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Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools

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Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools

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Stolen Lives is a groundbreaking resource, designed for Canadian educators, that provides an examination of the Indian Residential Schools and their long-lasting effects on Canada’s Indigenous Peoples.  Downloadable PDF available.

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Stolen Lives is a groundbreaking resource, designed for Canadian educators, that provides an examination of the Indian Residential Schools and their long-lasting effects on Canada's Indigenous Peoples. Through primary source material, first-person accounts, and questions that lead to rich classroom conversations, students learn about this tragic history, and can analyze the devastating effects that the residential schools have on former students, their families, and entire indigenous communities. Facing History's unique approach empowers educators to connect this history to today's conversations about the apologies given by the government and churches, the work of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the debate about whether the colonial policies these schools embodied amount to genocide.

Educators in Canada interested in purchasing print copies or borrowing a class set of the resource can learn more here.

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Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools

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Stolen Lives is a groundbreaking resource, designed for Canadian educators, that provides an examination of the Indian Residential Schools and their long-lasting effects on Canada's Indigenous Peoples. Through primary source material, first-person accounts, and questions that lead to rich classroom conversations, students learn about this tragic history, and can analyze the devastating effects that the residential schools have on former students, their families, and entire indigenous communities.

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A young Cree man's death raised disturbing questions of racism in our legal system. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a transformative vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.

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A young Cree man's death raised disturbing questions of racism in our legal system | CBC Docs POV

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First Peoples Law: Essays on Canadian Law and Decolonization 

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First Peoples Law: Essays on Canadian Law and Decolonization 

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The essays in this collection are part of my contribution to advancing and protecting Indigenous Peoples' rights in Canada. They are grounded in my training as a lawyer and historian, informed by my legal work on behalf of Indigenous Peoples' across Canada, and inspired by my clients' strength and optimism. I hope you find them informative, engaging and encouraging. -  Bruce McIvor (Author)

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INDIGENOUS CINEMA IN THE CLASSROOM (AGES 15+)

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INDIGENOUS CINEMA IN THE CLASSROOM (AGES 15+)

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These films for high-school learners include stories from directors Christine Welsh, Alanis Obomsawin, Dennis Allen, Tasha Hubbard, Sara Roque, and Bobby Kenuajuak, as well as the series Second Stories from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and others from across Canada.

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These films for high-school learners include stories from directors Christine Welsh, Alanis Obomsawin, Dennis Allen, Tasha Hubbard, Sara Roque, and Bobby Kenuajuak, as well as the series Second Stories from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and others from across Canada.

Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom is an extension of our Wide Awake Tour for the public. It offers teachers, students and parents the opportunity to watch films selected from our collection of more than 250 Indigenous-made works. We've created playlists for these titles, grouping them by student age recommendation and professional development themes for teachers.

These are stories about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, the Highway of Tears, Indigenous rights activism, violence against Indigenous Women, Indigenous stereotypes, racism, marginalized communities, community healing, the Oka Crisis, the Kahnawake tribe, Cree burial traditions, Indigenous pride, reconciliation, healing and recovery, residential schools, Two-Spirited people, salmon fishing rights, the Mi'kmaq people, historical perspective on contemporary Indigenous issues, village life in Puvirnituq, preserving cultures and traditions, suicide, addiction, substance abuse, co-existence of traditions and modernity, police violence, Saskatoon's infamous "freezing deaths," Indigenous women leadership, the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve blockade, legal, land and human-rights issues, historical and contemporary understanding of relationships between Indigenous people and the Canadian government, the role of radio in a small community of Teetl'it Gwich'in, the Oka crisis and the now-infamous stand-off between the Mohawks, the Quebec police and the Canadian Army.

Curriculum links include:
Indigenous Studies - Identity/Society/History and Politics, Civics and Citizenship - Human Rights, History and Citizenship Education - Issues in Society Today/Quebec Society Since 1980, Health and Personal Development - Identity/Bullying and Discrimination/Substance Use and Addictions, English Language Arts, Media Education - Documentary Film, Social Studies - Law/Communities in Canada, Geography - Territory, Technology Education - Society and Technology

Second Stories - Deb-we-win Ge-ken-am-aan, Our Place in the Circle

Lorne Olson's short documentary presents a vision he had of two-spirited people dancing, laughing, and smiling. His vision spurs him to rediscover the strength of the past to better face the challenges of today. This funny and buoyant film documents his touching journey.

Second Stories follows on the heels of the enormously successful First Stories project, which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Second Stories builds on that success by continuing the training with 3 of the 12 Indigenous filmmakers who delivered such compelling short documentaries. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.

Second Stories - Honour Thy Father

This short documentary takes a poignant look at cultural misunderstanding and its toll on a family's grief. When filmmaker Gerald Auger lost his father, the local Anglican priest refused to allow the family to bury their father in the traditional Cree way - with the drum and the smudge - because he was buried on Anglican church property. Gerald sets out to resolve his hurt and anger and his path leads him to some unexpected places.

Second Stories follows on the heels of the enormously successful First Stories project, which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Second Stories builds on that success by continuing the training with 3 of the 12 Indigenous filmmakers who delivered such compelling short documentaries. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.

Second Stories - It Had to Be Done

This short documentary explores the legacy of residential schools through the eyes of two extraordinary women who not only lived it, but who, as adults, made the surprising decision to return to the school that had affected their lives so profoundly. This intimate and moving film affirms their strength and dignity in standing up and making a difference on their own terms.

Second Stories follows on the heels of the enormously successful First Stories project, which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Second Stories builds on that success by continuing the training with 3 of the 12 Indigenous filmmakers who delivered such compelling short documentaries. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.

Vistas: InukShop

In this short film, filmmaker Jobie Weetaluktuk mixes archival and new footage to make a statement about the appropriation of Inuit culture throughout history.

Vistas is a series of 13 short films on nationhood from 13 Indigenous filmmakers from Halifax to Vancouver. It was a collaborative project between the NFB and APTN to bring Indigenous perspectives and stories to an international audience.

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Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom (Ages 15+)

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These films for high-school learners include stories from directors Christine Welsh, Alanis Obomsawin, Dennis Allen, Tasha Hubbard, Sara Roque, and Bobby Kenuajuak, as well as the series Second Stories from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and others from across Canada. Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom is an extension of our Wide Awake Tour for the public.

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Medicine for the ResistancePro Unlimited

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Medicine for the ResistancePro Unlimited

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With Google Podcasts, you can find and listen to the world's podcasts for free.

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MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

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MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

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Indigenous current affairs roundtable hosted by Rick Harp.

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THIS WEEK: Flattening the curve, feeling the gap. COVID-19, the virus that first popped up in Wuhan, China, is now officially a global pandemic. And even though the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 will ultimately suffer either mild or even no symptoms, it's the most vulnerable among us that we need to worry about and look out for. S o far in Canada, that's largely meant promoting hand hygiene and social isolation. The goal: to stop a huge spike in cases to keep the healthcare system from being overwhelmed. But as governments work to keep Canadians' demands on the system on a long, low curve, all too many Indigenous people could find they're trapped in a gap. Multiple public health gaps, in fact, which, taken together, could compound the challenges facing prevention, treatment and containment of the virus among First Nations, Inuit and Métis populations.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to discuss this gap, including what some are doing to mitigate it, are two returning guests: Dr. Lisa Richardson, clinician-educator with the University of Toronto's division of general internal medicine, and Dr. Jason Pennington, a staff surgeon at Scarborough General Hospital and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Together, they serve as strategic leads in Indigenous Health with the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine.

// Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic

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MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

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THIS WEEK: Flattening the curve, feeling the gap. COVID-19, the virus that first popped up in Wuhan, China, is now officially a global pandemic. And even though the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 will ultimately suffer either mild or even no symptoms, it's the most vulnerable among us that we need to worry about and look out for.

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Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization

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Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization

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A free E-book, Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization; was inspired by a 2016 speaking tour  by Arthur Manuel, less than a year before his untimely passing in January 2017. The book contains two essays from Manuel, described as the Nelson Mandela of Canada, and essays from renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. FPSE is honoured to support this publication.

Available in PDF or EPUB formats.

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The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC is the provincial voice for faculty and staff in BC teaching universities, colleges and institutes, and in private sector institutions. FPSE member locals, represented by Presidents' Council and the Executive, represent over 10,000 faculty and staff at 18 public and 12 private sector institutions.

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Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization

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The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC is the provincial voice for faculty and staff in BC teaching universities, colleges and institutes, and in private sector institutions. FPSE member locals, represented by Presidents' Council and the Executive, represent over 10,000 faculty and staff at 18 public and 12 private sector institutions.

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Lillian Piché Shirt, John Lennon and a Cree Grandmother’s Inspiration for the Song “Imagine”

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Lillian Piché Shirt, John Lennon and a Cree Grandmother’s Inspiration for the Song “Imagine”

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It was the summer of '69. Lillian Piché Shirt, a twenty-six year old Cree woman from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, was living in a tipi with her four young children on Sir Winston Churchill Square outside Edmonton's City Hall. She was protesting the lack of housing for Indigenous people in Edmonton. Lillian had been evicted from her apartment two months earlier when ownership changed hands, and had not found other accommodation since. Landlords refused to rent to her.

