minister, and they fell in love.

Structured around a father-son journey to the northern trapline where Robertson and his father will reclaim their connection to the land, Black Water is the story of another journey: a young man seeking to understand his father's story, to come to terms with his lifelong experience with anxiety, and to finally piece together his own blood memory, the parts of his identity that are woven into the fabric of his DNA.

Reviews
“An instant classic that demands to be read with your heart open and with a perspective widened to allow in a whole new understanding of family, identity, and love.” — Cherie Dimaline

“When someone lives their life in a good way, the Haisla call them handsome people. David A. Robertson’s biography is the perfect example of someone who takes care with his words and speaks respectfully; he tackles identity and racism, family bonds and breaks, with nuance and honesty. The power of this approach makes Black Water an essential and timely book.” — Eden Robinson, bestselling author of The Trickster Trilogy

Additional Information
288 pages | 5.31" x 8.00" | Paperback

Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in an epic middle-grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.

Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home -- until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything -- including them.

Reviews
"David A. Robertson has written such a fine, beautiful novel. He manages to combine hard truths about our history with a Narnia-like fantasy, sweeping us into the world of the story while opening our hearts as well." -- Susin Nielsen, author of We Are All Made of Molecules and No Fixed Address

“This is a book that is rich in its characterization, evocative in its descriptions, and skillful in its weaving together of traditions of the past and life in the present.” --CM Magazine

"This middle-grade fantasy deftly and compellingly centers Indigenous culture." --STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews

"The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga is a story about two Indigenous children forced away from their families to a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Struggling to fit, the two children find a space in the attic that opens a portal into another realm. They learn the traditional ways to survive and embark on a dangerous mission there." - The Dalai Lama Center 

Educator & Series Information
For ages 10+ (middle-grades).

This is Book 1 of the Misewa Saga. Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in this epic middle-grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.

This book is available in French: La saga Misewa: N° 1 - Les terres isolées.

Additional Information
256 pages | 5.44" x 8.25" | Jacket art and interior illustrations Natasha Donovan | Paperback

Disability, death and divorce are part of a string of losses that leave this award-winning musician fundamentally changed as she learns to navigate her grief and find a way forward.

Christa Couture lost a piece of herself—in more ways than one. She lost a leg to amputation from childhood bone cancer. She lost a son to complications at birth. She lost another son to a heart defect. She lost a husband to divorce. Each of these losses has left her altered.

In her debut memoir, Couture relives these tragedies alongside the joys that fill the spaces in between. With a quiet wisdom, she explores the dichotomies of grief—how a dismantling necessitates growth, how trauma will at once harden and soften a person. Evoking Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work, How to Lose Everything reflects on the emotional and psychological experiences of motherhood, partnership and change.

Couture’s story is an offering of kinship to anyone touched by loss, be that the loss of a physical ability, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a relationship or the loss of one’s sense of self. With gentleness and generosity, How to Lose Everything bears witness to the shift in perspective that comes with grief, and how it can deepen compassion for others, expand understanding, inspire a letting go of little things and plant a deeper feeling for what matters.

Reviews
"Christa’s voice and the things that make her remarkable are so tangible in her narrative: it is bravely open, it is generous when retelling of great sadness, it is candid and kind, with a sharp and quick humour that sneaks up on you in the most delightful way, at the right time. " — Gabrielle Papillon, singer and songwriter

"An astoundingly generous and compelling memoir. I could not put this book down, and I know I will return to these stories over and over again. How to Lose Everything is for anyone who has ever lost someone; for you, perhaps, who have come to know grief; for all of us who have had to learn how to walk again, after falling to the ground." — Smokii Sumac, author of YOU ARE ENOUGH: LOVE POEMS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

Additional Information
208 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Poems about a young two-spirit Indigenous man moving through shadow and trauma toward strength and awareness. Bones, Tyler Pennock's wise and arresting debut, is about the ways we process the traumas of our past, and about how often these experiences eliminate moments of softness and gentleness. Here, the poem's journey inward, guided by the world of dreams, seeking memories of a loving sister lost beneath layers of tragedy and abuse. With bravery, the poems stand up to the demons lurking in the many shadows of their lines, seeking glimpses of a good that is always just out of reach. At moments heartrending and gut-punching, at others still and sweet, Bones is a collection of deep and painstaking work that examines the human spirit in all of us. This is a hero's journey and a stark look at the many conditions of the soul. This is a book for survivors, for fighters, for dreamers, and for believers.

Reviews
"Here is a spare and urgent voice that speaks of 'wounds and beauty,' that gestures to a story of trauma and abuse while offering us a potent journey of self-reckoning and reclamation. Bones entwines brutality with the deepest tenderness and in its clear-eyed way asks us, as poetry must, to re-see the world." --Catherine Bush, author of Accusation and The Rules of Engagement

"Tyler Pennock's poetry unfurls like breath: measured, light, caught, whispering, and vital. It charts memory with a steady hand and unerring allegiance to locating the 'beauty/in terrible things.' Bones addresses the effects of intergenerational, state-sponsored trauma with enviable grace, inscribing and affirming life on the other side of overwhelming pain, abuse, and grief. It carries on, resilient, defiant, gazing at the stars, one breath at a time." --Laurie D. Graham, author of Settler Education

