Some of the best books by Indigenous writers in Canada
June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, a day to recognize and celebrate the cultures of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples.
We’ve assembled this list of eBooks and audiobooks to help readers do that through a mix of fiction and nonfiction that shines light on painful moments in history (much of which is hardly past) while highlighting the talents of some of the best writers working today.
Pop in the earbuds and take a walk with some of the most talented Indigenous voices living in Toronto. Spun out of the pages of Toronto’s West End Phoenix newspaper, this audio experience includes original music and soundscapes.
Fred Saskamoose emerged from the brutal residential school system to become the first Indigenous person with Treaty status in the NHL — before First Nations people obtained the right to vote in Canada. But there’s more to the story of “Fast Freddy” than the dozen games he played for the Chicago Black Hawks, including a life serving his community and fighting to reclaim Indigenous pride.
This poetic and challenging memoir leaves impressions on readers’ minds that may take a lifetime to interpret. We spoke with the author about his work on the Kobo in Conversation podcast.
Terese Mailhot plays poetically with the concept of memory as she writes her way out of a difficult upbringing to a place where she can engage with her family and her broader place in the world on her own terms.
As Canadians contemplate how to move forward on the path to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, it’s helpful to be familiar with the legal framework that’s dictated so much of Indigenous life over more than 150 years. In clear language with necessary context around key issues, author and Indigenous relations trainer Bob Joseph explains what the Indian Act is and what it was intended to do, and what its actual consequences have been.
Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott writes beautifully about hard topics, ranging from sexual assault and mental illness, to racism in the justice system and the long-term health impact of systemic oppression.
When Jeremiah Camp’s gift of foresight shows him a future for humanity that he’d rather not deal with, he decides to shut himself off from the world in a small town’s old residential school. But humanity just won’t leave Jeremiah alone. This is a wry satire from a master of the genre about a world in which power and wealth flow to the few.
Cut off from food and electricity, a small northern Anishinaabe community starts to collapse in on itself, and visitors start to exploit the vulnerable. Waubgeshig Rice weaves contemporary horror and science fiction with traditional storytelling in this slow-burning thriller.
As a scholar of Métis history specializing in intergenerational trauma, Jesse Thistle’s sense of self as a Métis-Cree-Scot person stretches back through a series of painful losses. In this memoir he finds himself in that history and shares his own incredible story. He spoke with us about it on the Kobo in Conversation podcast.
In this follow-up to her masterfully-reported book Seven Fallen Feathers journalist Tanya Talaga turns her attention to the rising rates of youth suicide in Indigenous communities around the world, and traces connections to colonial practices of separating peoples from land and a lack of basic resources that lead to poor health outcomes. Talaga also highlights traditions of resistance among Indigenous Nations that might lead the way to a more just and equitable future.
Returning to the “rez” for the funeral of his stepfather is a culture shock for Jonny, a Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer whose main gig back in the big city is as an “NDN glitter princess” cybersex worker.
The late Richard Wagamese stands as one of Turtle Island’s great Indigenous literary artists, and this is the book that put him on the map. While it tells an increasingly familiar and horrific story about residential school trauma, it contains magic in the thrilling passages where readers are taken onto the ice as Saul Indian Horse discovers his astonishing gifts as a hockey player.
In this stunning book, debut novelist Michelle Good answers the question, what happens after the residential schools, to the kids who grow up and leave? Five friends find the way to downtown Vancouver’s Eastside, trying to make their way as their paths diverge and cross over their lifetimes.
Broadcaster Wab Kinew reconnects with his roots in this memoir focusing on 2012, the year his father succumbed to cancer. Kinew reflects on his struggle to find a path, and how the example set by his father, of reconciliation and integrity, helped lead the way. At its heart, the book is a deeply felt reflection on a father-son relationship.
Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer who puts on thrilling, haunting musical performances. In this novel, she spins a story about a girl who exists on a plane between myth and nature and life in 1970s Nunavut. The audiobook is a must-listen for Tagaq’s visceral reading and interspersed passages of throat-singing.
Son of a Trickster kicks off Eden Robinson’s Trickster Trilogy, the story of Jared, a big-hearted burnout of a kid trying to get by and look after the people he loves, which would be a lot easier if the supernatural world would stop intruding. But when he discovers that his own bloodline is the connection to the mysterious forces that keep harshing his mellow, well, that’s just about the biggest bummer ever. These books will send chills up your spine while making you laugh, and sometimes on the same page.
Drew Hayden Taylor plays with classic science fiction tropes in this collection of nine stories told from a First Nations perspective. These stories are funny, clever, and will leave you wanting more.
In Cherie Dimaline’s novel about a world on the brink of collapse from environmental degradation, madness takes hold as the ability to dream falls away — except the Indigenous peoples of North America. And the key is in bone marrow. The book follows Frenchie and his friends as they journey northwards, trying to stay hidden from those who would steal the very marrow from their bones.
Originally published at https://www.kobo.com on June 21, 2021.
