ARRIVALS: SARAH MURDOCH
These four new books give a voice to the descendants of North America’s founding peoples
Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival, Bev Sellars
This bracing alternative history of Canada is told from the perspective of indigenous culture and you won’t be surprised to hear it differs markedly from the version you were taught in school. Sellars, a historian, lawyer and the first elected chief of the Soda Creek First Nation, has a deep knowledge of Canada before “contact” and since. A survivor of the residential school system, she combines personal experience with strong views on how public policy has failed her people.
Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow, Brian D. McInnes
Francis (Peggy) Pegahmagabow (1889-1952), an Ojibwe from the Georgian Bay area, is remembered as Canada’s most decorated indigenous soldier during the First World War. Brian McInnes (a.k.a. Waabishkimakwa) is Pegahmagabow’s great-grandson, an academic at the University of Minnesota. In this labour of love, he interweaves the oral history related by Francis’s children with the historical record of the times and a primer on Ojibwe linguistics.
Invisible North: The Search for Answers on a Troubled Reserve, Alexandra Shimo
In 2010, journalist Alex Shimo visited Kashechewan, a fly-in First Nations community 1,000 kilometres from Toronto, to investigate reports of an infected water supply and teen suicide. The appalling community dynamics she encountered soon took its toll. Within four months, she had unspooled, physically and mentally, and was back in Toronto, where she pulled herself together and made two subsequent trips. Her account of her experiences is part memoir, part gripping exposé and wholly unforgettable.
“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker
The myths (not so much myths as misconceptions and prevarications) begin with the assertion that Columbus discovered America. In fact, the authors say, Columbus never stepped foot on North America on any of his four trips. DunbarOrtiz is the author of “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States”) and coauthor Gilio-Whitaker is a journalist, specializing in indigenous studies.