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Indigenous materials

  • Author:
    Keeptwo, Suzanne
    Summary:

    Land Acknowledgements often begin academic conferences, cultural events, government press conferences, and even hockey games. They are supposed to be an act of Reconciliation between Indigenous people in Canada and non-Indigenous Canadians, but they have become so routine and formulaic that they have sometimes lost meaning. Seen more and more as empty words, some events have dropped Land Acknowledgements altogether. Métis artist and educator Suzanne Keeptwo wants to change that. She sees the Land Acknowledgement as an opportunity for Indigenous people in Canada to communicate their worldview to non-Indigenous Canadians--a worldview founded upon Age Old Wisdom about how to sustain the Land we all want to call home. For Keeptwo, the Land Acknowledgement is a way to teach and a way to learn: a living, evolving record of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people in Canada and the Land that for millennia they held in pristine condition. As Keeptwo says: "Everything comes back to the Land--as our common denominator and most perfect unifier for Reconciliation." This is an indispensable guide to getting the contemporary Land Acknowledgement right.

  • Author:
    Budgell, Anne
    Summary:

    The book is an account of how the Spanish flu pandemic affected several communities in Labrador. Although several populations were nearly wiped out, the Innu people of Labrador are barely present in the written record, and when included, their experience is often misunderstood. Budgell has scoured diaries, letters, medical records, shipping logs, and first-hand accounts of the period to redress this exclusion and shed light on the tragic loss of life that occurred 100 years ago.

  • Author:
    Chrona, Jo
    Summary:

    "With over two decades' experience in Indigenous education, author Jo Chrona encourages readers to challenge assumptions, reflect on their own experiences, and envision a more equitable education system for all. This powerful and engaging resource is for educators who are new to these conversations or want to deepen their learning."--

  • Author:
    Auger, Daniel
    Summary:

    "After living away for years, Sandy Lafonde returns to her childhood home at the Watishka First Nation reserve. Little has changed since she left -- a local gang menaces the area, the community is splintered and the Cree youth are left restless and frustrated. Sandy realizes that she needs to do something to help, so she proposes to start a junior hockey team. Drawing on her own past, Sandy steps in as coach and tries to reign in the star player, hot-headed Sheldon Lambert, a 15-year-old hockey prodigy who just can't seem to stay out of trouble. The team struggles to stay together in the face of crippling odds and the ever-present gang lurking in the background. And Sheldon faces a decision that could affect the fate of the team, and his own life."--

  • Author:
    Palmater, Pamela
    Summary:

    In a moment where unlawful pipelines are built on Indigenous territories, the RCMP make illegal arrests of land defenders on unceded lands, and anti-Indigenous racism permeates on social media; the government lie that is reconciliation is exposed. Renowned lawyer, author, speaker and activist, Pamela Palmater returns to wade through media headlines and government propaganda and get to heart of key issues lost in the noise. Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence is the second collection of writings by Palmater. In keeping with her previous works, numerous op-eds, media commentaries, YouTube channel videos and podcasts, Palmater's work is fiercely anti-colonial, anti-racist, and more crucial than ever before. Palmater addresses a range of Indigenous issues - empty political promises, ongoing racism, sexualized genocide, government lawlessness, and the lie that is reconciliation - and makes the complex political and legal implications accessible to the public. From one of the most important, inspiring and fearless voices in Indigenous rights, decolonization, Canadian politics, social justice, earth justice and beyond, Warrior Life is an unflinching critique of the colonial project that is Canada and a rallying cry for Indigenous peoples and allies alike to forge a path toward a decolonial future through resistance and resurgence.

