Books – Indigenous Studies
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Taking Back Our Spirits
Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing
From the earliest settler policies to deal with the “Indian problem,” to contemporary government-run programs ostensibly designed to help Indigenous people, public policy has played a major role in creating the historical trauma that so greatly impacts the lives of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. Taking Back Our Spirits traces the link between Canadian public policies, the injuries they have inflicted on Indigenous people, and Indigenous literature’s ability to heal individuals and communities.
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Power Struggles
Hydroelectric Development and First Nations in Manitoba and Quebec
Power Struggles: Hydro Development and First Nations in Manitoba and Quebec examines the evolution of new agreements between First Nations and Inuit and the hydro corporations in Quebec and Manitoba, including the Wuskwatim Dam Project, Paix des Braves, and the Great Whale Project.
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Restoring the Balance
First Nations Women, Community, and Culture
Restoring the Balance brings to light the work First Nations women have performed, and continue to perform, in cultural continuity and community development. It illustrates the challenges and successes they have had in the areas of law, politics, education, community healing, language, and art, while suggesting significant options for sustained improvement of individual, family, and community well-being.
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Magic Weapons
Aboriginal Writers Remaking Community after Residential School
Magic Weapons is the first major survey of Indigenous writings on the residential school system, and provides groundbreaking readings of life writings by Rita Joe (Mi’kmaq) and Anthony Apakark Thrasher (Inuit) as well as in-depth critical studies of better known life writings by Basil Johnston (Ojibway) and Tomson Highway (Cree).
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The New Buffalo
The Struggle for Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education in Canada
Post-secondary education, often referred to as “the new buffalo,” is a contentious but critically important issue for First Nations and the future of Canadian society. In The New Buffalo, Blair Stonechild traces the history of Aboriginal post-secondary education policy from its earliest beginnings as a government tool for assimilation and cultural suppression to its development as means of Aboriginal self-determination and self-government.
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Like the Sound of a Drum
Aboriginal Cultural Politics in Denendeh and Nunavut
In Like the Sound of a Drum, Peter Kulchyski brings new primary research and contemporary political theory to the study of Aboriginal politics in Denendeh and Nunavut. He looks as three northern communities — Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope in Denendeh and Pangnirtung in Nunavut — and their strategies for maintaining their political and cultural independence.
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Arapaho Historical Traditions
Hinono’einoo3itoono
Told by Paul Moss (1911-1995), a highly respected storyteller and ceremonial leader, these twelve texts introduce us to an immensely rich literature. As works of an oral tradition, they had until now remained beyond the reach of those who do not speak the Arapaho language.
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Travelling Knowledges
Positioning the Im/Migrant Reader of Aboriginal Literatures in Canada
In the context of de/colonization, the boundary between an Aboriginal text and the analysis by a non-Aboriginal outsider poses particular challenges often constructed as unbridgeable. Eigenbrod argues that politically correct silence is not the answer but instead does a disservice to the literature that, like all literature, depends on being read, taught, and disseminated in various ways. In Travelling Knowledges, Eigenbrod suggests decolonizing strategies when approaching Aboriginal texts as an outsider and challenges conventional notions of expertise.
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A Very Remarkable Sickness
Epidemics in the Petit Nord, 1670 to 1846
Although new diseases had first arrived in the New World in the 16th century, by the end of the 17th century shorter transoceanic travel time meant that a far greater number of diseases survived the journey from Europe and were still able to infect new communities. These acute, directly transmitted infectious diseases – including smallpox, influenza, and measles — would be responsible for a monumental loss of life and would forever transform North American Aboriginal communities. Historical geographer Paul Hackett meticulously traces the diffusion of these diseases from Europe through central Canada to the West.
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Preserving the Sacred
Historical Perspectives on the Ojibwa Midewiwin
The Midewiwin is the traditional religious belief system central to the world view of Ojibwa in Canada and the US. The rituals of the Midewiwin were observed by many 19th century Euro-Americans, most of whom approached these ceremonies with hostility and suspicion. As a result, although there were many accounts of the Midewiwin published in the 19th century, they were often riddled with misinterpretations and inaccuracies. Historian Michael Angel compares the early texts written about the Midewiwin, and identifies major, common misconceptions in these accounts.
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