Interviewed in 2006 by Corinne George for her M.A. thesis on Aboriginal women activists of Alberta in the 1950s - 1980s, Lillian explained: "I decided I was going to do something about it, it was in May, and I thought, well, how am I going to do this? I am not many in number, not too many people will risk anything, and I looked at it from all different directions... So I went and picked up my tipi at my grandma's, cause I had decided what I was going to do. I was going to put up a tipi right smack dab in the middle of Churchill Square- right in front of city Hall, where the mayor could see me from his desk." She declared "I won't move until I'm forced out or I get a proper house to live in."[1] Lillian said the protest was not just about housing, but about discrimination in education and welfare and a call to respect human rights. She was concerned that Indigenous children were not being taught their own history in school, that children were losing their identity, and she called for schools on reserves rather than young people having to go to the cities.[2] The tipi went up on May 30.

Edmonton's police station, court house, and the public library also all looked out onto the square where Lillian was camped. City Hall would not give her a permit to live on the square.[3] But Mayor Ivor Dent was sympathetic, as was Joe Poss of the Edmonton Police who provided security. Lillian had friends and supporters who helped her raise the tipi, brought supplies and took the older children to and from school. By early July she was joined by others in three pup tents and one more tipi.[4] A Citizens Committee on Housing and Discrimination was formed. She intended to stay on the square until accommodation was found, and if the city forced her off she was going to move to the grounds of the legislative building.[5]

The protest received local, provincial and national attention, and Lillian's protest was covered in newspapers, television and radio. On May 31 for example, an article was published in the Toronto Globe and Mail under the headline "Mother Confronts Edmonton Authority: Erects Teepee Outside City Hall." That same day a photo of Lillian holding one of her children and one of her tipi appeared in the Toronto Daily Star with the headline "Crees Camp in Edmonton Square."

Just at this time John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in Canada. They arrived in Toronto on May 25, 1969 and two days later began a week-long "bed-in" for peace in Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel.[6] They wanted to encourage young people to work toward peace through non-violent means, to "get the message across to the squares." They were visited by celebrities, politicians and journalists. There Lennon wrote and recorded "Give Peace a Chance" on June 1. The next day in the Montreal Gazette an article appeared entitled "Cree woman believes injustice in housing- pitches a teepee." Lennon and Ono might have read that or any of the many other articles that covered her protest.

Still camped on the square, Lillian was invited to go to Edmonton's CJCA radio and speak with someone on the telephone about her protest. This was in the first days of June when Lennon and Ono were in Toronto. As she recalled to Corinne, when CJCA came to the tipi to do an interview she was told:

This man would like to talk to you at the station. It's going to be an international interview. And he's coming to Toronto to support peace... to promote peace. And I went to that radio station. We had a live interview from Edmonton to Toronto...He said it was John Lennon. And if you had said Dag Hammarskjold, I would have understood... or if you had said Martin Luther King, I would have understood. But John Lennon? This didn't ring a bell with me. And he said he had a band, and he travels worldwide and that the issue he wanted to talk about ... what I was doing there. He said 'I want to support you. What would you like me to say to the world?' And then I said, I thought of my grandma already again, I said, 'My grandma used to say 'Keespin esa Kasakehetoyah, Kasetos-katoyah, Kawechehetoyah, Namoya Ka-no-tin-to-nanhoyo.'" And then he said, 'well try to translate that.' And I said "I'll translate it.' I said 'Imagine that if, there was no hate, if we loved each other, we loved one another, that there would be no war between us.' And he said 'Do you mind if I use that?' He had a real thick English accent, eh?" ... I said, 'yeah, go ahead, you can use that.'[7] Lennon said that he was writing down the words on a pillow case. Lillian also recalled that Ono said to her "you look like me."

It was not until she heard the song "Imagine" over the radio some years later that Lillian remembered the interview and giving permission to John Lennon to use the words of her Cree grandmother, Tshichu (meaning Little Girl). Lennon said the song was inspired by Yoko Ono's book 1964 Grapefruit, where she instructs readers to "imagine" various scenarios, such as clouds dripping.[8] This does not seem as inspiring however as the words of Tshichu, Lillian's grandmother.

There are clues of the Cree and Indigenous Western Canadian inspiration for "Imagine" in the original video of the song. Yoko Ono is dressed as a North American Indigenous woman. Lennon is dressed as a sort of cowboy/ frontiersman. It appears Lennon is wearing mukluks, a decidedly Indigenous Canadian touch. Perhaps this conveys the acknowledgement that the song was inspired by Lillian, quoting the words of her Cree grandmother in the summer of '69.

Lillian's battle was not over after having chatted with one of the world's most prominent celebrities. When she and her supporters attempted to put up the tipi on the Legislative grounds, there was a confrontation between police, with their German Shepherd dogs, and members of the Citizens' Committee on Housing and Discrimination.[9] The cabinet of Premier Harry Strom quickly changed strategies and by Order in Council permitted the tipi to be raised on the grounds of the Legislature where it was surrounded by supporters in tents. A brief was presented to the cabinet by the Citizens' Committee, and there was the beginning of a provincial plan for welfare housing.[10]

Lillian did not stop there. It would take many pages to list all of her activities since that summer. That same year she helped to establish the Alberta Native Peoples Defense Fund. She took part in the 1969 Alcatraz Island occupation by Native Americans. She lived at the Smallboy Camp in the Kootenay Plains for five years, founded by Chief Robert Smallboy to draw attention to the conditions of urban and reserve Indigenous people. There she helped establish the Robert Smallboy School. Many of her activities over the last decades relate to the welfare and education of both mothers and children, and they include the Nekawe Daycare, established in 1972, where the first language was Cree. She was an organizer of the Sacred Circle program offered at Prince Charles School, Edmonton, where elementary students receive Cree language instruction and where the needs of urban Indigenous students are addressed. Along with her sister the late Jenny Margetts, Lillian helped to found the organization Indian Rights for Indian Women, that fought for decades for equal rights for First Nations women to end discrimination under the Indian Act. She is a supporter of the Nechi Institute that changes lives based on compassion. Her most recent initiative is organizing a trail ride of 240 horses from her grandmother's home reservation Rocky Boy in Montana to Saddle Lake in honour of the 240 Cree who fled Canada after the 1885 Resistance.

Corinne George gave a paper at the University of Alberta conference History of Women's Political and Social Activism in Western Canada (Oct. 28-30 2016) that focused on Lillian and other Indigenous women activists: "'Imagine...if... we loved one another': Grassroots Activism of Aboriginal Women in Edmonton, 1951 - 1985." Lillian was conference Elder and participant.
Lillian Shirt is a Cree Elder from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation. She lives in Edmonton. Corinne George is from the Gitimden Clan (Bear Clan) from the Witsuwit'en Nation. She is Regional Principal for the Lakes District campus of the College of New Caledonia. Sarah Carter is Professor and H.M. Tory Chair in the Department of History and Classics, and Faculty of Native Studies of the University of Alberta
[1] Corinne George, "'If I didn't do something, my spirit would die:' Grassroots Activism of Aboriginal Women in Calgary and Edmonton, 1951 - 1985." M.A. thesis, University of Calgary, 2007: 75 - 6.

[2] Shirley Skeel, "Student support sought for Native Peoples Defense Fund," The Gateway 29 Sept., 1969:1.

[3] "Erects Teepee Outside City Hall: Mother Confronts Edmonton Authority," The Globe and Mail 31 May, 1969: 4.

[4] Toronto Daily Star 3 July, 1969, 37.

[5] "Cree woman believes injustice in housing- pitches a teepee," The Montreal Gazette 2 June, 1969: 37.

[6] Ritchie Yorke, "Lennon and Ono bring message for youth to Canada," The Globe and Mail 27 May, 1969: 13.

[7] Quoted in George, 78.

[8] See http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/07/04/yoko_ono_s_grapefruit_at_50_the_book_that_inspired_john_lennon_s_imagine.html

[9] Richard Price, "The New Left in Alberta," in Dimitrios J. Roussopoulos, ed., The New Left in Canada (Montreal: Our Generation Press - Black Rose Books, 1970). 54.

[10] "Province's Plan for Welfare Funding," Edmonton Journal 7 July, 1969, 4.

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Lillian Piché Shirt, John Lennon and a Cree Grandmother's Inspiration for the Song "Imagine"

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It was the summer of '69. Lillian Piché Shirt, a twenty-six year old Cree woman from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, was living in a tipi with her four young children on Sir Winston Churchill Square outside Edmonton's City Hall. She was protesting the lack of housing for Indigenous people in Edmonton.

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OPINION: The confusing world of Métis identity

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OPINION: The confusing world of Métis identity

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JEAN TEILLET

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Jean Teillet is the great-grandniece of Louis Riel and an Indigenous rights lawyer. She is the author of Métis Law in Canada and The North-West is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation.

