Recent Books with Indigenous Representation
Bad Cree : a novel = ācimoiᐧn
Johns, Jessica, author
2023
Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.
The berry pickers
Peters, Amanda, author
2023
July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family's four-year-old daughter vanishes mysteriously. Joe will remain deeply affected by his sister's disappearance for years to come. In Boston, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren't telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
Billy Buckhorn and the book of spells
Robinson, Gary, 1950- author.
2023
Warned by the spirit of his grandmother, sixteen-year-old Billy Buckhorn must prepare to protect the Cherokee Nation from supernatural evil.
The Canadian business owner's guide to reconciliation : best practices for Indigenous inclusion
Seaweed, Alison Tedford, author.
2023
Do you want to make a positive difference in the way you do business while supporting a culture shift in the country at large? If yes, The Canadian Business Owner's Guide to Reconciliation is for you. This book covers why the state of settler-Indigenous relations in Canada is the way it is and how readers can make a difference in the way things are done, creating a better community for all. Author Alison Tedford Seaweed addresses our nation's complicated history through research and numerous interviews with academics, business owners, Indigenous relations advisors and more. She expertly conveys how a commitment to Indigenous inclusion and doing the right thing toward Reconciliation will lead to a stronger foundation for businesses and personal relationships. With more than a decade in cross-cultural communication and education in the public sector, and several years in the private sector educating business owners and the general public about the social history of Indigenous people, Seaweed's experience bridging cultures and communicating perspectives shows readers how to move forward in an informed way.
A Council of Dolls : A Novel.
Power, Mona Susan.
2023
From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, this is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried. A novel that is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. Author of "Sacred Wilderness." Print run 75,000.
Dreams. Volume 1, Visions of the crow
John-Kehewin, Wanda, 1971-, author
2023
A new girl at school. A mysterious crow. Weird visions he can't explain. Grade 12 just got a lot more complicated for Damon Quinn... "Your ancestors have called us to help you." "I think you have the wrong number." Damon Quinn just wants to get through his senior year unscathed. His mom struggles with alcohol and is barely coping with the day-to-day. Marcus and his cronies at school are forever causing him trouble. The new girl, Journey, won't mind her own business. To make matters worse, now a mysterious crow is following him everywhere. After he is seized by a waking dream in the middle of a busy street, he's forced to confront his mom with some hard questions: Why haven't I met my dad? Where did we come from? Who am I? Damon must look within himself, mend the bond with his mother, and rely on new friends to find the answers he so desperately needs. Travelling through time and space, Damon will have to go back before he can move forward. The Dreams series of graphic novels explores cultural connection as a path to healing. Volume 1, Visions of the Crow, explores urban Indigenous experiences through the eyes of a Cree-Métis teen as he learns about his identity and finding home. Ultimately, Damon will learn what it takes to be a good leader for his people.
The everlasting road
Kinew, Wab, 1981- author
2023
"Losing herself in the Floraverse after the death of her brother, young Indigenous girl Bugz finds the boundaries between the virtual and real worlds blurring when she creates a Waawaate bot in honor of her brother that grows in powers beyond her control."-- Provided by publisher.
Forever Birchwood
Daniel, Danielle, author.
2022
Adventurous, trail-blazing Wolf lives in a northern mining town and spends her days exploring the mountains and wilderness with her three best friends Penny, Ann and Brandi. The girls' secret refuge is their tree-house hideaway, Birchwood, Wolf's favourite place on earth. When her beloved grandmother tells her that she is the great-granddaughter of a tree talker, Wolf knows that she is destined to protect the birch trees and wildlife that surround her. But Wolf's mother doesn't understand this connection at all. Not only is she reluctant to engage with their family's Indigenous roots, she seems suspiciously on the wrong side of the environmental protection efforts in their hometown.
A grandmother begins the story
Porter, Michelle 1975- author
2023
"Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the stories that will sing their family, and perhaps the land itself, into healing in this brilliantly original debut novel. Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens means. Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife. Genevieve is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Mame, in the Afterlife, knows that all these stories began with her, and that she must hold on to the tellings until all her daughters and their daughters find the paths they need to be on. This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of distinctive, sharp, funny, confused, wise characters that include the descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land, heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction."--Provided by publisher.
Held by the land : a guide to indigenous plants for wellness = Wa ch'ích'istway ta temixw : spén̉em txwnam̉ ta ha7lh sḵwálwen
Joseph, Leigh, author
2023
Heroes of the water monster
Young, Brian (Brian Lee), author.
2023
Edward and Nathan, two Navajo stepbrothers, work with a young water monster named Dew to confront their past and save the world from a monstrous, enormous Enemy that is stealing water from all of the Navajo Nation.
Indigenous ingenuity : a celebration of traditional North American knowledge
Havrelock, Deidre, author
2023
"A middle grade survey nonfiction work celebrating North American Indigenous knowledge and Native contributions to contemporary STEM"-- Provided by publisher.
It's time for berries!
Mearns, Ceporah, 1986- author.
2023
"Two sisters have waited all spring and summer to pick berries with their ningiuq, their grandmother. They've gone fishing, dug for clams, and by the time late summer arrives, it's finally time for berries! Ninguiq and the girls head out to pick berries, rain or shine--nothing will stop Ningiuq! Through driving rain and early autumn snow the girls and Ningiuq pick as many sweet berries as their buckets can hold. The hard work is all worth it to enjoy the delicious treats Ninguiq creates with her berries."