  • Author:
    Palmater, Pamela D.
    Summary:

    Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence is the second book of the best blogs and articles authored by Pamela Palmater since her first book: Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizens. Like the first book, this one provides short chapters on current Indigenous issues that are easily accessible to students and the general public under the general topic areas of Canadian and First Nation politics, racism, sexualized genocide, Canadian law and policy impacting Indigenous peoples and a critique of reconciliation initiatives. The book is structured as a collection of mini-political and legal critiques/analyses of current issues that provides a starting point for further inquiry or discussion in academic or informal settings. It will also provide updates at end of each chapter so that readers will know what happened next and where they need to take action. Like the first book, Indigenous Nationhood, the focus is on grassroots Indigenous resistance and resurgence through exercising our voices - as sovereign individuals and collectives - for the betterment of our peoples and Nations. Social change requires social engagement, discussion, consideration and reflection of the issues to work towards consensus on the paths forward for our Nations. Solidarity-building with other social justice movements is also key to the radical changes needed to address crises issues like genocide against Indigenous peoples and its connection to the climate change emergency facing all of us. This book, like the last, holds the state to account and seeks to inform and empower grassroots peoples - both Indigenous peoples and Canadian allies - through information, analysis and suggested paths forward. Now more than ever, the future of our peoples and the planet depend on us to break through the barriers of anti-Indigenous racism, capitalism & patriarchy, to decolonize our minds, bodies and spirits and focus on living, asserting and defending our sovereignty and our territories. It requires us to be warriors and find a way to balance our efforts towards both resistance and resurgence. As much effort as we put into resisting ongoing genocide, we must also put into cultural resurgence and nation-building. Traditional Indigenous governance starts with the people and that is where this book locates itself.

  • Author:
    Alexie, Sherman
    Summary:

    As a 41-year-old man confronts his own mortality in this collection's title story, he recalls his Spokane Indian father's chilling death from alcoholism and diabetes. Another tale features an eccentric salesman pursuing a married woman from airport to airport. And then there's the film editor who sees nothing wrong with altering footage to fit preconceived views--until he becomes the target of media distortion.

  • Author:
    Groulx, David
    Summary:

    "Waniskatota ka pe wapahk", a Cree translation of "Rising with a Distant Dawn", is a powerful poetry collection that stretches across boundaries to give a voice to the lives and experiences of ordinary Indigenous people. The poems embrace anguish, pride, and hope. They come from the woodlands and the plains; they speak of love, of war, and of the known and the mysterious; they strike with wisdom, joy, and sadness, bringing us closer than ever before to the heart of urban Indigenous life.

  • Author:
    Orange, Tommy
    Summary:

    A TIME MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK - The Pulitze Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There ("Pure soaring beauty." The New York Times Book Review) delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous. "For the sake of knowing, of understanding, Wandering Stars blew my heart into a thousand pieces and put it all back together again. This is a masterwork that will not be forgotten, a masterwork that will forever be part of you." - Morgan Talty, bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle,where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star's son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father's jailer. Under Pratt's harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines. In a novel that is by turns shattering and wondrous, Tommy Orange has conjured the ancestors of the family readers first fell in love with in There There - warriors, drunks, outlaws, addicts - asking what it means to bethe children and grandchildren of massacre. Wandering Stars is a novel about epigenetic and generational trauma that has the force and vision of a modern epic, an exceptionally powerful new book from one of the most exciting writers at work today and soaring confirmation of Tommy Orange's monumental gifts.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    This collection takes a holistic view of well-being, seeking complementarities between Indigenous approaches to healing and Western biomedicine. Topics include traditional healers and approaches to treatment of disease and illness; traditional knowledge and intellectual property around medicinal plant knowledge; the role of diet and traditional foods in health promotion; culturally sensitive approaches to healing work with urban Indigenous populations; and integrating biomedicine, alternative therapies, and Indigenous healing in clinical practice. Throughout, the voices of Elders, healers, physicians, and scholars are in dialogue to promote Indigenous community well-being through collaboration. This book will be of interest to scholars in Indigenous Studies, medicine and public health, medical anthropology, and anyone promoting care delivery and public health in Indigenous communities. Contributors: Darlene P. Auger; Dorothy Badry; Janelle Marie Baker; Margaret David; Meda DeWitt; Hal Eagletail; Gary L. Ferguson; Marc Fonda; Annie I. Goose; Angela Grier; Leslie Main Johnson; Allison Kelliher; Rick Lightning; Mary Maje; Ann Maje Raider; Maria J. Mayan; Ruby E. Morgan, Luu Giss Yee; Richard T. Oster; Camille (Pablo) Russell; Ginetta Salvalaggio; Ellen L. Toth; Harry Watchmaker