Naming is important. Every group that takes any kind of collective action gives itself a name. A hockey team names itself, as does a political party. So, too, did Indigenous peoples. Originally calling themselves the Bois-Brûlés, Louis Riel's people chose Métis, a French word that means mixed, as the name of their nation and have used it since the 1830s. It refers to their unique culture in the Canadian North-West, with their own language, laws, history and traditions. Their stories are woven into Canadian history - stories that tell us their origins, how they lived and how they saw and continue to see themselves as a distinct Indigenous people. Everyone - from historians to the courts to the federal and provincial governments - recognize the Métis Nation as one of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

But if you are confused about Métis identity, it is hardly surprising. The federal government has no policy to deal with recent claims of Métis identity by individuals who are seeking to gain certain advantages, such as admission to law school or hunting and fishing privileges. This has created a powerful vacuum that leaves universities, charities, governments, First Nations and the Métis Nation vulnerable to dubious claims. The Supreme Court of Canada waded into the definition of Métis in the case of Daniels v. Canada in a manner that has made the confusion exponentially worse in the three years since the verdict was delivered. To make matters worse, the rise in popularity of genealogy and accessibility to DNA testing has led more people to claim Métis identity. It's a mess, quite frankly, and one that is growing.

The French have always used the word métis to describe people with mixed Indigenous-Canadian ancestry. The English generally called them half-breeds, which is an odious word for many reasons. We breed animals, not people. To call someone a half-breed is to call them a half-animal, and it takes little imagination to know which half is meant to be the animal. Using the term half-breed also denies any collective culture or identity. Eventually, this led English speakers to adopt the word métis and apply it to all individuals with mixed ancestry. As changes to the Indian Act resulted in numerous First Nations losing their status, some of them began to call themselves Métis as well. The word became a catch-all.

After the inclusion of the Métis in the Constitution Act in 1982 as one of the "aboriginal Peoples of Canada," more individuals and groups began to identify as Métis. In Newfoundland, for instance, a group of Inuit mixed-race people named themselves the Labrador Métis Nation (they were quite frank in stating that they chose Métis because the Inuit rejected them). In 2010 they renamed themselves NunatuKavut. Métis was never their desired Indigenous identity and was abandoned for an Inuit identity. At least this group is Indigenous.

Since 2003, tens of thousands of individuals who previously identified as "white" are now identifying as Métis. This new indigenization movement is surfacing mostly in Quebec and Eastern Canada. These individuals now claim Métis identity because they have done a genealogy and discovered an ever-so-great Indigenous grandmother or other distant female relation. According to Darryl Leroux, a professor at Saint Mary's University and author of the new book Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, in one court case in Quebec, 75 per cent of the group claimed one Indigenous ancestor from the 1600s as their sole reason for claiming to be Métis. Twenty-five per cent relied on a non-Indigenous ancestor who was re-purposed as Indigenous to support their case. It does not seem to matter to these recent converts that some 300 years and 20 generations have passed with none of their ancestors claiming Indigenous identity.

There is no question that many Canadians have a small amount of Indigenous ancestry. But that does not justify race shifting. It does not make you Mi'kmaq today. It does not make you Métis. Indigenous identity requires a connection to a historic and contemporary community because Indigenous identity is a living collective identity. You may be estranged from that collective today, but you must point to some Indigenous community that you or your ancestors were part of at some time in the not-too-distant past. If you are only referring to a long-ago ancestor and now claiming to be Métis, there must be more. Where are the stories of your people? What did the collective name itself 300 years ago? What is their origin story? When and how did they act as a collective to advance or protect their interests? For that matter, what were their interests? All societies have some form of governance. How did their governance work? Give us specific names and dates and geography. To date, these people now claiming Métis identity have no answers to any of these questions. There is only the perpetual reference to that ever-so-great Indigenous grandmother and a claim to have hidden for more than 300 years.

As Adam Gaudry, a professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, has pointed out, these individuals are communing only with the dead, not the living. They are re-purposing the identities of a long-dead ancestor. Some are even asserting that the Acadians were Métis. The Acadian story is a fascinating part of Canada's history, but the Acadians made no assertion of Indigenous identity. One cannot go back in time and shift the race of groups or individuals who made no claims to be Indigenous in their own time.

This race shifting is not an idle or harmless hobby. It weaponizes Indigenous identity for a very specific purpose: control of and access to land and resources. Prof. Leroux points out that in Quebec, one of these groups formed specifically to stop the Mi'kmaq from managing territory and another formed to stop Innu harvesting rights. The idea was simple: If you can't stop the government from giving the land and resources back to Indigenous people, find an Indigenous ancestor in your own genealogy. Become Métis and claim the same rights to lands and resources as First Nations.

Most of these groups (now numbering more than 30 in Quebec and Nova Scotia) formed in response to the opportunity they saw created in 2003, when the Supreme Court, in a case called R. v. Powley, determined that Métis communities could possess hunting rights. Full disclosure: I was the lawyer for the Powleys. At the time, it was a helpful determination for the Métis Nation. But it opened a can of worms in Eastern Canada. Powley was not a case that was solely reliant on genealogy. Several experts agreed that there was a historical Métis community in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Eastern claims are very different. Since 2003, there have been more than 50 court cases in which individuals in Quebec and the Maritimes have claimed Métis hunting and fishing rights. The courts have rejected all of these claims. Judges have noted their "remarkable creativity" and have consistently held that claims to Métis rights require more than a genealogical claim and recent opportunistic self-identification. One judge in Quebec famously stated that "it would be easier to nail Jell-O to a wall" than find substance in these "remarkably vague" Métis claims. But still they keep coming, and such is our age of political correctness that one is not permitted to critique these claims because self-identification has become an unassailable individual right.

The Supreme Court, in the Daniels case, made it worse in 2016. The court held that all Indigenous people are within federal jurisdiction, including individuals with mixed Indigenous ancestry who self-identify as Métis separately from the Métis Nation. The court deliberately disconnected Métis individuals from any requirement for community acceptance. In the court's judgment, self-identification and genealogy are the central requirements to be Métis. Daniels provided the necessary legal cover that has since legitimized the race shifters who began to arise after Powley.

So what is it like to be Métis today? If you are a citizen of the Métis Nation of the Canadian Northwest, very positive gains have been made as a direct result of the current government's decision to change Ottawa's relationship with Indigenous people, including the Métis Nation. Just this week, Minister of Veterans Affairs Lawrence MacAuley apologized on the government's behalf to Métis veterans of the Second World War and announced $30-million in compensation. Core funding for Métis Nation governing institutions has been implemented, and land and resource negotiations have begun. Self-government process agreements have been completed with most of the governing members of the Métis Nation. These agreements will facilitate a better standard of living for all Métis Nation citizens. They are new beginnings and signal the end of 200 years of denial and neglect. They are excellent work that needs to continue.

If you have just done a genealogy and found an Indigenous ancestor from the 1600s, or a DNA test that confirms an infinitesimal percentage of Indigenous ancestry, life might also look pretty good. Your daughter can get one of those coveted spots in law school that are reserved for Indigenous people. You might get special fishing privileges from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. You might be able to stop a First Nation land settlement. You might get a job with the government or a company anxious to hire Indigenous people. All these things are happening right now - and there is no sign that this race shifting will stop.
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Opinion: The confusing world of Métis identity

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Jean Teillet is the great-grandniece of Louis Riel and an Indigenous rights lawyer. She is the author of Métis Law in Canada and The North-West is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation. Naming is important. Every group that takes any kind of collective action gives itself a name.

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Journey Home explores healing Indigenous children in the Canadian child welfare system.  This powerful documentary provides an Indigenous community perspective on inter-generational trauma and its impacts on children and youth in government care.  This Research-Based Documentary highlights community approaches to ensuring children are meaningfully connected to their culture, community and identity.

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The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, in partnership with Canada’s national Indigenous organizations, has created a groundbreaking four-volume atlas that shares the experiences, perspectives, and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. It’s an ambitious and unprecedented project inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. Exploring themes of language, demographics, economy, environment and culture, with in-depth coverage of treaties and residential schools, these are stories of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, told in detailed maps and rich narratives.

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In this atlas, you will find outstanding reference maps of Indigenous Canada, as well as a section devoted to Truth and Reconciliation, including detailed pages on many aspects of the topic with contemporary and historical photography, maps and more.

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The Indigenous Studies Portal (iPortal) is a database of full-text electronic resources such as articles, e-books, theses, government publications, videos, oral histories, and digitized archival documents and photographs. The iPortal content has a primary focus on Indigenous peoples of Canada with a secondary focus on North American materials and beyond.

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Indigenous Studies Portal :: Indigenous Studies Portal

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iPortal is a full-text database of free & licensed articles, books etc for scholar, student & community focused primarily on Aboriginals & First Nations of Canada

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Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation

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Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation

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A collection of resources created by the Alberta Teachers’ Association Walking Together Project to support certificated teachers on their learning journey to meet the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Foundational Knowledge competency in the Teaching Quality Standard.

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Sharing Histories, Cultures and World Views

In June 2016, a stakeholder group that included the Alberta Teachers' Association signed the Joint Commitment to Action with Alberta Education to ensure that all students learn about the histories, cultures and world views of First Nations, Métis and Inuit. The Alberta Teachers' Association has begun to fulfill its commitment by establishing the Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation Professional Learning Project.