"Tyler Pennock's Bones is a soft meandering through the memories of the narrator's hearthome: a place in which trauma, kinship, abuse, and nostalgia cradle one another in a circle. Here, poetics are deployed to inspect the most minute of objects with such wild abandon that the narrator transplants us into a world rife with sharpness so as to make the image complete, focussed, lifelike, photographic even as he continually 'wish[es he] were like water'. Here we find memory and dream animated in equal measure: two spirits sitting in a basement, a headless mother, a white bear, wihtiko, and a sister slowly vanishing. Lyrical, witty, heart-wrenching, and empowering, Pennock's debut book of poetry is a contemplative epic asking us to ponder the ethics of remembrance in all of its lacings of razing and revitalization." --Joshua Whitehead, author of Full-Metal Indigiqueer and Jonny Appleseed

Additional Information
104 pages | 6.00" x 8.75"

On the edge of normal, challenges take many forms — the everday can be an adventure and the ordinary a triumph.

A young woman in a group home investigates a mysterious piece of knitting. An obsessed bag boy does grim battle with a squirrel. A woman, an asparagus bag and a garbageman have a tumultuous short-term relationship. Otherwise unremarkable achievements become epic on the edge of normal.

This uplifting collection explores the world through the eyes of protagonists whose perspectives are informed by their unique circumstances. Some are struggling with physical challenges while others seek to overcome psychological barriers. Far from being defined by their limitations, these characters revel in achievements others take for granted and find wonder in unexpected places. By celebrating the private triumphs of people who are all too often dismissed, Ashton reminds us all of our own humanity.

Additional Information
200 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

The East Side of It All draws on Joseph Dandurand’s first-hand experiences of life as a drug user and single-room occupant in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and of the ongoing process of healing through reconnection with family, the natural world and traditional Indigenous (Kwantlen) storytelling. His voice is lyrical yet intimate, obscured yet sitting with you at the kitchen table having a cigarette. The East Side of It All is the journey of a broken man who finally accepts his storytelling gift and shares with the world his misery, joy and laughter. 

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

In Ojibwe cosmology there are thirteen moons...

And in the pages of Ghost Lake are thirteen stories featuring an interrelated cast of characters and their brushes with the mysterious. Issa lives in fear of having her secret discovered, Aanzheyaawin haunts the roads seeking vengeance, Zaude searches for clues to her brother’s death, Garion wrestles with his sexual inclinations, Fanon struggles against an unexpected winter storm, Kylie fights to make it back to shore, Eadie and Mushkeg share a magical night, Tyner faces brutal violence, and Tyler, Clay, and Dare must make amends to the spirits before it’s too late. On the northern Ontario reserve of Ghost Lake the precolonial past is not so distant, and nothing is ever truly lost or destroyed. Because the land remembers.  

Awards

• 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards winner for Published Prose in English: Fiction 

Reviews
“Adler gifts us with this collection of intense life and death stories that straddle the worlds of the everyday and the fantastic. These stories challenge the notion of default reality and Adler crafts them with a deft hand.”—Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians

“Ghost Lake is the border to all things known—but not in the way wider society conceives them: there is no lighthouse imposing its dichotomy on the darkness. It invites recovery and connection from its characters beautifully; story, memory, and relationship build the landscape for them to walk on.  The people of Ghost Lake move through experiences with a curiosity and bravery that I hope all readers have—where there are no experts to place rules on a community’s desire to remember. We need more collections like this.”—Tyler Pennock, author of Bones

“A memorable, necessary read, Nathan Adler’s remarkable collection Ghost Lake delves into the life-changing passages of love and loss, revenge and redemption, survival and discovery. His vital, authentic characters journey through a world in which the boundary between the so-called real and the illusory—the realm of mysteries, spirits, and myths—is itself revealed to be the illusion. These imaginative, expertly crafted stories are guaranteed to illuminate and stir, to challenge and entertain.” —Daniel Scott Tysdal, author of The Writing Moment: A Practical Guide to Creating Poems

Educator Information
An interconnected collection of stories set on the fictional Northern Ontario Reserve of Ghost Lake, featuring a cast of interrelated characters and their encounters with the supernatural and other phenomenon, with themes ranging from love, loss, and relationships, to the meaning of monstrosity, violence, tragedy, and justice.

Ghost Lake is the sequel to Nathan Adler's debut horror novel, Wrist.

Pyromaniacs, vigilantes, mysterious phenomena, prehistoric beasts, cryptid species, grave robbers and ghosts… the stories of Ghost Lake feature a cast of interrelated characters and their brushes with the supernatural, creatures of Ojibwe cosmology, the Spirit World, and with monsters, both human and otherwise. Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler shows us that the precolonial past is not so distant, that history informs the present, and nothing is ever truly lost or destroyed, because the land remembers.

Additional Information
320 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

In Approaching Fire, Michelle Porter embarks on a quest to find her great-grandfather, the Métis fiddler and performer Léon Robert Goulet. Through musicology, jigs and reels, poetry, photographs, and the ecology of fire, Porter invests biography with the power of reflective ingenuity, creating a portrait which expands beyond documentation into a private realm where truth meets metaphor.

Weaving through multiple genres and traditions, Approaching Fire fashions a textual documentary of rescue and insight, and a glowing contemplation of the ways in which loss can generate unbridled renewal.