  • Author:
    Cook, Marlyn
    Summary:

    Pinesiw Iskwew, Thunder Woman, Dr. Marlyn Cook, member of Misipawistik Cree Nation is the author of Walking the Red Road for Healing. This book is based on her life and journey as a Cree Woman, Pipe Carrier, Sundancer, Sweat Lodge Keeper, and medical doctor (graduate MD 1987). She believes the approach for healing must be holistic and that our Traditional Healers work alongside physicians in our Indigenous communities. Dr. Marlyn Cook shares her own experiences of colonialism and how this affected her, her family and her community. Through her reflections of her Indigenous Knowledge, her Traditional Teachings of Ceremonies and Medicines, she acknowledges the resilience of communities in their healing and provides ways to heal. Dr. Cook’s intention in this powerful book is to bring us together in Truth and Reconciliation. This book will resonate with health, social, and justice practitioners, educators and our community members who want to walk the Red Road for Healing.

  • Author:
    Drouillard, Staci Lola
    Summary:

    Staci Lola Drouillard guides listeners through the story of a once vibrant, now vanished off-reservation Ojibwe village. The author gives an authentic voice to the history of the Minnesotan North Shore.

  • Author:
    Kinew, Wab
    Summary:

    An Indigenous teen girl caught is between two worlds both real and virtual in the YA fantasy debut from bestselling Indigenous author Wab Kinew. Perfect for fans of Ready Player One and the Otherworld series. Bugz is caught between two worlds. In the real world, she's a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massive multiplayer video game universe. Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the reserve, after his online activity suggests he may be developing extremist sympathies. Meeting each other in real life, as well as in the virtual world, Bugz and Feng immediately relate to each other as outsiders and as avid gamers. And as their connection is strengthened through their virtual adventures, they find that they have much in common in the real world, too: both must decide what to do in the face of temptations and pitfalls, and both must grapple with the impacts of family challenges and community trauma. But betrayal threatens everything Bugz has built in the virtual world, as well as her relationships in the real world, and it will take all her newfound strength to restore her friendship with Feng and reconcile the parallel aspects of her life: the traditional and the mainstream, the east and the west, the real and the virtual.

  • Author:
    Belcourt, Herb
    Summary:

    An updated edition of Herb Belcourt’s remarkable life story with a brand-new foreword by the author. The eldest of ten children, Belcourt grew up in a small log home near the Métis settlement of Lac Ste. Anne during the Depression. His father purchased furs from local First Nations and Métis trappers and, with arduous work, began a family fur trading business that survives to this day. When Belcourt left home at 15 to become a labourer in coal mines and sawmills, his father told him to save his money so he could work for himself. Over the next three decades, Belcourt began a number of small Alberta businesses that prospered and eventually enabled him to make significant contributions to the Métis community in Alberta.Belcourt has devoted over 30 years of his life to improving access to affordable housing and further education for Aboriginal Albertans. In 1971, he co-founded CanNative Housing Corporation, a nonprofit agency charged with providing homes for urban Aboriginal people who confronted housing discrimination in Edmonton and Calgary. In 2004, Belcourt and his colleagues established the Belcourt Brosseau Métis Awards Fund, a $13-million endowment with a mandate to support the educational dreams of Métis youth and mature students in Alberta and to make a permanent difference in the lives of Métis Albertans.

  • Author:
    McDougall, Carol
    Summary:

    Set in a small northern town, under the mythical shadow of the Sleeping Giant, Wake the Stone Man follows the complicated friendship of two girls coming of age in the 1960s. Molly meets Nakina, who is Ojibwe and a survivor of the residential school system, in high school, and they form a strong friendship. As the bond between them grows, Molly, who is not native, finds herself a silent witness to the racism and abuse her friend must face each day. In this time of political awakening, Molly turns to her camera to try to make sense of the intolerance she sees in the world around her. Her photos become a way to freeze time and observe the complex human politics of her hometown. Her search for understanding uncovers some hard truths about Nakina's past and leaves Molly with a growing sense of guilt over her own silence. When personal tragedy tears them apart, Molly must travel a long hard road in search of forgiveness and friendship.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    Inside this book you will find the words our Nakota Sioux Nation people use to refer to each other as family. Some terms may not be used very often anymore, but we hope these are some of the first words our babies and children hear and learn. May they understand they are loved and cared for by all the members of our nation who surround them.