Design and Development

The Walking Together project is facilitated by Indigenous educators from across Alberta, all of whom are experienced classroom teachers with strong knowledge and expertise in Indigenous education. The resources and workshops developed through the project will support teachers to increase capacity in foundational knowledge of First Nations, Métis and Inuit as outlined in Alberta Education's new Teaching Quality Standard.

Engagement with Community

The Walking Together project is engaging local Indigenous communities by establishing regional advisory committees that include representation from Elders and local Knowledge Keepers. This process will ensure that the professional development programs and resources developed include regionally specific content for teachers.

Brochure for Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation ( ENG/ FR)

An overview of the professional practice standards for teachers, principals/central leaders and superintendents are available on Alberta Education's website.

Monthly updates of additional recommended internal and external professional development opportunities and resources are available here. Please check back often!

Workshops and Resources

All of the Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation professional development resources and workshops have been designed as introductory materials to support your learning journey. Each of the resources and workshops should be localized to include content from your area in collaboration with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Cultural Advisors.

Workshops
Booking a Professional Development Workshop - In 2018/19 the fee for Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation workshops will be covered through grant funds.

Braiding Indigenous Stories Through Our History-Collective Memories of Forced Assimilation

Participants will engage in an exploration through storytelling of the historical implications of forced assimilation within Canada. The perspectives of First Nations, Métis , Inuit and the Crown are woven throughout this participatory workshop, providing a deeper understanding of the impacts of policies and legislation, and contrasted with examples of resiliency. Participants will gain a better understanding of the historical and contemporary realities of First Nations, Métis and Inuit and learn about initiatives that contribute to reconciliation.

Indigenous Alberta-The Footsteps of Our Ancestors

This workshop will introduce participants to the rich indigenous cultural and linguistic diversity of Alberta. Topics will include terminology related to identity, recognition of territory, significant ancestral landscapes related to locations of celebrations and traditions that come to life through song and dance, addressing myths and misconceptions, and a brief historical timeline.

Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Walking in Our Footsteps

This workshop is designed to be an introduction to some basic First Nation, Metis and Inuit worldviews, cultural beliefs and values. It is neither a comprehensive nor an exhaustive exploration of indigenous ways of knowing, but rather a series of focused conversation starters for groups of educators engaged in reconciliation. Worldviews and ways of knowing are like stones thrown into the water from which other circles grow. Participants will gain an understanding and appreciation of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people by learning about diverse, traditional and contemporary experiences unique to them.

The Blanket Exercise

The Blanket Exercise is a participatory workshop in which educators will experience over 500 years of history by taking on the roles of indigenous peoples in Canada. Standing on blankets that represent the land, they will walk through time and explore the impacts of colonization, treaty-making and modern legislation. The Blanket Exercise is concluded by a facilitated debriefing in which participants have the opportunity to discuss the experience as a group. By engaging participants on an emotional and intellectual level, this workshop is a powerful tool for increasing empathy and understanding. Available for Treaty 6, 7 or 8.

The History and Legacy of Residential Schools

This workshop examines the history, impacts and legacy of residential schools, including the effects of intergenerational trauma. Educators will be trained on the tools, resources and strategies that contribute to the development of mutually respectful relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Participants will leave honouring the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action and make a professional and personal commitment to action.

Histoire et s équelles du r égime de pensionnats
Cet atelier examine l'histoire, les repercussions et les séquelles du régime de pensionnats, y compris les effets des traumatismes intergénérationnels. Les enseignants y obtiendront des outils, ressources et strategies pouvant contribuer au développement de relations fondées sur le resect mutual entre Canadiens autochtones et non autochtones. À la fin de l'atelier, les participants seront prêts à honorer les appels à l'action de la Commission de vérité et reconciliation en plus d'être determines à agir, tant sur le plan professionnel que personnel.

Resources
Education is Our Buffalo

Written by a team of Indigenous writers, this guide is intended to increase awareness of Indigenous history, cultures, languages, worldviews, and contemporary realities.
(PD-80-7 2016 12, 80pp) - Download a Copy

Ce guide, produit par une équipe de rédacteurs autochtones, vise à mieux faire connaitre l'histoire, les cultures, les langues, les visions du monde et les réalités contemporaines des peuples autochtones.
(PD-80-7F 2018 01, 81 pp) - Download a Copy

Professional Learning Pebbles
Professional Learning Pebbles is a collection of 24 short activities created by the Alberta Teachers' Association Walking Together Project to support certificated teachers on their learning journey to meet the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Foundational Knowledge competency in the Teaching Quality Standard.

(PD-WT-19 2017 09, 123pp) - Download a Copy
Bibliography
This is a collection of First Nations, Métis and Inuit resources available through library@ata.ab.ca. These resources support the development and application of foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

Download a Copy
Additional Resources This is a collection of website links to support Indigenous education for students and teachers, such as Dictionaries and Language Resources, Math Resources, Residential School, Treaties, and much more! Stepping Stones Series
Stepping Stones is a publication of the Alberta Teachers' Association
Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation and is intended to support certificated teachers on their learning journey to meet the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Foundational Knowledge competency in the Teaching Quality Standard.

Please check back regularly as new additions to the series will be posted soon.

Terminology Reference
(PD-WT-16a 2018 03, 4pp) - Download a Copy
There are many terms used to describe First Nations, Métis and Inuit in Canada. This Stepping Stone discusses the appropriate terms to use when referring to and discussing Canada's Indigenous peoples.

Remarque sur la Terminologie (Terminology Reference)
(PD-WT-16aF 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy
Plusieurs différents termes sont employés pour décrire la réalité des Premières nations, des Métis et des Inuits au Canada. Ce document de la série Pierres d'assise aborde les termes appropriés pour désigner et discuter des peuples autochtones du Canada.

Alberta Métis Settlements and Agreements
(PD-WT-16b 2018 03, 4pp) - Download a Copy
The Métis are the largest group of self-identified Aboriginals in Canada and Alberta; therefore, it is likely the vast majority of schools in Alberta have students who self-identify as Métis. Reconciliation is about understanding the past and working together to build a new future. Who are the Métis and how did there come to be Métis settlements in Alberta? Having a knowledge of Alberta Métis history and current issues will support teachers as they work with these students and their families.

Établissements Métis et accords concernant les Métis de l'Alberta
(PD-WT-16bF 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy
Les Métis constituent le plus important groupe d'individus s'identifiant comme Autochtones au Canada et en Alberta; il est donc probable que la majorité des écoles de l'Alberta comptent des élèves qui s'identifient comme Métis. Pour qu'il y ait réconciliation, nous devons comprendre le passé et collaborer afin de bâtir un avenir nouveau. Qui sont les Métis et comment les établissements Métis de l'Alberta ont-ils vu le jour? Une connaissance de l'histoire et de la situation actuelle des Métis de l'Alberta soutiendra les efforts des enseignants qui travaillent avec ces élèves et leurs familles.

An Introduction to the Inuit
(PD-WT-16c 2018 03, 4pp) - Download a Copy
This Stepping Stone looks at who are the Inuit, and how their unique history and culture shape contemporary Inuit society.

Les Inuits : Une introduction
(PD-WT-16cF, 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy
Ce document de la série Pierres d'assise traite du peuple inuit et de la façon dont son histoire et sa culture uniques façonnent la société inuite contemporaine.

Timeline of Alberta's Indigenous History
(PD-WT-16e 2018 03, 12pp) - Download a Copy
This Stepping Stone summarizes Alberta's Indigenous history to support the Alberta Teachers' Association / KAIROS Blanket Exercise.

Chronologie de l'histoire des autochtones en Alberta
(PD-WT-16eF 2018 04, 12pp) - Download a Copy
Ce document de la série Pierres d'assise résume l'histoire des Autochtones en Alberta et sera utile dans le cadre de l'exercice des couvertures proposé par l'Alberta Teachers' Association et KAIROS.

Elder Protocol
(PD-WT-16g 2017 07, 4pp) - Download a Copy
Inviting an elder to participate in meetings or events is an opportunity to share Aboriginal knowledge, cultural beliefs and traditional practices with the education community. This Stepping Stone outlines their respected roles and what protocols to follow when reaching out to them.

Protocole relatif aux ainés
(PD-WT-16gF 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy
Inviter un ainé à participer aux réunions ou évènements facilite le partage du savoir, des croyances culturelles et des pratiques traditionnelles autochtones avec les intervenants du domaine de l'éducation. Ce document de la série Pierres d'assise fournit un aperçu du respect qu'inspirent les ainés par les rôles qu'ils occupent, ainsi que des protocoles à suivre lorsqu'on prend contact avec eux.

Numbered Treaties Within Alberta: Treaty 6
(PD-WT-16d 2018 03, 4pp) - Download a Copy
This Stepping Stone reviews the history of Treaty 6, and the 17 First Nations in the central west portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan in which Treaty 6 encompasses.

Traités Num é rot é s en Alberta : Le Traité N° 6 (Treaty 6)
(PD-WT-16dF 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy
Ce document de la série Pierres d'assise examine l'histoire du Traité no 6 et les 17 Premières nations du centre-ouest de l'Alberta et de la Saskatchewan établies dans la région visée par ce traité.