Awards

• The Miramichi Reader's 2020 Most Promising Author Award 

Reviews
“I wanted to write in a magical and poetic voice, but more than that I wanted to read magical books - true and straight up poetic stories that fulfill the past. Michelle is such a writer. This book is the art Louis spoke of that begins a much needed conversation: Métis nation or Manitoba?” - Lee Maracle

“I've never read a book quite like this before… Approaching Fire is a documentary you can hold in your hands, in which, rather than being a passive witness to scenes unfolding, you become immersed in a river of poetry. Author Michelle Porter uses a mixture of genres to create an account of her journey to uncover the history of her Métis roots, stretching from Newfoundland to British Columbia, Alberta to Saskatchewan, and finally digging deeply into Manitoba. Michelle travels through the stories she was raised on, using them as a base from which to understand the accounts of others, learning all she can about her Great Great Grandfather, Léon Robert (Bob) Goulet, renowned fiddler and performer. Her Pépé. In his story, her story, a wider history of the Métis people is told. A history of racial discrimination, stolen land rights, and the question of what truly unites and defines Métis identity. This book blazes with poetic beauty, and a voice Canada needs to hear.”— More Books Than Days

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.25" x 8.25" | Paperback

A bold and breathtaking anthology of queer Indigenous speculative fiction, edited by the author of Jonny Appleseed.

This exciting and groundbreaking fiction collection showcases a number of new and emerging 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer) Indigenous writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail the vivacity and strength of 2SQness throughout its plight in the maw of settler colonialism's histories.

Here, readers will discover bioengineered AI rats, transplanted trees in space, the rise of a 2SQ resistance camp, a primer on how to survive Indigiqueerly, virtual reality applications, mother ships at sea, and the very bending of space-time continuums queered through NDN time. Love after the End demonstrates the imaginatively queer Two-Spirit futurisms we have all been dreaming of since 1492.

Contributors include Nathan Adler, Darcie Little Badger, Gabriel Castilloux Calderon, Adam Garnet Jones, Mari Kurisato, Kai Minosh Pyle, David Alexander Robertson, jaye simpson, and Nazbah Tom.

Reviews
"Many of the stories offer portraits of a dead Earth from which new life springs, and all are ultimately uplifting, hinting at a way forward through the darkness of the present. Drawing on deep wells of history and experience, these powerful stories are sure to impress." —Publishers Weekly

"The so-called end times feel so perilously close right now. With such a cacophony of anxiety, despair, and cynicism bearing down on us, it is sometimes easy to forget that Indigenous peoples have been here before, and we still remain to uphold our responsibilities to the world and to one another. Our stories guide us forward into an ever-uncertain future, just as they guide us back home. And as editor Joshua Whitehead affirms in the introduction, Love after the End is a book we need right now - and well beyond the now. The stories here are difficult, they're beautiful, they're hilarious and sad and frightening and hopeful. But more than all of that, they guide us back to ourselves and to our relations on a shimmering trail of song and stardust. The two-spirit visionaries in this collection remind us in so many ways that the world is a wounded relative in need of healing, and that to abandon her in this time of trial is to betray the sacred bonds of kinship that we were meant to carry with courage and compassion. I am grateful beyond words that this book is in the world, and grateful to the writers, artists, and editor for the gift of (re)imagining futures where Indigenous love, liberation, and laughter flourish far beyond the settler imaginary. —Daniel Heath Justice, author of Why Indigenous Literatures Matter

"Each of these smart, stunning, imaginative stories has not only fuelled my imagination but also filled my heart, reminding me how dramatically different it is to experience work written with absolute love. Reading Love after the End is like being handed a glass of fresh water in the middle of the desert." —Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.80" x 9.00"

How can we heal in the face of trauma? How can we transform intergenerational pain into a passion for community and healing?

Presenting herself as “Myrtle,” residential school survivor and Indigenous television personality Bevann Fox explores essential questions by recounting her life through fiction. She shares memories of an early childhood filled with love with her grandparents—until she is sent to residential school at the age of seven. Her horrific experiences of abuse there left her without a voice, timid and nervous, never sure, never trusting, affecting her romantic relationships and family bonds for years to come.

This is the story of Myrtle battling to recover her voice. Genocidal Love is a powerful confirmation of the long-lasting consequences of residential school violence —and a moving story of finding a path towards healing.

Awards

• 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards winner for Published Prose in English: Creative Nonfiction and Life-Writing

Reviews
“A riveting, often difficult, brave, important book. ” —Deanna Reder, Chair, Department of Indigenous Studies, Simon Fraser University

“A riveting and courageous reflection. . . . Genocidal Love is unique in its detailed account of the often re-traumatizing effects of the legal and bureaucratic barriers of compensation programs predating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. ” —Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber, editor of kisiskâciwan and co-editor of Performing Turtle Island

“Fox tears beauty from the jaws of genocide, daring to claim love beyond settler imaginings—love that nurtures decolonial futures and makes possible a more just world. ”—Sam McKegney, author of Magic Weapons and Masculindians

Educator Information
A forward from Michelle Coupal explains more about "Genocidal Love—a story that Bevann tells about herself outside the boundaries of what constitutes fiction and non-fiction".