  • Author:
    Speidel, Sage
    Summary:

    A mother - the author of this story - shares Lakota cultural experiences with her daughter, introducing her to waci (dance) as a way to celebrate life. Wacipi (powwow), where the dancing occurs, is a setting for Indigenous song, dance, regalia, food and crafts. A warm, family story for all ages, Waci! Dance! visually embraces the joy of being together and caring for each other. (A glossary and author's note are included.)

  • Author:
    Bridge, Kathryn, Neary, Kevin
    Summary:

    There is a special place on the southeastern shores of Barkley Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It is a magnificent landscape of rocky cliffs fronting onto the wild Pacific Ocean, sheltered beaches, lakes, mountains and forests. Since the beginning of time, it has been the ancestral home of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. Drawing directly from oral history passed down by generations of Huu-ay-aht chiefs and elders, Kathryn Bridge and Kevin Neary tell the compelling stories of the Huu-ay-aht people from their perspective. This is a fascinating glimpse into the complex and rich history of a West Coast First Nation, from creation tales and accounts of their traditional ways to the recent Maa’nulth treaty.

  • Author:
    Posluns, Michael, Seeger, Pete
    Summary:

    On April 23, 1990, after a five-week journey from Hudson Bay to the Hudson River, the Odeyak landed at the Battery for Earth Day. Half-Cree, half-Inuit, the 24-foot freighter canoe, plowing across the Manhattan seascape, was a strange small vessel build in the dark Arctic winter to carry a message from two First Nations of the northern wilderness to a reclaiming of Times Square for Mother Earth. Along with the Crees’ and the Inuit’s hopes and fears for their children and for the future of their river, the Odeyak carried a simple request. The Great Whale Hydroelectric Project, the first part of James Bay II, will destroy the natural economy of the Great Whale region, killing the way of life the Crees and the Inuit have followed since time immemorial. It came to ask the people of New England and New York not to buy the power.

  • Author:
    Peers, Laura, Brown, Alison K.
    Summary:

    In 2010, five magnificent Blackfoot shirts, now owned by the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, were brought to Alberta to be exhibited at the Glenbow Museum, in Calgary, and the Galt Museum, in Lethbridge. The shirts had not returned to Blackfoot territory since 1841, when officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company acquired them. The shirts were later transported to England, where they had remained ever since. Exhibiting the shirts at the museums was, however, only one part of the project undertaken by Laura Peers and Alison Brown. Prior to the installation of the exhibits, groups of Blackfoot people—hundreds altogether—participated in special “handling sessions,” in which they were able to touch the shirts and examine them up close. The shirts, some painted with mineral pigments and adorned with porcupine quillwork, others decorated with locks of human and horse hair, took the breath away of those who saw, smelled, and touched them. Long-dormant memories were awakened, and many of the participants described a powerful sense of connection and familiarity with the shirts, which still house the spirit of the ancestors who wore them. In the pages of this beautifully illustrated volume is the story of an effort to build a bridge between museums and source communities, in hopes of establishing stronger, more sustaining relationships between the two and spurring change in prevailing museum policies. Negotiating the tension between a museum’s institutional protocol and Blackfoot cultural protocol was challenging, but the experience described both by the authors and by Blackfoot contributors to the volume was transformative. Museums seek to preserve objects for posterity. Visiting With the Ancestorsdemonstrates that the emotional and spiritual power of objects does not vanish with the death of those who created them. For Blackfoot people today, these shirts are a living presence, one that evokes a sense of continuity and inspires pride in Blackfoot cultural heritage.

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