Numbered Treaties Within Alberta: Treaty 7
(PD-WT-16f 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy

Traités Numérotés en Alberta : Le Traité N° 7 (Treaty 7)
(PD-WT-16fF 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy

Numbered Treaties Within Alberta: Treaty 8
(PD-WT-16h 2018 03, 4pp) - Download a Copy

Traités Num é rot é s en Alberta : Le Traité N° 8
(PD-WT-16hF 2018 04, 4pp) - Download a Copy

Acknowledging Land and People Map
This map shows the approximate area and locations of treaty land and the encompassing First Nation language groupings of Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Stoney, Nakoda, Sioux and Blackfoot tribes and nations. Métis settlements are included and indicated within their designated Métis Nation of Alberta.
Reconnaissance des Territoires et des Peuples
Carte indiquant la superficie et l'emplacement approximatifs des régions visées par un traité, ainsi que les grands groupes linguistiques (cri, déné, saulteaux, stoney, nakota, sioux et pied-noir) associés aux différentes tribus et Premières nations. La carte indique également l'emplacement des établissements Métis à l'intérieur de leur région respective de la Métis Nation of Alberta.

Land Acknowledgements
Cultural Appropriation (April 10, 2018)
Webinars

Misconceptions and stereotypes of Indigenous peoples can be perpetuated with appropriation of cultural practices, symbols, ceremonies and items. Participants will gain awareness of the issue of cultural appropriation when making space for Indigenous cultures in their schools.
Teacher Talks: Deconstructing Draft Teacher Qualification Standard (TQS) Recorded Event
December 5, 2017

The purpose of this webinar is to analyze and organize the draft Teaching Quality Standard to better understand and build personal meaning around the new competencies that specifically outline First Nations, Métis and Inuit education.
Recorded Event
November 4, 2017

This case study-Participants will develop an understanding of the impacts that assimilation has exacted on indigenous peoples of Canada by unpacking the experiences of one Inuit community.

Contact us

For further information on the Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation, contact WalkingTogether@ata.ab.ca

Follow us on social media.

@ATAindigenous

walkingtogetherata

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Pages - Indigenous Education and Walking Together

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Sharing Histories, Cultures and World Views In June 2016, a stakeholder group that included the Alberta Teachers' Association signed the Joint Commitment to Action with Alberta Education to ensure that all students learn about the histories, cultures and world views of First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

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The Institute is a First Nation-led research centre based in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. Privileging First Nation philosophy and rooted in community networks, Yellowhead is focused on policies related to land and governance.

The Institute offers critical and accessible resources for communities in their pursuit of self-determination. It also aims to foster education and dialogue on First Nation governance across fields of study, between the University and the wider community, and among Indigenous peoples and Canadians.

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SPECIAL REPORT Data Colonialism in Canada's Chemical Valley:Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the Failure of the Pollution Notification System How can Indigenous environmental data justice practices help protect our communities from the bad faith misinformation practices of the petrochemical industry? LEARN MORE THE YELLOWHEAD BRIEF An accessible platform for grounded perspectives and compelling ideas on Indigenous issues ...

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A school toolkit by John Humphrey Centre

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John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights

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Reconciliation in Schools

In 2016, John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights (JHC) engaged in a collaborative pilot project with five schools in Edmonton Catholic and Edmonton Public Schools called Advancing Reconciliation in Education. We have created a meaningful process whereby students explore reconciliation from a rights-based lens. The pilot program consisted of nine learning sessions and three student-led Call to Action sessions. We invited elders and community members to share their knowledge on a variety of important topics such as Indigenous language, worldview and treaty.

Our goal in Advancing Reconciliation is to create safe spaces for Indigenous students and their peers to discuss, recommend, and develop student-led initiatives that promote reconciliation in their schools and communities. These are the participating schools' Calls to Action, which use interactive arts-based learning approaches that focus on Indigenous voices and issues in Canada.

The program is designed to build the capacity of students and teachers and to provide opportunities to connect with the rich and thriving network of Elders, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, community members, artists and activists that work tirelessly to promote Reconciliation in their communities.

In addition, one of the goals of the project was to create a toolkit with the intention to share some our learnings from the pilot project and provide administration and teachers with a framework to introduce these important topics in the classroom. It is intended for grades 5-12 and is meant to be adapted for the appropriate grade. Each section has links to the Alberta Program of Studies for each grade.

Advancing Reconciliation in Education Toolkit
Table of Contents: Fundamentals of Human Rights Bringing in a Knowledge Keeper Learning Sessions For a printed version of the toolkit, please contact us.
Thank you to our School Partners:

Evansdale Elementary School Grade 5 (Snippet)

Rosslyn Junior High Grade 7 (Snippet)

St. Mark Junior High Grade 7-9 (Snippet)

Queen Elizabeth High School Grade 10-12 (Snippet)

Westmount Fresh Start, Braided Journeys Program (Snippet)

Thank you to our Funders Partners:

Government of Canada

Alberta Human Rights Education and Multiculturalism Fund

Government of Alberta, Community Initiatives Program

Stollery Charitable Foundation

If you want to book a session or have any inquiry about the toolkit, email us at info@jhcentre.org.

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Reconciliation in Schools - John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights

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In 2016, John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights (JHC) engaged in a collaborative pilot project with five schools in Edmonton Catholic and Edmonton Public Schools called Advancing Reconciliation in Education. We have created a meaningful process whereby students explore reconciliation from a rights-based lens.

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First Nations, Métis and Inuit Educator Resources 

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First Nations, Métis and Inuit Educator Resources 

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A padlet of resources for Alberta teachers

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Online resources we recommend

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Discussions by four Cree elders; George Brertton, Fred Campiou, Isaac Chamakese and William Dreaver, give insight into the differences between Canadian law and Cree Natural Law and why Natural Law is needed in contemporary society. Wahkohtowin means “everything is related.” It is one of the basic principles of Cree Natural Law passed through language, song, prayer, and storytelling. The elders explain that by following the teachings of Wahkohtowin individuals, communities and societies are healthier.

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Wab Kinew on the Stereotypes about Natives in Canada

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Wab Kinew on the Stereotypes about Natives in Canada

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Wab Kinew on the Stereotypes about Natives in Canada

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Understanding Aboriginal Identity explores the complex issue of self-identification for Aboriginal people. Today, Aboriginal identity remains inextricably linked with past government legislation and the continued stereotyping of Aboriginal people in the media and Canadian history. From a Metis farm in rural Alberta, to the offices of Canada’s leading scholars, Understanding Aboriginal Identity examines the factors that shape who we are.

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The Sacred Relationship explores how reconciling the relationship between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canada can lead to healthier water.

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The Sacred Relationship explores how reconciling the relationship between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canada can lead to healthier water.

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The 7th Generation Our Ancestors Prayed For

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The 7th Generation Our Ancestors Prayed For

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The 7th Generation Our Ancestors Prayed For is a short documentary style film that features the voices of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and non-Aboriginal children and youth. The film makes up part of the {Re}conciliation Film Project, which is a collaborative initiative between the Caring Society and Productions Cazabon on a multi-media children and youth response campaign to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action.

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The 7th Generation our Ancestors Prayed For

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Rights in Action: Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for Indigenous Peoples

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Rights in Action: Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for Indigenous Peoples

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This community-friendly animation video explains the concepts and mechanisms of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) through a story of interaction between indigenous peoples and people requesting their consent for new development. Free, Prior and Informed Consent is a core principle of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to guide collective decision-making. FPIC is a continual process that involves mutual respect and meaningful participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making on matters affecting them. The video also includes a story about customary law in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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Rights in Action: Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for Indigenous Peoples

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This community-friendly animation video explains the concepts and mechanisms of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) through a story of interaction between indigenous peoples and people requesting their consent for new development.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent is a core principle of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to guide collective decision-making.

FPIC is a continual process that involves mutual respect and meaningful participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making on matters affecting them.

The video also includes a story about customary law in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Length of Video: 8 minutes

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Métis Land: Rights and Scrip Conference 

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Métis Land: Rights and Scrip Conference 

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(Edmonton, 2019)

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Métis Land: Rights and Scrip Conference - 8 February, 2019, 9 AM

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I’m Not the Indian You Had in Mind is a video exploration offering insight as to how First Nations people today are changing old ideas and empowering themselves in the greater community.

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National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

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A video exploration offering insight as to how First Nations people today are changing old ideas and empowering themselves in the greater community.

Produced with a grant awarded by bravoFACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent), a division of Bell Media Inc.

Creative team

Director/writer: Thomas King
Producer: Laura J. Milliken

Director's statement

Thomas King says:

" I'm Not the Indian You Had in Mind challenges the stereotypical portrayal of First Nations peoples in the media. This spoken word short offers an insight of how First Nations people today are changing old ideas and empowering themselves in the greater community.

The actors, in business suits, jeans, and typical urban attire are juxtaposed against the loincloth-wearing, tomahawk wielding Natives of yesterday's spaghetti westerns.

Through the use of stock footage, language, and common artifacts like a cigar store Indian, the viewer is encouraged to examine the profound role that these one-dimensional media representations have played in shaping their perspectives of an entire group of people. The man living next door, the woman working in the next cubicle, or the stoic wood carving in front of the cigar store - which Indian did you have in mind?