Additional Information
256 pages | 5.00" x 7.00"

The incisive and vital first poetry collection from Mi'kmaw spoken-word poet and former poet laureate of Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia.

We remember tomorrow and a thousand years ago.
From eel weirs to the buffalo.
We remember petroglyphs and Instagram photos.
See, we remember our history,
Without statues, money, or pictures of the Queen.

In Mi'kmaw, three similarly shaped words have drastically different meanings: kesalul means "I love you"; kesa'lul means "I hurt you"; and ke'sa'lul means "I put you into the fire." In spoken-word artist and critically acclaimed author (I'm Finding My Talk) Rebecca Thomas's first poetry collection, readers will feel Thomas's deep love, pain, and frustration as she holds us all to task, along the way mourning the loss of her childhood magic, exploring the realities of growing up off reserve, and offering up a new Creation Story for Canada.

Diverse and probing, I place you into the fire is at once a meditation on navigating life and love as a second-generation Residential School survivor, a lesson in unlearning, and a rallying cry for Indigenous justice, empathy, and equality. A searing collection that embodies the vitality and ferocity of spoken-word poetry.

Additional Information
128 pages | 5.50" x 7.50"

it was never going to be okay is a collection of poetry and prose exploring the intimacies of understanding intergenerational trauma, Indigeneity and queerness, while addressing urban Indigenous diaspora and breaking down the limitations of sexual understanding as a trans woman. As a way to move from the linear timeline of healing and coming to terms with how trauma does not exist in subsequent happenings, it was never going to be okay tries to break down years of silence in simpson’s debut collection of poetry:

i am five

my sisters are saying boy

i do not know what the word means but—

i am bruised into knowing it: the blunt b,

the hollowness of the o, the blade of y

Awards

• 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards winner for Published Poetry in English.

Reviews
"jaye simpson’s it was never going to be okay is a symphony of unrelenting rage and undying hope that beckons to be heard, seen and held with the utmost care. In this stunning debut they speak truths to the complexities of the body, land and memory through an intimately structured and poignant cadence. This collection will leave you longing for more and, in the legacy of trans Indigenous literature, change lives." — Arielle Twist, author of Disintegrate/Dissociate

"jaye simpson marshals a vast economy of images because their subject matter is as large as an entire country, as the colonial past, as structures of oppression and indifference that undermine Indigenous and trans livability. At the level of craft, simpson makes use of the codes of tragedy, polemic, autobiography and the lyric artfully and powerfully. By the book’s end, buoyed by its final beautiful and tender section, a kind of love letter to trans Indigenous peoples, one is called on to build a new world. In this way, jaye simpson's poetry is a vital artifact of a decolonial future!" — Billy-Ray Belcourt, 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize winner for This Wound Is a World

Additional Information
112 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

This fictional coming-of-age story traces a young girl's reluctant journey by canoe through the ancestral lands of the Tlicho People, as she gradually comes to understand and appreciate their culture and the significance of their fight for self-government.

Eleven-year-old Julia has lived in Wekweètì, NWT, since she was five. Although the people of Wekweètì have always treated her as one of their own, Julia sometimes feels like an outsider, disconnected from the traditions and ancestral roots that are so central to the local culture.

When Julia sets off on the canoe trip she is happy her best friends, Layla and Alice, will also be there. However, the trip is nothing like she expected. She is afraid of falling off the boat, of bears, and of storms. Layla's grandparents (who Julia calls Grandma and Grandpa) put her to work but won't let her paddle the canoe. While on land Julia would rather goof around with her friends than do chores. Gradually, Grandma and Grandpa show her how to survive on the land and pull her own weight, and share their traditional stories with her. Julia learns to gather wood, cook, clean, and paddle the canoe, becoming more mature and responsible each day. The journey ends at Behchoko, where the historic Tlicho Agreement of 2005 is signed, and the Tlicho People celebrate their hard-won right to self-government. Julia is there to witness history.

Inspired by true events, this story was written at the request of John B. Zoe, Chief Negotiator of the Tlicho Agreement, as a way of teaching the Tlicho youth about that landmark achievement. Journal of a Travelling Girl has been read and endorsed by several Wekweètì community members and Elders. The book will appeal to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children for its relatable themes of family, loss, coming-of-age, and the struggle to connect with tradition and culture.

Reviews
"Journal of a Travelling Girl deserves to be in every northern classroom. There is so much to learn here, and there is so much to celebrate." —Richard Van Camp, Tlicho author of The Lesser Blessed and Moccasin Square Gardens

"Journal of a Travelling Girl is an absolutely wonderful and timely book that will appeal to girls and boys of any race, colour, or creed. During this time of reconciliation it is necessary for all young people to learn and embrace the ways of our Indigenous ancestors. This book will do that!" —Verna J. Kirkness, author of Creating Space: My Life and Work in Indigenous Education

"As a person born and raised right on the land, Nadine Neema's Journal of a Travelling Girl rings as true to me as the blue skies and open land she so lovingly recounts." —Antoine Mountain, Dene writer and artist

"Journal of a Travelling Girl is not only about people who generously welcome a young girl to share in a special journey, but it introduces readers to an important moment of history." —Kathy Lowinger, co-author (with Eldon Yellowhorn) of What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal and Turtle Island: The Story of North America's First People

