Awards Season 2022!

We are thrilled to announce a host of wins and nominations for UMP’s 2020 and 2021 titles!

This year, our books won four Canadian Historical Association Awards:

Dadibaajim: Returning Home Through Narrative by Helen Olsen Agger won the Indigenous History Book Prize and the Ontario CLIO Prize. The CLIO jury commented: “Critically, Agger shows that sharing her and her Elders’ knowledge isn’t simply about recovering the histories of the Namegosibii Anishinaabe or piecing together the larger important story of Anishinaabe persistence. It is about reckoning with the cultural fragments that have survived purposeful destruction, of which Canadian history as a discipline is deeply implicated, and thinking carefully about how we go about documenting and sharing histories of the past… Ultimately, this book is a profoundly generous offering of Namegosibii Anishinaabe dadibaajim, for which readers owe a great debt of gratitude.”

Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory by Brittany Luby won the NiCHE Prize for Best Book in Canadian Environmental History. The jury commented: “Dammed is an important work in Canadian environmental history. Through its deeply engaging and descriptive prose, this book shows that medium to smaller scale dams have profoundly changed relationships among water, land, animals, and human bodies. It will inspire its readers to critically consider water-based colonialism as well as water activism among Indigenous communities across Canada.”

Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability by Royden Loewen won the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize for outstanding scholarly book in a field of history other than Canadian history. The jury commented: “Amidst a field of books remarkable for their reading and interpretation of evidence, Mennonite Farmers stood out for its ambition and innovative scholarly achievement.”

Our books have also been nominated for five 2022 Manitoba Book Awards:

Did You See Us?: Reunion, Remembrance, and Reclamation at an Urban Indian Residential School by Survivors of the Assiniboia Indian Residential School and edited by Andrew Woolford is shortlisted for two awards: the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. The Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award jury called the book “a raw and emotional read… a glimpse into life at this not often talked about Residential School in Winnipeg through stories from the survivors.”

Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities by Chantal Fiola and Dadibaajim: Returning Home Through Narrative by Helen Olsen Agger are both shortlisted for the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. The award jury said that in Returning to Ceremony “Fiola tangibly portrays the fortitude of Métis sovereignty through the prism of spiritual practices, identity narratives, and Oral Tradition” and that Dadibaajim “weaves Anishinaabe thought and Anishinaabemowin language to tell the powerful story of the people and place of Trout Lake.”

Dadibaajim: Returning Home Through Narrative by Helen Olsen Agger is also shortlisted for the Manuela Dias Book Design Award. The jury said “All elements [of Dadibaajim) feel well-considered and balanced. The cover, spine, and back are limited to three harmonious colours, keeping it clean and cohesive.”

Brittany Luby, author of Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory, also won a Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research!

The Association for Manitoba Archives selected two of our titles as the 2022 Manitoba Day Award Winners in the Scholarly Publications Category, Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities by Chantal Fiola and Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability by Royden Loewen.

Finally, the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Awards selected Dadibaajim: Returning Home Through Narrative by Helen Olsen Agger for its Honorable Mention.

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