Walking the Path reading list

Here is a brief list of titles that come recommended by members of Walking the Path.

Memoir

Campbell, Maria. Halfbreed. This classic book written by Maria Campbell, now considered a highly valued elder writes about her early Métis  family life and young adulthood. It’s a gripping story of love, history, struggles and eventually charting a path that Maria claims as her own.

Highway, Thomson. Permanent Astonishment. Thomson was born in far northern Manitoba.  This inspiring memoir is of the first 15 years of his life.  The book won the 2021 Hilary Weston Prize for Non-fiction. This is a story of a strong family and a son who as the title says is permanently astonished.

Kinew, Wab.  The Reason You Walk is a memoir that chronicles the year 2012, during which Kinew strove to reconnect with the Indigenous man who raised him. This memoir is a meditation on the purpose of living. If you have ever wondered about Sun Dances, you can learn a lot from this book.

Olthuis, John. On Undoing Settler Colonialism. A hope-filled memoir from a lifetime of legal work in support of Indigenous self-determination. Olthuis names that the pathway to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada has been clearly laid out, and the work before Canadians in order to realize reconciliation is in our collective political will and action.

Fiction

Dimaline, Cherie. The Marrow Thieves. Climate change has ravaged the Earth and a continent-wide hunt and slaughter of Indigenous people is underway. Wanted for their bone marrow, which contains the lost ability to dream, a group of Indigenous people who all meet by happenstance seek refuge in what appears to be northern Ontario. Not as grim as it sounds, full of community building.

Good, Michelle. Five Little Indians. With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward. Michelle Good is a writer of Cree ancestry and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She is a lawyer and a writer who now lives in B.C.

Smith, Monique Gray. Tilly and the Crazy Eights. This fiction is both funny and profound.  A group of eight women decide to attend the Gathering of the Nations Powwow in Albuquerque. Amid all the hijinks they call themselves the crazy eights.

Rice, Waubgeshig. Moon of the Crusted Snow. A northern Anishinaabe community loses power just as winter arrives, burying roads and creating panic as the food supply slowly runs out. 

Vermette, Katherena. The Break, The Strangers, The Circle. These three books are a trilogy about several Metis families in Winnipeg and how they unknowingly intersect.  It’s a story of family, love, tradition, harm and healing. The Break was the winner of multiple awards.  To get the full effect of the family connections it’s helpful to read them in the order listed, however, any one book can stand alone. The author was born in Winnipeg, her Michif roots on her paternal side run deep in St. Boniface, St. Norbert and beyond. Her maternal side is Mennonite from the Altona and Rosenfeld area (Treaty 1).

Wagamese, Richard. Keeper ’n Me. Fictional account of young boy taken from his home on an Ojibway First Nation and placed in foster homes.  After many struggles he receives a letter from his family and returns to his First Nation. There he is taught the ways of the Ojibway and finds his life completely changed. The story casts a light on the redemptive power of one’s community and traditions.

Non-Fiction

Johnson, Harold. Two Families: Treaties and Government.  Two Families is a passionate plea for the restoration of harmony and equality between First Nations and the rest of Canadian society. It is a must read for everyone seeking to understand a Cree perspective on treaties. Harold Johnson was born north of LaRonge and initially grew up on a trapline.  He is a Harvard educated lawyer who worked many years as the Crown Prosecutor in the north of Saskatchewan.

Joseph, Robert. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act.  This book is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussions on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. The Indian Act, after over 140 years, continues to shape, control, and constrain the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples and is at the root of many stereotypes that persist. Bob Joseph’s book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. 

Kimmerer, Robin Wall.  Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. The author is a Western trained botanist, who also brings her Potawatomi knowledge to help us understand how the earth looks after us and we in turn need to look after the earth.  Plants and animals are our oldest teachers.  This reciprocal relationship allows all of creation to flourish.

Krawec, Patty.  Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future. Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Settler colonialism tried to force us into one particular way of living, but the old ways of kinship can help us imagine a different future. Krawec asks, What would it look like to remember that we are all related? How might we become better relatives to the land, to one another, and to Indigenous movements for solidarity? Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, Krawec crafts a stunning, forceful call to "unforget" our history.

Sniderman, Andrew Stobo and Douglas Sanderson: Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation. This book pulls back the veil of systemic inequity in Canadian society, through the microcosm of twin communities on either side of the Birdtail River in rural Manitoba – a reservation community and settler town. The authors give readers handles for understanding how systems affect people, and invite curiosity and a shared commitment to equity, empathy and reconciliation.

Anthologies, recommended for book studies as an individual or as a group

 Heinrichs, Steve editor: Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together, 2013. This book is intended for all who want to find ways for healing historical wounds of racism, stolen land, and cultural exploitation. This collection offers up alternative histories, radical theologies, and poetic, life-giving memories that can unsettle our souls and work towards reconciliation. An excellent book for self-learning/reflection and/or for use in a study group. A downloadable study guide and a short document outlining ways to act/respond to some of the things learned are available.

 

Heinrichs, Steve  Editor; Illustrations by Jonathan Dyck: Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization, Afterword by Sylvia McAdam, 2018. In Unsettling the Word, over 60 Indigenous and Settler authors come together to wrestle with the Scriptures, rereading and re-imagining the ancient text for the sake of reparative futures. When read through these new lenses, the biblical texts come alive in new and surprising ways. Study guides are available.

 

Heinrichs, Steve & Esther Epp-Tiessen, editors; foreword by Stan McKay: Be It Resolved: Anabaptists & Partner Coalitions Advocate for Indigenous Justice, 1966-2020, 2020. This is a collection of more than 90 documents detailing commitments Anabaptists have made to Indigenous justice and decolonization since the 1960s. Everything from Indigenous self-determination, recognizing native sovereignty and advocating for a resolution to Indigenous land claims. The co-editors provide historical context for each of the documents which are presented chronologically and prefaced by quotes from Indigenous voices calling for action to address injustice. The work is evidence of concern and solidarity action for Indigenous justice, but there is a candour in the introduction about the colonial mindset impacting some of the commitments.  A study guide is included at the back of the book.

 


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