Imagine not having access to education in your community and you have to send your children hundreds of kilometres away from home to attend high school. This is what many remote northern Indigenous communities face. In the words of former Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy; “Going to high school is the...
Carol Daniels lays bare the life of Sandy, a Cree woman torn from her mother and kin at birth through the Canadian government’s 60s Scoop set in place to destroy Indigenous families. Adopted by Ukrainians, Sandy narrowly avoids a life in foster care, and although escaping one certain trauma, Sandy’s sto...
This video with Lynn Gehl was filmed around the summer solstice, on Victoria Island at the sacred Chaudière Falls site (Akikpautik / Akikodjiwan) on the Ottawa River (Kichi Sibi) between Ottawa and Hull a kilometre upstream of Parliament Hill. It was part of a series of interviews: the topic here is Hea...
Métis writer and child rights advocate, Shelly Ann Wieringa, uses her own story of abuse, loneliness, homelessness, and eventual triumph as a vehicle to help others deeply affected by childhood neglect and trauma. In I Never Lied – A True Story About Survival, Wieringa takes readers on a step-by-careful...
Award-winning Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s collection of writings This Accident of Being Lost is a provocative and relevant adventure of poetry, song and prose. A journey in getting lost, in all kinds of ways, Simpson’s work is incredibly economical, with each word seeming...
Indigenous poetry has always been a place of unearthing, witnessing and healing. Gregory Scofield’s Witness, I Am (Nightwood Editions, 2016), embodies a Cree Sacred Story, revisions Metis identity, and evokes the critical issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women through poetics. Scofield, who is R...
Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America Cover Art Masters of Empire is a masterful work sure to annoy many scholars of early America. Instead of following the tried and ‘true’ narrative of Odawa/Anishiaanbeg dependence on incoming European nations, McDonnell casts the European e...
Boozhoo, Ajidamoo Cover | Image source: Barns and Noble While greeting the sun and various forest friends, the always curious and intelligent Ajidamoo meets Steve, an otherworldly visitor, and takes a trip into space. Such is the setting for Michael Lyons’ wonderfully illustrated book for early Anishina...
Cover of book Candies (a humour composite) by Basil H. Johnston| Image source: anishinabeknews.ca STORY BY MAURICE SWITZER Some people have twinkling eyes. Basil Johnston could write with twinkling words. Those of us who were privileged to meet the legendary Anishinaabe author in person can almost hear...
Cover of the children’s book The Song Within My Heart | Image source: Strong Nations The beginning of May marked Canadian Children’s Book Week where family reading is celebrated and promoted across the country, First Nations Communities Read also announced their shortlisted selections for the 2016...