"Nadine Neema presents a unique and enlightening glimpse into the customs and culture of the Wekweèti community while exploring themes of acceptance, tolerance, equality, and reparation. . . This is a crucial and timely story. A must read for young readers!" —Tina Athaide, author of Orange for the Sunsets

"A wonderful account, through the eyes of a young girl, of our people's ways of doing things today, guided by our strong history of storytelling." —Tammy Steinwand, Director, Department of Culture and Lands Protection, Tlicho Government

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Inspired by true events, this story was written at the request of John B. Zoe, Chief Negotiator of the Tlicho Agreement, as a way of teaching the Tlicho youth about that landmark achievement. Journal of a Travelling Girl has been read and endorsed by several Wekweètì community members and Elders. The book will appeal to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children for its relatable themes of family, loss, coming-of-age, and the struggle to connect with tradition and culture.

This book is told from an outsider's perspective (the main character is a non-Indigenous girl from outside the community), but the close friendships she has with the Indigenous characters and the lessons and skills she learns from the Elders in the story promote the concept of respect for Indigenous culture and knowledge, as well as the timely issue of reconciliation between Indigenous and settler populations.

Nadine Neema lived and worked in the northern community of Wekweètì for several years, first as a community manager, then assisting with their land claims and self-government negotiations under Chief Negotiator John B. Zoe.

The canoe trip chronicled in the book is actually a yearly custom among the Wekweètì people, which ends at the site of the Treaty Council. Neema has participated in this canoe trip several times. John B. Zoe asked Neema to write this book as a way of teaching Wekweètì youth about the importance of the Agreement and the people who fought for years to gain control over their land and their government.

This is Neema’s first book, but she is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has released four albums. She was mentored by Leonard Cohen and has opened for artists such as Elton John, Joe Cocker and Cyndi Lauper.

Additional Information
144 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

Jennifer McCaffrey has been working hard on her art for years and is thrilled when she is accepted to a prestigious art school. The school is everything she always thought it would be, mostly. There is one group of kids who seem to resent her and say she only got in because of her skin color. Jen, who loves to create new pieces of artwork that incorporate her Indigenous heritage, finds herself a target when the group tells her to stop being “so Indian”. The night before the big art show at school, Jen’s beading art project is defaced. Jen has to find a way not to let the haters win.

Reviews
“Offers a mirror to the sometimes painful emotions and everyday experiences of Indigenous teens of mixed heritage. A rare and welcome reluctant reader title featuring an Indigenous protagonist.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Through the novel’s accessible language and short chapters, readers of all levels and backgrounds will be able to relate to and learn from Jen’s overcoming racial prejudice and intolerance. Readers will also gain a sense of empathy as they come to understand the struggles faced by Indigenous youth in contemporary society. Highly Recommended.” — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 12+

Fry Reading Level: 3.4

Themes: racism, prejudice, standing up to bullies, cultural pride, Indigenous art

Dreaming in Color is a companion novel to the bestselling He Who Dreams (the main character is John's sister).

New, enhanced features (dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper, larger trim size) to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other striving readers.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 6 to 9 for English Language Arts.

This is an Orca Soundings book. Orca Soundings are short, high-interest novels written specifically for teens. These edgy stories with compelling characters and gripping storylines are ones they will want to read.

Additional Information
144 pages | 5.00" x 7.50"

In August of 2016, Cree youth Colten Boushie was shot dead by Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley. Using colonial and socio-political narratives that underlie white rural settler life, the authors position the death of Boushie and trial of Stanley in relation to Indigenous histories and experiences in Saskatchewan. They point to the Stanley case as just one instance of Indigenous peoples' presence being seen as a threat to settler-colonial security, then used to sanction the exclusion, violent treatment, and death of Indigenous peoples and communities.

Additional Information
120 pages | 5.00" x 7.00"

Dez and Miikwan’s stories continue in this sequel to Surviving the City.

Dez’s grandmother has passed away. Grieving, and with nowhere else to go, she’s living in a group home. On top of everything else, Dez is navigating a new relationship and coming into her identity as a Two-Spirit person.

Miikwan is crushing on the school’s new kid Riel, but doesn’t really understand what Dez is going through. Will she learn how to be a supportive ally to her best friend?

Elder Geraldine is doing her best to be supportive, but she doesn’t know how to respond when the gendered protocols she’s grown up with that are being thrown into question.

Will Dez be comfortable expressing her full identity? And will her community relearn the teachings and overcome prejudice to celebrate her for who she is?

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 18.

This is the second volume in the Surviving the City graphic novel series, which is also part of the Debwe Series. 

Surviving the City is a contemporary graphic novel series about young Indigenous women navigating their way in an urban environment. It includes these books:

Surviving the City
From the Roots Up
We Are the Medicine

A Teacher Guide is available: Surviving the City Teacher Guide: Exploring Identity, Allyship, and Social Action for Meaningful Change in Grades 7-12 

Additional Information
64 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

Award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson returns with a bold reimagination of the novel, one that combines narrative and poetic fragments through a careful and fierce reclamation of Anishinaabe aesthetics.