About Thomas King

Thomas was born in Sacramento, CA in 1943. He is of Cherokee, German and Greek descent. King was raised in California, later becoming a photojournalist in Australia.

In 1986, he completed his Ph.D. in English and American studies at the University of Utah. He has taught Native Studies at the University of California, the University of Lethbridge, and at the University of Minnesota, where he was also Chair of American Indian Studies. King is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph, west of Toronto.

King published his first novel Medicine River in 1989. It marked him as an important voice in Canadian literature. His use of humor, well-crafted dialogue (influenced by his interest in traditional oral literature), and an honest portrayal of day-to-day life of Natives marked the book as an important work of fiction. In 1990, King tried to radically redefine how theorists view Native literature.

In the article Godzilla vs. Postcolonial, King challenges the view that all Native literature is a reaction to colonialism, rather than an extension of longer Native tradition. The term postcolonial serves, in King's opinion, to reinforce the legacy of colonization.

In 1992, King published the collection of short stories One Good Story, That One. Again mixing humor, traditional Native mythology and contemporary issues, King creates a collection of memorable stories. One such story that plays with the idea of Christopher Columbus discovering America, A Coyote Columbus Story, was transformed into a children's book that was ultimately nominated for a Governor General's Award.

He was also nominated for a GG Award in 1993 for his second novel, Green Grass, Running Water. Maintaining the same theme and style of his previous works and enhancing them, King combines the lives of a number of Native characters making their way back to their reserve with a continual retelling of the Creation myth. Truth and Bright Water was published in 1999 and focuses more on the oral tradition of the Natives in its form and style.

Thomas King also wrote a series of comic radio scripts for the CBC during the 1990s, The Dead Dog Cafe. He has edited a number of anthologies on Native writers. The Dead Dog Café was also resurrected in 2006 and 13 episodes are currently in production for CBC Radio.

King was chosen to deliver the 2003 Massey Lectures, entitled The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. King was the first Aboriginal Massey Lecturer. In the series, King examined the Native experience in oral stories, literature, history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest in order to make sense of North America's relationship with its Aboriginal peoples.

If you liked this film, you might also like ...

Check out some of the other Indigenous films in the NSI Online Short Film Festival.

How to purchase this film

You can do this through the following website:

NSI News

If you want to receive news about new films in the NSI Online Short Film Festival, our courses and alumni, subscribe to our weekly email update sent every Tuesday.

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I'm Not the Indian You Had in Mind | National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

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A video exploration offering insight as to how First Nations people today are changing old ideas and empowering themselves in the greater community. Produced with a grant awarded by bravoFACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent), a division of Bell Media Inc. Director/writer: Thomas King Producer: Laura J.

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Home Fire explores family violence and restorative justice from an Aboriginal perspective. Featuring commentary from Elders, community leaders, and members of the western justice system, Home Fire examines the colonization of Canada, historic trauma, the western justice system and grassroots healing programs in Aboriginal communities.

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Home Fire - Ending the Cycle of Family Violence

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The story of Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack, whose death sparked the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools. The 84th Heritage Minute in Historica Canada’s collection.

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Why don’t residential school survivors just get over it? 

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Why don’t residential school survivors just get over it? 

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Senator Murray Sinclair’s reply.

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"Why don't residential school survivors just get over it?" Senator Murray Sinclair's reply.

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Margaret Atwood and Joni Mitchell get stars on Canada's Walk of Fame

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Treaty Talk - Sharing the River of Life is a 50 minute teaching tool to better understand our collective responsibility to treaty. The purpose of this video is to build understanding, allyship and bridges for better relationship and work together. This film, through the sharing of a traditional Cree understanding on natural law and treaty, will explore and model how Indigenous nations and non-Indigenous allies in Canada can come together to transform racism and discrimination at a local and systemic level and to build a future of mutual benefit.

The website includes resources to support you in planning your own event, discussion group or report.
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Treaty Talk - Sharing the River of Life is a 50 minute teaching tool to better understand a collective responsibility to treaty. The purpose of this video is to build understanding, allyship and bridges for better relationship and work together. This film combines local storytelling and traditional Cree teaching.

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Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen lands, Strong Hearts

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Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen lands, Strong Hearts

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This is a film about a devastating decision, made over 500 years ago, which continues to profoundly impact Indigenous and Settler people worldwide. Pope Alexander VI ruled that the lands being discovered by European explorers at the time was “empty” land and its millions of Indigenous inhabitants were “non-human”.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released 94 Calls to Action in 2015, with many of them referring to the Doctrine of Discovery and calling for its repudiation.

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"Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen lands, Strong Hearts" is a film about a devastating decision, made over 500 years ago, which continues to profoundly impact Indigenous and Settler people worldwide. Pope Alexander VI ruled that the lands being discovered by European explorers at the time was "empty" land and its millions of Indigenous inhabitants were "non-human".

Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released 94 Calls to Action in 2015, with many of them referring to the Doctrine of Discovery and calling for its repudiation.

This film is one of the responses of the Anglican Church's Primate's Commission on Discovery, Reconciliation and Justice. The purpose of this film is to respond to the calls to action by helping to provide education and insight into the racist foundations of many of our property and other laws still in existence to this day.

"Reconciliation is not about being a spectator". Senator Murray Sinclair

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Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen lands, Strong Hearts - The Anglican Church of Canada

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A film about a devastating decision, made over 500 years ago, which continues to profoundly impact Indigenous and Settler people worldwide.

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Videos/Films  we recommend

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) reports

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) reports

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Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future
What We Have Learned
The Survivors Speak
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This list contains reports issued or created by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Modern Reports

This list contains relevant and important reports issued in recent years related to the residential school system.

Historical Reports

This list contains relevant and important historical reports related to the residential school system.

Aboriginal Healing Foundation Reports

We gratefully acknowledge the Legacy of Hope Foundation for granting access to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation publications. Visit https://ahf2.ca/ to order hard copies.
Full Reports can be purchased from www.mqup.ca and can be accessed or duplicated at no additional charge from the NCTR website. At this time, The NCTR does not have physical copies for sale.

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission This list contains reports issued or created by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Modern Reports This list contains relevant and important reports issued in recent years related to the residential school system. Historical Reports This list contains relevant and important historical reports related to the residential school system.

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Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996)

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Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996)

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Volume 1 – Looking Forward, Looking Back [PDF]
Volume 2 – Restructuring the Relationship [PDF]
Volume 3 – Gathering Strength [PDF]
Volume 4 – Perspectives and Realities [PDF]
Volume 5 – Renewal: A Twenty-Year Commitment [PDF ]

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The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) concerns government policy with respect to the original historical nations of this country. Those nations are important to Canada, and how Canada relates to them defines in large measure its sense of justice and its image in its own eyes and before the world.

The RCAP was established by Order in Council on August 26, 1991, and it submitted its report in October 1996.

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Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples - Library and Archives Canada

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Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples - Library and Archives Canada

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Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples

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Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples

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Building a new relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada requires an understanding of our history, not just among academics and politicians, but among all the people who live in this country.

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How Did We Get Here? A Concise, Unvarnished Account of the History of the Relationship Between Indigenous Peoples and Canada

Building a new relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada requires an understanding of our history, not just among academics and politicians, but among all the people who live in this country.

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Senate of Canada - How Did We Get Here? A Concise, Unvarnished Account of the History of the Relationship Between Indigenous Peoples and Canada

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How Did We Get Here? A Concise, Unvarnished Account of the History of the Relationship Between Indigenous Peoples and Canada Building a new relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada requires an understanding of our history, not just among academics and politicians, but among all the people who live in this country.

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Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

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Reclaiming Power and Place

The National Inquiry's Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada's staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.
The Final Report is comprised of the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers shared over two years of cross-country public hearings and evidence gathering. It delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians.
As documented in the Final Report, testimony from family members and survivors of violence spoke about a surrounding context marked by multigenerational and intergenerational trauma and marginalization in the form of poverty, insecure housing or homelessness and barriers to education, employment, health care and cultural support. Experts and Knowledge Keepers spoke to specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in communities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence.

Supplementary report: Quebec

The National Inquiry is simultaneously releasing a report specific to Quebec in order to give particular attention to the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls in that province. The report outlines specific issues such as language barriers, health and social services provide by religious congregations and interaction with Indigenous and provincial police forces.

Download PDF

Section 1 of the report, made up of Chapters 1-4, sets up the overall context that will be helpful for readers in approaching the information presented in the later sections of the report. In Section 1, we talk about the role of relationships, human and Indigenous rights, the history of colonization, and how each of these contexts can inform our understanding of the issue of violence against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
Chapter 1: Centring Relationships to End Violence
Chapter 2: Indigenous Recognitions of Power and Place
Chapter 3: Emphasizing Accountability through Human Rights Tools
Chapter 4: Colonization as Gendered Oppression

Overwhelmingly, the families who testified before the National Inquiry were seeking answers to perceived flaws in the investigations into the loss of their loved ones.

