This week’s picks celebrate First Nations Public Library Week (FNPLW), October 4 – 10, 2020. This week is an opportunity to raise awareness regarding First Nation peoples and cultures, past and present and the importance of making available materials that portray First Nations accurately and sensitively. This year’s theme is Celebrating Diversity. For more recommended Indigenous Reads check out the Library’s website, Facebook and FNPLW display.
New at the Library
Fiction
Indians on Vacation by Thomas King
Meet Bird and Mimi in this brilliant new novel from one of Canada’s foremost authors. Inspired by a handful of old postcards sent by their Uncle Leroy nearly a hundred years earlier, Bird and Mimi attempt to trace Mimi’s long-lost uncle and the family medicine bundle he took with him to Europe. This is the unforgettable tale of one couple’s holiday trip, where their wanderings through famous European capitals reveal a complicated history, both personal and political.
Crow Winter by Karen McBride
Since coming home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, Hazel Ellis has been dreaming of an old crow. He tells her he's here to help her, save her. From what, exactly? Sure, her dad's been dead for almost two years and she hasn't quite reconciled that grief, but is that worth the time of an Algonquin demigod?
Bone Black by Carol Rose GoldenEagle
Wren is devastated when her twin sister, Raven, mysteriously disappears. 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.
Non-Fiction
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age Book by Darrel J. McLeod
A powerful story of resilience and a must-read for all Canadians. Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family's history. In shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school.
In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience by Helen Knott
In My Own Moccasins is an unflinching account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, and the wounds brought on by sexual violence. It is also the story of sisterhood, the power of ceremony, the love of family, and the possibility of redemption.
Graphic Novel
If I Go Missing by Brianna Jonnie and Nahanni Shingoose
Combining graphic fiction and non-fiction, this graphic novel serves as a window into one of the unique dangers of being an Indigenous teen in Canada today.
The text of the book is derived from excerpts of a letter written to the Winnipeg Chief of Police by fourteen-year-old Brianna Jonnie — a letter that went viral and was also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to "not treat me as the Indigenous person I am proud to be," if she were to be reported missing.