Mashkawaji (they/them) lies frozen in the ice, remembering a long-ago time of hopeless connection and now finding freedom and solace in isolated suspension. They introduce us to the seven main characters: Akiwenzii, the old man who represents the narrator’s will; Ninaatig, the maple tree who represents their lungs; Mindimooyenh, the old woman who represents their conscience; Sabe, the giant who represents their marrow; Adik, the caribou who represents their nervous system; Asin, the human who represents their eyes and ears; and Lucy, the human who represents their brain. Each attempts to commune with the unnatural urban-settler world, a world of SpongeBob Band-Aids, Ziploc baggies, Fjällräven Kånken backpacks, and coffee mugs emblazoned with institutional logos. And each searches out the natural world, only to discover those pockets that still exist are owned, contained, counted, and consumed. Cut off from nature, the characters are cut off from their natural selves.

Noopiming is Anishinaabemowin for “in the bush,” and the title is a response to English Canadian settler and author Susanna Moodie’s 1852 memoir Roughing It in the Bush. To read Simpson’s work is an act of decolonization, degentrification, and willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial myth-making. It is a lived experience. It is a breaking open of the self to a world alive with people, animals, ancestors, and spirits, who are all busy with the daily labours of healing — healing not only themselves, but their individual pieces of the network, of the web that connects them all together. Enter and be changed.

Reviews
"Noopiming is a rare parcel of beauty and power, at once a creator and destroyer of forms. All of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s myriad literary gifts shine here — her scalpel-sharp humour, her eye for the smallest human details, the prodigious scope of her imaginative and poetic generosity. The result is a book at once fierce, uproarious, heartbreaking, and, throughout and above all else, rooted in love.” — Omar El Akkad, bestselling author of American War

"Noopiming is a novel that is as philosophically generative as it is stylistically original. It begins with someone who is frozen in a lake, waiting, and from whom we learn that: ‘being frozen in the lake is another kind of life.’ Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s expansive work explores the indivisibility of beings — old woman, old man, tree, caribou, stone, ice, spirit, geese, the brain, and more, all watching, grieving, thinking, acting, and listening amidst the ongoing and quotidian urgencies of capital. They are sleepless, ceaseless, trying to alter and to recode the world of consumerism, and their survival means that they must daily and collectively reconstruct existence in the city and its coterminous forests. Noopiming is far ahead of us in so many registers of story, language, and worldview; its cumulative effect is a new cosmography.” — Dionne Brand, award-winning author of Theory

"This imaginative book is what would happen if we gave pen and paper to the deepest, most secretive parts of ourselves. Down to the fibres, down to each breath, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson dares to not only explore the humanity of a character, but the humanity of the parts that make us whole, in a world running on empty.” — Catherine Hernandez, bestselling author of Scarborough

"Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Noopiming once again confirms her position as a brilliant, daring experimentalist and a beautiful, radical portraitist of contemporary NDN life. The prose hums with a lovingness that moved me to tears and with a humour that felt plucked right out of my rez adolescence. The chorus of thinkers, dreamers, revolutionaries, poets, and misfits that Simpson conjures here feels like a miracle. My heart ached and swelled for all of them. What I adored most about this book is that it has so little to do with the white gaze. Simpson writes for us, for NDNs, those made to make other kinds of beauty, to build other kinds of beautiful lives, where no one is looking. Noopiming is a book from the future! Simpson is our much-needed historian of the future!” — Billy-Ray Belcourt, award-winning author of This Wound is a World and NDN Coping Mechanisms

"How is it that Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s fiction can feel both familiar and warm like old teachings and absolutely fresh and brand new? Is it even fiction? Noopiming seems to exist somewhere in the in-between, with all the best parts of poetry and story. As always, I am in awe of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, prolific in every way.” — Katherena Vermette, bestselling author of The Break 

Additional Information
368 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.

Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.

Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.

With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.

Awards

• Amazon Canada First Novel Award
• 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction
• 2022 Canada Reads Winner 

Educator Information
Winner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Price for Best New Fiction, Michelle Good's Five Little Indians is told from alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver.

Additional Information
304 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

At the age of seventeen, an Anishinabe boy who was raised in the south joined a James Bay Cree family in a one-room hunting cabin in the isolated wilderness of northern Quebec. In the five months that followed, he learned a way of life on the land with which few are familiar, where the daily focus is on the necessities of life, and where both skill and finesse are required for self-sufficiency.

In The Shoe Boy, that boy – Duncan McCue – takes us on an evocative journey that explores the hopeful confusion of the teenage years, entwined with the challenges and culture shock of coming from a mixed-race family and moving to the unfamiliar North. As he reflects on his search for his own personal identity, he illustrates the relationship Indigenous peoples have with their lands, and the challenges urban Indigenous people face when they seek to reconnect to traditional lifestyles.

The result is a contemplative, honest, and unexpected coming-of-age memoir set in the context of the Cree struggle to protect their way of life, after massive hydro-electric projects forever altered the landscape they know as Eeyou Istchee.

This memoir will be of interest to readers of all ages who want to know more about the interplay of traditional and contemporary Indigenous lifestyles, the challenges of identity for First Nations youth, and the relationship Indigenous peoples have with their land.