They discussed many ways in which they felt that police services had failed in their duty to properly investigate the crimes committed against them or their loved ones, leading ultimately to a failure to obtain closure and justice within the existing system. In response, the National Inquiry established the Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP), consisting of two teams conducting a review of police and other related institutional files. One team examined files of the Province of Quebec; the second group examined police files in all other provinces and territories throughout the rest of Canada. In this summary, when we refer to the FDRP, we are referring specifically to this second group. Information and recommendations of the Quebec FDRP are located in the Supplementary Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls devoted to Quebec. The purpose of the FDRP was to identify potential systemic barriers or problems and areas of weakness relating to the protection of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and to make recommendations to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls about the systemic causes of their disappearances and deaths.

During the course of the project, the Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP), which was tasked with examining files outside of Quebec, obtained and reviewed 174 files and 35 previous reports and studies on policing related to Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and analyzed publicly available information related to those files.

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The National Inquiry's Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada's staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.

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AHF Final Report: Volume 1 (A Healing Journey: Reclaiming Wellness) – 20mb PDF |
Volume 2 (Measuring Progress: Program Evaluation) – 28mb PDF |
Volume 3 (Promising Healing Practices in Aboriginal Communities) – 16mb PDF |
Final Report Summary- 17mb PDF| Final Report in Inuktitut – 17mb PDF

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Helping Aboriginal People Heal Themselves.

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A list of comprehensive reports on Indigenous Peoples in Canada

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White Settler Revisionism and Making Métis Everywhere: The Evocation of Métissage in Quebec and Nova Scotia

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White Settler Revisionism and Making Métis Everywhere: The Evocation of Métissage in Quebec and Nova Scotia

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Adam Gaudry and Darryl Leroux

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The Reign of Terror Against The Métis of Red River

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The Reign of Terror Against The Métis of Red River

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Lawrence Barkwell, Louis Riel Institute

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THE REIGN OF TERROR AGAINST THE METIS OF RED RIVER

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The first attempt to subvert Metis self-government by Canadian military forces took place in late 1869. The Lieutenant Governor designate William McDougall travelled to Red River via the United States with enough arms to take control of the

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Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Native-Newcomer Relations in Canada, Fourth Edition

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Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Native-Newcomer Relations in Canada, Fourth Edition

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by J.R. Miller

First published in 1989, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens continues to earn wide acclaim for its comprehensive account of Native-newcomer relations throughout Canada's history. Author J.R. Miller charts the deterioration of the relationship from the initial, mutually beneficial contact in the fur trade to the current displacement and marginalization of the Indigenous population.

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Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens book. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. First published in 1989, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens continu...

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Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event (Writing Past Imperialism)

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Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event (Writing Past Imperialism)

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by Patrick Wolfe

This work analyzes the politics of anthropological knowledge from critical perspective that alters existing understandings of colonialism. At the same time, it produces insights into the history of anthropology. Organized around an historical reconstruction of the great anthropological controversy over doctrines of virgin birth, the book argues that the allegation a great deal about European colonial discourse and little if anything about indigenous beliefs.

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If you're interested in settler colonial studies, you might have this text on your reading list. My recommendation is to focus on the introduction and chapter 6 (alternatively, if you're pressed for time or just outright lazy then you can skip it and back fill with his article "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native"). For me, everything in between the two chapters was a combination of learning anthropological discourse (I've never taken a course in the field but have read a few k ...more

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Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology

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If you're interested in settler colonial studies, you might have this text on your reading list. My recommendation is to focus on the introduction and chapter 6 (alternatively, if you're pressed for time or just outright lazy then you can skip it and back fill with his article "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native").

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Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada 

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Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada 

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by Emma Battell Lowman,

Adam J Barker
Canada has never had an Indian problem but it does have a Settler problem. But what does it mean to be Settler? And why does it matter?

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On Being Here to Stay: Treaties and Aboriginal Rights in Canada

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On Being Here to Stay: Treaties and Aboriginal Rights in Canada

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by Michael Asch

What, other than numbers and power, justifies Canada’s assertion of sovereignty and jurisdiction over the country’s vast territory? Why should Canada’s original inhabitants have to ask for rights to what was their land when non-Aboriginal people first arrived? The question lurks behind every court judgment on Indigenous rights, every demand that treaty obligations be fulfilled, and every land-claims negotiation.

Addressing these questions has occupied anthropologist Michael Asch for nearly thirty years. In On Being Here to Stay, Asch retells the story of Canada with a focus on the relationship between First Nations and settlers.

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by Todd Gordon

Imperialist Canada exposes Canada's imperialist past and present, at home and across the globe. Todd Gordon interweaves histories of indigenous dispossession in Canada with the cold facts of Canadian capital's oppression of peoples in the global South. The book digs beneath the surface of Canada's image as global peacekeeper and promoter of human rights, revealing the links between the corporate pursuit of profit and Canadian foreign and domestic policy.

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Rarely has a book contained so much incredibly interesting information that I had no idea I was about to encounter upon picking the book from the shelf. Todd Gordon's Imperialist Canada reads an expose of Canada's dastardly role in the unfolding of the New World Order. Yet, in the process Todd takes no easy outs, fully exploring and explaining the complex system of systematic disadvantage and oppression that many of us take for granted as "the way the world works". On the conflict between Canada ...more

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Rarely has a book contained so much incredibly interesting information that I had no idea I was about to encounter upon picking the book from the shelf. Todd Gordon's Imperialist Canada reads an expose of Canada's dastardly role in the unfolding of the New World Order.

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Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

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Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

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by James Daschuk

In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics—the politics of ethnocide—played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of aboriginal people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald’s “National Dream.”

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http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...

Review by Matthew Brett

Official bicentennial celebrations of the "affable drunk" who founded Canada will likely mask John A. Macdonald's history of racism and deliberate starvation of First Nations, and similar policies continue today with the tar sands and fracking expansion.

James Daschuk, author of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, addresses Canada's history of disease, deliberate starvation, ethnic cl...more

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http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0... Review by Matthew Brett Official bicentennial celebrations of the "affable drunk" who founded Canada will likely mask John A. Macdonald's history of racism and deliberate starvation of First Nations, and similar policies continue today with the tar sands and fracking expansion.

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A Concise History of Canada's First Nations

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A Concise History of Canada's First Nations

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by Olive Patricia Dickason

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If your looking for a introductory book that gives an overview of First Nations history, this is it. 10/10 would recommend to any Canadian who wishes to understand this aspect of Canadian history. Be aware that the first few chapters include a lot of names and you do need to (generally) know then to understand the rest of the book.

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A Concise History of Canada's First Nations

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If your looking for a introductory book that gives an overview of First Nations history, this is it. 10/10 would recommend to any Canadian who wishes to understand this aspect of Canadian history. Be aware that the first few chapters include a lot of names and you do need to (generally) know then to understand the rest of the book.

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by Michael Asch (Editor)

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I should begin by saying I just picked this book up from the library and I am not studying this in any course, so I am looking at this through an uninformed, outsider perspective.

Culture and Anarchy in Indian Culture by Chamberlin

It was an interesting essay, I so rarely get to hear about Matthew Arnold's ideas on culture. I can accept the premise that the oral and written histories are different and that to focus only on the written aspect of the treaties is to miss out on a lot of the meaning....more

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I should begin by saying I just picked this book up from the library and I am not studying this in any course, so I am looking at this through an uninformed, outsider perspective. Culture and Anarchy in Indian Culture by Chamberlin It was an interesting essay, I so rarely get to hear about Matthew Arnold's ideas on culture.

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No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous

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No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous

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by Sheldon Krasowski,   Winona Wheeler Foreword)

Between 1869 and 1877 the government of Canada negotiated Treaties One through Seven with the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. Many historians argue that the negotiations suffered from cultural misunderstandings between the treaty commissioners and Indigenous chiefs, but newly uncovered eyewitness accounts show that the Canadian government had a strategic plan to deceive over the “surrender clause” and land sharing. According to Sheldon Krasowski’s research, Canada understood that the Cree, Anishnabeg, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, Siksika, Piikani, Kainaa, Stoney and Tsuu T’ina nations wanted to share the land with newcomers—with conditions—but were misled over governance, reserved lands, and resource sharing. Exposing the government chicanery at the heart of the negotiations, No Surrender demonstrates that the land remains Indigenous.

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A lot of the academic sources used in our workshop series came from these sources.

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Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan: Our Dream is that Our Peoples Will One Day be Clearly Recognized

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Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan: Our Dream is that Our Peoples Will One Day be Clearly Recognized

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by Harold Cardinal,

Walter Hildebrandt

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An interesting look through the eyes of Elders into Indigenous communities' traditions, languages, and legal systems as well as their thoughts regarding colonialism, the contemporary world, and the ways to move forward in Canadian society.

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An interesting look through the eyes of Elders into Indigenous communities' traditions, languages, and legal systems as well as their thoughts regarding colonialism, the contemporary world, and the ways to move forward in Canadian society.

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Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call

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Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call

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by

Arthur Manuel,  Ronald M. Derrickson (Afterword),

Naomi Klein (Foreword)

Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call by Arthur Manuel and Chief Ronald Derrickson describes the victories and failures, the hopes and the fears of a generation of activists fighting for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada. Unsettling Canada chronicles the modern struggle for Indigenous rights covering fifty years of struggle over a wide range of historical, national, and recent international breakthroughs.

