Indigenous Women's and Girl's Day

In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, Arrows in a Quiver provides an overview of Indigenous-settler relations, including how land is central to Indigenous identity and how the Canadian state systematically marginalizes Indigenous people. Illustrating the various “arrows in a quiver” that Indigenous people use to fight back, such as grassroots organizing, political engagement, and the courts, Frideres situates “settler colonialism” historically and explains why decolonization requires a fundamental transformation of long-standing government policy for reconciliation to occur. The historical, political, and social context provided by this text offers greater understanding and theorizes what the effective devolution of government power might look like.- from publisher.

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Avenue of Champions is a collection of interlinked stories that investigates the inherent connection of Indigenous peoples to the land and the permanence of culture, language and ceremony as a form of resistance to displacement. Based on Papaschase and Métis oral histories and lived experience, these stories set in Edmonton examine the relationship of Indigenous youth in the urban, colonial environment in which they eke out survival-- from violence and racism to language revitalization and triumph.

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There are too many stories about Indigenous women who go missing or are murdered, and it doesn't seem as though official sources such as government, police or the courts respond in a way that works toward finding justice or even solutions. At least that is the way Wren StrongEagle sees it. Wren is devastated when her twin sister Raven mysteriously disappears after the two spend an evening visiting at a local pub. When Wren files a missing person's report with the local police, she is dismissed and becomes convinced the case will not be properly investigated. As she follows media reports, Wren realizes that the same heartbreak she's feeling is the same for too many families, indeed for whole Nations. Something within Wren snaps and she decides to take justice into her own hands. She soon disappears into a darkness, struggling to come to terms with the type of justice she delivers. Throughout her choices, and every step along the way, Wren feels as though she is being guided. But, by what?

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From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, this is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried. A novel that is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people.

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"The book surrounds the death of Annie, who is the water diviner in a small Alberta farm town. It is told from the points of view of the townspeople, and even Annie, as they react to her death and reflect on her life. The town is going through various upheavals: financial, demographic, moral. The church is being decommissioned, which leads to a confrontation between the worshipers and the bishop who is there for the last service, and who has a past with Annie that he must confront."-- Provided by publisher.

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He had kept a CB radio in his truck for the longest time, constantly monitoring the police channels, while hunting for lone female hitch-hikers. But he’d given it up years ago. Hell, those clowns were so far in the dark where he was concerned. They just didn’t see him. He was invisible. He was invincible. Two young women become convinced there is a serial killer operating in their rural community. There are reports of drive-by shootings, shootings of people in their homes, vacant properties are broken into and shot up, and a local Band woman has been found dead, raped and strangled with her own clothing. Suddenly the killer becomes aware of their sleuthing. He has been hunting in these parts for thirty years without once having been suspected by the authorities. He can’t allow them to proceed. Doesn’t want to allow them to live ... This thriller is set in the western rural environs of Edmonton, Alberta and it is based on current real-life events of the far too many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The Eye of the Magpie is a page turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

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"Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the stories that will sing their family, and perhaps the land itself, into healing in this brilliantly original debut novel. Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens means. Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife. Genevieve is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Mame, in the Afterlife, knows that all these stories began with her, and that she must hold on to the tellings until all her daughters and their daughters find the paths they need to be on. This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of distinctive, sharp, funny, confused, wise characters that include the descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land, heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction."--Provided by publisher.

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In May 1897, Almighty Voice, a member of the One Arrow Willow Cree, died violently when Canada's North-West Mounted Police shelled the fugitive's hiding place. Since then, his violent death has spawned a succession of conflicting stories - from newspaper features, magazine articles and pulp fiction to plays and film. Almighty Voice has been maligned, misunderstood, romanticized, celebrated, and invented. What these stories have in common is that the Willow Cree man mattered. Understanding why he mattered has a direct bearing on reconciliation efforts today.

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When the thunder spirit takes a man's wife, he sets out on an epic journey to find her, defeat thunder and bring her back to him. "Ksistsikoom," is an origin story of the thunder pipe ceremony honored by Blackfoot traditional bundle carriers today. It is a powerful lesson in understanding why Blackfoot peoples honor thunder and carry a pipe to represent the strength of his spirit.

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This book advances the concept of living in Indigenous sovereignty as an ontological and relational framework for settlers, particularly white settlers, who wish to initiate or deepen their decolonial/anti-colonial work while living on Indigenous lands occupied by the Canadian state. Here, living in Indigenous sovereignty refers to living in accordance with the understanding that we are on Indigenous lands which contain their own stories, systems of governance, relationships, laws, knowledges, protocols, obligations, and opportunities which have been understood and practiced by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. Living in Indigenous sovereignty means understanding that our responsibilities and opportunities as settlers on these lands involve learning and placing ourselves in accountable and loving relationship with Indigenous lands, peoples, and sovereignty. Based on a completed dissertation, the book enacts accountability and embodies living in Indigenous sovereignty by centering the work and perspectives of Indigenous scholars, Knowledge holders, and activists regarding settler colonialism and decolonization.

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At a time when Indigenous peoples were being dispossessed of their land and history as well as their relationship to the body, the love explored by Wabougouni and Gabriel is an act of defiance. Their intimate connection plays out on the shores of Lake Abitibi in an affair as turbulent and unfathomable as the lake itself.

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The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik) weaves the stories of a group of women committed to helping one another. Despite abuse experienced by some, both in their own community and in residential schools, these women learn to celebrate their culture, its stories, its dancing, its drums, and its elders. Principal of these elders is Nina, the advisor at the women's shelter. With the help of Sandy and Charlene, Nina uses Indigenous practices to heal the traumatized Mary Ann. This is a powerful novel--sometimes brutally violent, sometimes healing, sometimes mythical, and always deeply respectful of the Indigenous culture at its heart.

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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 ; Mindimooyenh, the old woman; Sabe, the giant; Adik, the caribou; Asin, the human; and Lucy, the human. Each attempts to commune with the unnatural urban-settler world. 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.

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Over the span of ten years, seven high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave their reserve because there was no high school there for them to attend. Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest, and struggle with, human rights violations past and present against aboriginal communities.

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Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them. A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this. Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love remains. Haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once, Tagaq moves effortlessly between fiction and memoir, myth and reality, poetry and prose, and conjures a world and a heroine readers will never forget.

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There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? TRUE RECONCILIATION is broken down into three core practices - Learn, Understand, and Act - that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments. They are based on the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples in their relentless efforts to effect transformative change and decolonization; and deep understanding and expertise about what has been effective in the past, what we are doing right, and wrong, today, and what our collective future requires. True Reconciliation, ultimately, is about building transformed patterns of just and harmonious relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples at all levels of society.

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This is a collection of essays about the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada. From resistance and reconciliation to the resurgence and reclamation of Indigenous power, Michelle Good explores the issues through a series of personal essays. Michelle Good delves into the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin social institutions in Canada and prevents meaningful and substantive reconciliation.

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"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."-- Provided by publisher.

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