Reviews
"Frank, funny and evocative, The Shoe Boy deftly entwines the challenges of identity for First Nations youth, the sexual frustration and hopeful confusion of the teenage years, and the realities of living in an enduring state of culture shock." — CBC Books

"The Shoe Boy is a valuable read and will enrich anyone who tunes in to CBC Radio One on Sunday afternoons, as McCue establishes his voice in the conversation of Canada.— Thomas Billingsley, Globe and Mail

Educator Information
Related Topics: Biography, Memoirs, and Letters; Canadian Studies; Indigenous Studies.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 9 to 12 for English Language Arts and Social Studies.

Caution: mature language, references to sex, alcohol, and suicide.

Additional Information
88 pages | 5.00" x 8.00"

A collection of words and imagery from diverse voices grounded in the land that explore community in relation to time. Filmmaker/writer, Darlene Naponse, curates a gathering of expression about time that has passed, time that is now and time that comes.

Before the Usual Time features contributions by:
Chuquai Billy
Sherwin Bitsui
Emily Clarke
Craig Commanda
Jessie Fiddler
Lori Flinders
Daniel Groulx
Sy Hoahwah
Ajuawak Kapashesit
Leanna Marshall
Darlene Naponse
Joan Naviuyuk Kane
Dennis Saddleman
Ardelle Sagutcheway
Craig Santos Perez
Cathy Smith

Additional Information
180 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

“Required reading for anyone invested in our shared future with these powerful and complex creatures. ” —John Vaillant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce
 
Growing up on a northern trap line, Harold Johnson was taught to keep his distance from wolves. For decades, wolves did the same for humans. But now this seems to be changing. In 2005, twenty-two-year-old Kenton Carnegie was killed in a wolf attack near his work camp. Part story, part forensic analysis, Cry Wolf examines this and other attacks, showing how we fail to take this apex predator seriously at our own peril.
 
Reviews
“A crucial and timely examination of our shifting relationship to the land in general and the Canis lupus in particular. ” —Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster
 
“Insightful . . . . Johnson eloquently argues that Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the wisdom of Indigenous people can help us better understand the true nature of predators such as wolves. ” —Cristina Eisenberg, PhD, author of The Wolf’s Tooth and The Carnivore Way

Additional Information
160 pages | 5.00" x 7.50"

Feel the power of the powwow dance.

Powwow is a celebration of Indigenous song and dance. It’s a journey through the history of powwow culture in North America, from its origins in colonization, the Indian Act and the Wild West shows of the late 1800s to the thriving powwow culture of today. As a lifelong competitive powwow dancer, Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane is a guide to the protocols, regalia, songs, dances and even food you can find at powwows from coast to coast, as well as the important role they play in Indigenous culture and reconciliation.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Beginning with a historical look at the origins of the powwow and then moving on to what they look like today, this book is a practical guide to the songs, dances, regalia, culture, and food associated with different powwows across North America.

This book explores how powwow culture, and an understanding of its importance in Indigenous culture, can be a part of the narrative of reconciliation.

The author is a longtime competitive powwow dancer who has travelled to powwows across North America.

This book is part of the Orca Origins series that explores cultural celebrations throughout the world.

Keywords: powwow dance, Indigenous culture, reconciliation, history, ceremonial dance.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 4 to 8 for English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Dance.

Additional Information
88 pages | 7.50" x 9.00" | colour illustrations / photographs

An insightful collection exploring the plight, past and promise of the orca, powerful symbol of BC’s wild coast and apex predator of all oceans. Spirits of the Coast brings together the work of marine biologists, Indigenous knowledge keepers, poets, artists and storytellers, united by their enchantment with the orca. Long feared in Western cultures as “killer whales,” and respected and honoured by Indigenous cultures as friends, family or benefactors, orcas are complex social beings with culture and language of their own. With contributors ranging from Briony Penn to David Suzuki, Gary Geddes and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, this collection brings together diverse voices, young and old, to explore the magic, myths, and ecology of orcas. A literary and visual journey through past and possibility, Spirits of the Coast illustrates how these enigmatic animals have shaped us as much as our actions have impacted them, and provokes the reader to imagine the shape of our shared future.

Educator Information
Includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributions.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 9 to 12 for English Language Arts, Law, Social Studies, Social Justice, Science.

Additional Information
192 pages | 8.00" x 10.00"

Echo Desjardins is adjusting to her new home, finding friends, and learning about Métis history. She just can’t stop slipping back and forth in time. One ordinary afternoon in class, Echo finds herself transported to the banks of the Red River in the summer of 1869. All is not well in the territory as Canadian surveyors have arrived to change the face of territory, and Métis families, who have lived there for generations, are losing access to their land. As the Resistance takes hold, Echo fears for her friends and the future of her people in the Red River Valley.

Educator & Series Information
This is volume 3 in the graphic novel series, A Girl Called Echo, by Katherena Vermette.

Books in this series include: 
Volume 1: Pemmican Wars
Volume 2: Red River Resistance
Volume 3: Northwest Resistance
Volume 4: Road Allowance Era

Recommended for grades 5 to 9 by publisher.

Katherena Vermette, a Governor General's Award-winning author deftly enters a format typically dominated by male creators with this graphic novel series, A Girl Called Echo. Featuring compelling illustrations, a female main character, and the contemporary foster care system, the series follows Echo Desjardins as she discovers her Métis heritage firsthand while slipping back and forth through time.