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Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call by Arthur Manuel, is an examination of the struggle for rights and recognition that many Indigenous peoples in Canada have faced, and continue to face in the modern world. Manuel has been the Chief of the Secwepemc Nation, and a long term Indigenous rights activist in both Canada and globally. He has fought throughout his life to ensure that the rights of his people, and other groups across Canada, are respected by the Canadian government.

Manuel begins...more

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Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call by Arthur Manuel, is an examination of the struggle for rights and recognition that many Indigenous peoples in Canada have faced, and continue to face in the modern world. Manuel has been the Chief of the Secwepemc Nation, and a long term Indigenous rights activist in both Canada and globally.

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The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy

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The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy

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by Arthur Manuel,

Ronald M. Derrickson (With), Naomi Klein  (Preface)

In this book Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson challenge virtually everything that non-Indigenous Canadians believe about their relationship with Indigenous Peoples and the steps that are needed to place this relationship on a healthy and honourable footing.

Manuel and Derrickson show how governments are attempting to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples without touching the basic colonial structures that dominate and distort the relationship. They review the current state of land claims. They tackle the persistence of racism among non-Indigenous people and institutions. They celebrate Indigenous Rights Movements while decrying the role of government-funded organizations like the Assembly of First Nations. They document the federal government's disregard for the substance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples while claiming to implement it. These circumstances amount to what they see as a false reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

Instead, Manuel and Derrickson offer an illuminating vision of what Canada and Canadians need for true reconciliation.

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This is one of the best calls to action that I have ever read - it is thoughtful, angry, funny, conversational, creative, informed - and I so appreciate that Arthur Manuel took the time to put together his thoughts and give direction about how to go about real reconciliation - its gotta start with the land, focus on the land, end with the land. We together - Indigenous and settlers - collectively need to figure out how we are going to live together going forward, and we settlers of the US and Ca ...more

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This is one of the best calls to action that I have ever read - it is thoughtful, angry, funny, conversational, creative, informed - and I so appreciate that Arthur Manuel took the time to put together his thoughts and give direction about how to go about real reconciliation - its gotta start with the land, focus on the land, end with the land.

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The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement

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The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement

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by The Kino-Nda-Niimi Collective (Editor)
The Winter We Danced is a vivid collection of writing, poetry, lyrics, art and images from the many diverse voices that make up the past, present, and future of the Idle No More movement.

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http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...

Review by Lindsey Cornum

When you hold The Winter We Danced, you hold more than a book. Edited by the Kino-nda-niimi Collective and gathering together more than 80 different contributors, it is a text bursting at the seams with collaborative fervour. With the addition of visual pieces, including paintings, photographs, posters and a substantial addendum of resources and organization information, this collection extends outside its own covers to participate...more

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http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0... Review by Lindsey Cornum When you hold The Winter We Danced, you hold more than a book. Edited by the Kino-nda-niimi Collective and gathering together more than 80 different contributors, it is a text bursting at the seams with collaborative fervour.

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by Harold Cardinal
Aboriginal people in Canada took hope with the election of Trudeau’s Liberals in 1968. They were outraged when the Paper introduced by Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Jean Chretien a year later amounted to an assimilation program: repeal of the Indian Act, the transfer of Indian affairs to the provinces, the elimination of separate legal status for native people. The Unjust Society, Cree leader Harold Cardinal’s stinging rebuttal, was an immediate best-seller, and it remains one of the most important ever published.

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Cardinal's book is informative, sardonic, and sadly, fifty years later, still relevant. It's interesting to read this now with Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, when the book was written during his father's time in office, especially with how problematic Pierre Trudeau was for Cardinal and Aboriginal people. My main critique is, what about the struggles of Aboriginal women?! Cardinal mentioned Aboriginal women twice in passing, and for the remaining 169/171 pages it was all about Brotherhoods an ...more

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Cardinal's book is informative, sardonic, and sadly, fifty years later, still relevant. It's interesting to read this now with Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, when the book was written during his father's time in office, especially with how problematic Pierre Trudeau was for Cardinal and Aboriginal people.

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The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

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The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

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by Thomas King

WINNER of the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize
The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history—in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America.

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I took a course last year and this is where I got caught up in 'what about the land'. The professor explained about his people's use of the land andI took a course last year and this is where I got caught up in 'what about the land'. The professor explained about his people's use of the land and how the child at birth is introduced to Mother Earth and Father Sky. He told how in the winter times, the communities would leave the main areas and go upstream to the various branches of the rivers and streams, as smaller family groups so they did not damage the land. After colonisation, they were forced into centralised groups by the government as it was more convenient for the authorities. As you no doubt are already aware, this meant starvation and dependence on the government handouts. Effectively, by cutting the people from the land, the government cut them off from their spiritual roots (the Mother) and from their capacity to care for themselves as a nation of mature and capable people. Recreating land as an object to be bought and sold, destroys its spiritual component. Forcing the people to live in one area is to despoil the area and destroys both the land and the people. Anne Brittain...more
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I took a course last year and this is where I got caught up in 'what about the land'. The professor explained about his people's use of the land andI took a course last year and this is where I got caught up in 'what about the land'.

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Prison of Grass: Canada from a Native Point of View

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Prison of Grass: Canada from a Native Point of View

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by Howard Adams
Originally published in 1975, this important book is now back in print in a revised and updated edition.  Since its first publication it has become a classic of revisionist history.  Bringing a Native viewpoint to the settlement of the West, Howard Adam's book shook its readers.  What Native people had to say for themselves was quite different from the convenient picture of history that even the most sympathetic books by white authors had presented.  Until Adams's book, the cultural, historical, and psychological aspects of colonialism for Native people had not been explored in depth.

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Adams dives right into colonialization of the mind, backs up to recount the history of Metis and Native struggles during the initial Canadian westward expansion, and returns to the present day (well, 1st ed. pub.1975, my version updated in 1989) with thoughts on how to understand white supremacy and continued colonial oppression now. It's peppered with the author's wrenching personal experiences of youthful rejection of family in an effort to assimilate into white culture, which helps fuel the o ...more

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Adams dives right into colonialization of the mind, backs up to recount the history of Metis and Native struggles during the initial Canadian westward expansion, and returns to the present day (well, 1st ed. pub.1975, my version updated in 1989) with thoughts on how to understand white supremacy and continued colonial oppression now.

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Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth about Lies about Indians

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Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth about Lies about Indians

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by Darrell Dennis

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Sardonuc humour and grim facts refute myths about First Nations people

A great first book for people who want to understand the history of and present challenges for First Nations/Aboriginal/Native people. It's hard to talk about genocide without bitterness, Dennis makes you laugh or at least groan at his jokes, but the topic is serious. The only downside is that sometimes he uses the jokes get repetive and even disruptive to the narrative. This book focused more on Canada then the US or the rest...more

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Sardonuc humour and grim facts refute myths about First Nations people A great first book for people who want to understand the history of and present challenges for First Nations/Aboriginal/Native people. It's hard to talk about genocide without bitterness, Dennis makes you laugh or at least groan at his jokes, but the topic is serious.

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Our Elders Understand Our Rights: Evolving International Law Regarding Indigenous Peoples

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Our Elders Understand Our Rights: Evolving International Law Regarding Indigenous Peoples

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by  Sharon Helen Venne

Traces the development of international law beginning in the middle ages with the doctrine of discovery.

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Our Elders Understand Our Rights book. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. Traces the development of international law beginning in ...

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Nationhood Interrupted: Revitalizing nêhiyaw Legal Systems

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Nationhood Interrupted: Revitalizing nêhiyaw Legal Systems

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by Sylvia McAdam Saysewahum

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An informative and well thought out book that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in furthering their knowledge, and understanding of another culture. This books offers a lot of insight into the beliefs, and practices of First Nations peoples, while addressing why and how it was lost to colonialism and genocide. The book stresses and clarifies the need and the importance of regaining and restoring what was lost.

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An informative and well thought out book that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in furthering their knowledge, and understanding of another culture. This books offers a lot of insight into the beliefs, and practices of First Nations peoples, while addressing why and how it was lost to colonialism and genocide.

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Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies

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Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies

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by  Robert J. Miller,  Tracey Lindberg,  Jacinta Ruru

This book presents new material and shines fresh light on the under-explored historical and legal evidence about the use of the doctrine of discovery in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

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This book presents new material and shines fresh light on the under-explored historical and legal evidence about the use of the doctrine ...

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A lot of good writing exists about the colonial project & Indigenous agency/resistance from the perspectives of Indigenous people.  Here are a few we recommend (click the link for further info and where you can purchase).

Please comment below if you have a book you think should be added to this list, or if you have read any of the books, let us know your thoughts. :)

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Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada

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Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada

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by  Chelsea Vowel

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I feel like everyone needs to read this. or at least all us settler Canadians. I thought I knew stuff of indigenous issues because I knew about Residential Schools and the "Sixties Scoop" and the Highway of Tears but I knew so little! I know a tiny bit more, and hopefully after a get to some of the resources Vowel points to at the end of each chapter I'll be a little more knowledgeable about stuff.

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I feel like everyone needs to read this. or at least all us settler Canadians. I thought I knew stuff of indigenous issues because I knew about Residential Schools and the "Sixties Scoop" and the Highway of Tears but I knew so little!