Last week's podcast episode featured Suzanne Carrière, Canada’s first Métis citizenship judge. Off-mic, Suzanne shared with us a list of fiction and non-fiction books that paint a picture of what it means to be Indigenous in Canada, re-visit the past that got us here, and shine a light on how we all, as Canadians, can move forward.
Several of these titles speak specifically about Winnipeg, and our city's complex relationship with racism and reconciliation. This is a wide-ranging and impactful list we'll be working our way through.
Book descriptions are taken from their respective publishers.
Five Little Indians - by Michelle Good
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.
2. The Break - by Katherena Vermette
When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break — a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house — she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime.
In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim — police, family, and friends — tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend. Cheryl, an artist, mourns the premature death of her sister Rain. Paulina, a single mother, struggles to trust her new partner. Phoenix, a homeless teenager, is released from a youth detention centre. Officer Scott, a Métis policeman, feels caught between two worlds as he patrols the city. Through their various perspectives a larger, more comprehensive story about lives of the residents in Winnipeg’s North End is exposed.
3. From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way -by Jesse Thistle
In this heartwarming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds.
4. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality - by Bob Joseph
Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer.
Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many enduring stereotypes. Bob Joseph's book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process, when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. Joseph explains how Indigenous Peoples can step out from under the Indian Act and return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance - and why doing so would result in a better country for every Canadian. He dissects the complex issues around truth and reconciliation, and clearly demonstrates why learning about the Indian Act's cruel, enduring legacy is essential for the country to move toward true reconciliation.
5. The Reason You Walk: A Memoir - by Wab Kinew
When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant aboriginal man who'd raised him. The Reason You Walk spans the year 2012, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on a reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school.
Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and a wider conversation about the future of aboriginal peoples.
6. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America - by Thomas King
Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, The Inconvenient Indian distils the insights gleaned from Thomas King's critical and personal meditation on what it means to be "Indian" in North America, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.
This is a book both timeless and timely, burnished with anger but tempered by wit, and ultimately a hard-won offering of hope--a sometimes inconvenient but nonetheless indispensable account for all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike, seeking to understand how we might tell a new story for the future.
7. Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine - by Joanna Jolly
On August 17, 2014, the body of fifteen-year old runaway Tina Fontaine was found in Winnipeg's Red River. It was wrapped in material and weighted down with rocks. Red River Girl is a gripping account of that murder investigation and the unusual police detective who pursued the killer with every legal means at his disposal. The book, like the movie Spotlight, will chronicle the behind-the-scenes stages of a lengthy and meticulously planned investigation. It reveals characters and social tensions that bring vivid life to a story that made national headlines.
Red River Girl focuses not on the grisly event itself, but on the efforts to seek justice. The book is not only a true crime story, but a portrait of a community where Indigenous women are disproportionately more likely to be hurt or killed. Jolly asks questions about how Indigenous women, sex workers, community leaders, and activists are fighting back to protect themselves and change perceptions. Most importantly, the book will chronicle whether Tina's family will find justice.
8. "Indian" in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power - by Jody Wilson-Raybould
Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. She was inspired by the example of her grandmother, who persevered throughout her life to keep alive the governing traditions of her people. And as the daughter of a hereditary Chief and Indigenous leader, Wilson-Raybould always knew she would adopt leadership roles and responsibilities. But she never anticipated these roles would take her from her community of We Wai Kai in British Columbia to Ottawa as Canada’s first Indigenous minister of justice and attorney general in the Cabinet of then newly elected prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Wilson-Raybould’s experience in Trudeau’s Cabinet reveals important lessons about strengthening our political institutions and culture, and making the changes necessary to confront challenges like racial justice and climate change. As her initial optimism about the possibilities of enacting change while in Cabinet shifted to struggles over inclusivity, deficiencies of political will, and concerns about adherence to core tenets of our democracy, Wilson-Raybould stood on principle, and ultimately, resigned. In standing her ground, both personally and professionally, and telling the truth in front of the nation, she demonstrated the need for greater independence and less partisanship in how we govern.
9. All the Way: My Life on Ice - by Jordin Tootoo
It seemed as though nothing could stop Jordin Tootoo on the ice. The captain, a fan favourite, a star in international competition, Tootoo was always a leader. And when he was drafted by Nashville in 2001 and made the Predators out of camp in 2003, he became a leader in another way--as the first player of Inuk descent to suit up in the NHL.
All the challenges and pressure would have been more than enough for any rookie, but Tootoo faced something far more difficult: the tragic loss of his older brother before his first shift for the Predators. Though he played through it, Tootoo suffered from many of the same problems that have plagued so many people from his community. In 2010, he checked himself into rehab for alcohol addiction. It seemed as though a promising career had ended too soon.
But that's not the way Tootoo saw it and not the way it would end. Told in Tootoo's bold voice, with contributions by Stephen Brunt, arguably one of the best sportswriters, All the Way is the searing, honest tale of a young man who has risen to every challenge but all too nearly fell short in the toughest game of all.