This book is available in French: Elle s'appelle Echo Tome 3: La résistance du Nord-Ouest

Additional Information
48 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

Return to the valleys of the River of Mists with award-winning author Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson). Nox xsgyaak, the eagle mother, cares for her brood in the embrace of a black cottonwood with the help of her mate. Will both eaglets survive the summer in an environment that is both delicate and unforgiving?

Learn about the life cycle of these stunning birds of prey, the traditions of the Gitxsan, and how bald eagles can enrich their entire ecosystem. Evocative illustration brings the Xsan's flora and fauna to life for middle years readers in book three of the Mothers of Xsan series.

Reviews
“The Eagle Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) and illustrator Natasha Donovan, the third in the Mothers of Xsan series, which offers a perspective on the life cycle of animals important to the land and to people.”— Publishers Weekly

"For further learning about the Gitxsan, the author has included a glossary titled "The Gitxsan Moons" and a summary of Gitxsan Nation clans" - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021

Educator & Series Information
Recommended ages: 9 to 12 (Grades 3 to 7).

This is the third book in the Mothers of Xsan series, which uses striking illustration and lyrical language to bring the poetry of the Xsan ecosystem to life. The traditional Gitxsan formline art and language weave together throughout the stories in this series to paint a vivid picture of the Gitxsan people. 

The Mothers of Xsan series is a collection of stories that connect the world to the matrilineal society of the Gitxsan people, located in Northwestern British Columbia. It presents scientific knowledge in language and a format that is accessible. Each book in the series showcases the depth and importance of the knowledge that has been gathered and shared through this unique style of storytelling. The stories of life cycle, connection the land and language are told from the perspective of the Mothers of Xsan system's animals.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list as being useful for grades 1-4 in the areas of Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. 

Additional Information
32 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

In the bright lights of the big city, the Mighty Muskrats search for an auntie lost long ago.

The Mighty Muskrats are off to the city to have fun at the Exhibition Fair. But when Chickadee asks Grandpa what he would like them to bring back from the city, she learns about Grandpa’s missing little sister. She was, they learn, “scooped” years ago – like many Indigenous children, the government had arranged for her adoption by strangers without her parents’ permission. Now, the Mighty Muskrats have a new case to solve: to find the whereabouts of their grandpa’s long-lost sister. Once in the bright lights of the big city, the cousins get distracted, face off with bullies, meet some heroes and unlikely teachers, and experience many of the difficulties First Nations kids can face in the city. The Muskrats’ search for their missing auntie takes them all the way to the government, and reveals hard truths about their country’s treatment of First Nations kids and families.

Reviews
"The Case of the Missing Auntie is the second book in the Mighty Muskrats Mystery series and features the group visiting an Exhibition fair in the city. The Muskrats find their next mystery to solve when Chickadee learns that Grandpa’s missing sister was adopted without permission many years ago." - The Dalai Lama Center

Educator & Series Information
This is Book 2 in the Mighty Muskrats Mystery Series.  Following The Case of Windy Lake, this second edition to the series follows these young sleuths as they explore the history of residential schools and the "scoops" that saw Canada take Indigenous children from their families and adopt them out to strangers. 

This book introduces young people to the history of Sixties Scoop in North America and how thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families and given to white families to be raised.

This book tells of a classic fish-out-of-water experience as the kids try and figure out the nuances of the big city.

Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Guided Reading: V 

Lexile: 670L

This book is available in French: Sur les traces de tante Charlotte: Une enquête des Rats musclés 

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.25" x 7.50"

When the author learns of the death of her brother overseas, she embarks on a journey to bring him home. Through memories and dreams of all they shared together and through her Dene traditions, she finds comfort and strength. The lyrical art and story leave readers with a universal message of hope and love.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12+ (Mature Picture Book)

In this emotional illustrated picture book, author and illustrator Lisa Boivin tells the story of the loss of her brother and the journey with her Dene traditions to find comfort and the strength to move on from her grief.

This book explores themes of death, memory, remembrance, comfort, and specifically Dene perspectives on death. 

The author's deeply personal story is revealed through exquisite artwork and text that are grounded in her family's Dene culture.

Lisa Boivin's experiences as an artist and bioethicist inform her story, expressed in the Indigenous way of passing knowledge through images.

Additional Information
56 pages | 6.50" x 10.00" | Colour illustrations throughout

Larry Audlaluk has seen incredible changes in his lifetime. Born in northern Quebec, he relocated with his family to the High Arctic in the early 1950s. They were promised a land of plenty. They discovered an inhospitable polar desert. 

Sharing memories both painful and joyous, Larry takes the reader on a journey to the Arctic as his family struggles to survive and new communities are formed. By turns heart-wrenching and humorous. Larry tells of his journey through relocation, illness, residential schooling, and the encroachment of southern culture.

Excerpt from What I Remember, What I Know
Many stories have been written about how Inuit families were relocated to the High Arctic. The one most written about is economic opportunity. The other is sovereignty. The writers are always careful to use the word "claims" when they're talking about sovereignty, as if to make our claims untrue. The story is long, complicated, and documented by various groups, besides the official records. It has been told from so many angles and moods, from social and political perspectives. I will tell you the story of my family's relocation from personal experience.

Additional Information
300 pages | 6.00" 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