Last standing woman
LaDuke, Winona, author
2023
Born at the turn of the 21st century, The Storyteller, also known as Ishkwegaabawiikwe (Last Standing Woman), carries her people's past within her memories. The White Earth Anishinaabe people have lived on the same land since time immemorial. Among the towering white pines and rolling hills, each generation is born, lives out their lives, and is buried. The arrival of European missionaries changes the community forever. Piece by piece, government policies rob the people of their land. Missionaries and Indian agents work to outlaw ceremonies the Anishinaabeg have practised for centuries. Grave-robbing anthropologists dig up ancestors and whisk them away to museums as artifacts. Logging operations destroy traditional sources of food, pushing the White Earth people to the brink of starvation. Battling addiction, violence, and corruption, each member of White Earth must find their own path of resistance as they struggle to reclaim stewardship of their land, bring their ancestors home, and stay connected to their culture and to each other. In this highly anticipated 25th anniversary edition of her debut novel, Winona LaDuke weaves a nonlinear narrative of struggle and triumph, resistance and resilience, spanning seven generations from the 1800s to the early 2000s.
Making love with the land : essays
Whitehead, Joshua (Writer), author
2022
In the last few years, following the publication of his debut novel Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead has emerged as one of the most exciting and important new voices on Turtle Island. Now, in this first non-fiction work, Whitehead brilliantly explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationships between body, language and land through a variety of genres (essay, memoir, notes, confession). Making Love with the Land is a startling, heartwrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person "in the rupture" between identities. In sharp, surprising, unique pieces--a number of which have already won awards--Whitehead illuminates this particular moment, in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are navigating new (and old) ideas about "the land." He asks: What is our relationship and responsibility towards it? And how has the land shaped our ideas, our histories, our very bodies? Here is an intellectually thrilling, emotionally captivating love song--a powerful revelation about the library of stories land and body hold together, waiting to be unearthed and summoned into word.
My powerful hair
Lindstrom, Carole, 1964- author
2023
After generations of short hair in her family, a little girl celebrates growing her hair long to connect to her culture and honor the strength and resilience of those who came before her.
On savage shores : how indigenous Americans discovered Europe
Dodds Pennock, Caroline, 1978- author
2023
"A landmark work of narrative history that shatters our previous Eurocentric understanding of the Age of Discovery by telling the story of the Indigenous Americans who journeyed across the Atlantic to Europe after 1492"-- Provided by publisher.
The secret pocket
Janicki, Peggy, author.
2023
The true story of how Indigenous girls at a Canadian residential school sewed secret pockets into their dresses to hide food and survive. Mary was four years old when she was first taken away to the Lejac Indian Residential School. It was far away from her home and family. Always hungry and cold, there was little comfort for young Mary. Speaking Dakelh was forbidden and the nuns and priest were always watching, ready to punish. Mary and the other girls had a genius idea: drawing on the knowledge from their mothers, aunts and grandmothers who were all master sewers, the girls would sew hidden pockets in their clothes to hide food. They secretly gathered materials and sewed at nighttime, then used their pockets to hide apples, carrots and pieces of bread to share with the younger girls. Based on the author's mother's experience at residential school, The Secret Pocket is a story of survival and resilience in the face of genocide and cruelty. But it's also a celebration of quiet resistance to the injustice of residential schools and how the sewing skills passed down through generations of Indigenous women gave these girls a future, stitch by stitch.
Sky Wolf's call : the gift of Indigenous knowledge
Yellowhorn, Eldon, 1956- author
2022
"From healing to astronomy to our connection to the natural world, the lessons from Indigenous knowledge inform our learning and practices today. How do knowledge systems get passed down over generations? Through the knowledge inherited from their Elders and ancestors, Indigenous Peoples throughout North America have observed, practiced, experimented, and interacted with plants, animals, the sky, and the waters over millennia. Knowledge keepers have shared their wisdom with younger people through oral history, stories, ceremonies, and records that took many forms. In Sky Wolf's Call, award-winning author team of Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger reveal how Indigenous knowledge comes from centuries of practices, experiences, and ideas gathered by people who have a long history with the natural world. Indigenous knowledge is explored through the use of fire and water, the acquisition of food, the study of astronomy, and healing practices."-- Provided by publisher.
Smile so big
Tenasco, Sunshine Quem, author
2023
When Challa comes home in tears after being teased about her smile, her mom gives her a special gift. It's a magic mirror -- shiny, beaded and beautiful -- passed on from her mom, and from her djo djo before her.
The song that called them home
Robertson, David, 1977- author.
2023
"One summer day, Lauren and her little brother, James, go on a trip to the land with their Moshom (grandfather). After they've arrived, the children decide to fish for dinner while Moshom naps. Ttheir canoe is in the middle of the lake when the water suddenly becomes rough. Then something tips them over. When Lauren surfaces she sees her brother being pulled away by the Memekwesewak--human-like creatures who live around water and like to play tricks on people"-- Provided by publisher.
Storyteller Skye : teachings from my Ojibway grandfather
King, Lindsay Christina, author
2023
Have you ever wondered why Rabbit has such long ears? Or why Raccoon is wearing a mask? In this collection of funny and unique short stories, young Skye enlightens us in a number of Indigenous teachings, passed down to her from her Ojibway Grandfather. Through her natural gift of storytelling, Skye encourages other children to embrace the art and become storytellers, too!
This place is who we are : stories of Indigenous leadership, resilience, and connection to homelands
Gordon, Katherine, 1963- author
2023
Indigenous peoples and cultures are integrally connected to the land. Wellbeing in every sense - physical, social, environmental, economic, spiritual and cultural - depends on that connection, which is based on a fundamental concept: when the land is well, so are the people. This volume is a collection of ten inspiring stories. Thoughtful and inspiring, this collection illustrates what can be accomplished when conservation and stewardship are inextricably intertwined with the prosperity and wellbeing of communities.
Truth telling : seven conversations about Indigenous life in Canada.
Good, Michelle, author
2023
This is a collection of essays about the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada. From resistance and reconciliation to the resurgence and reclamation of Indigenous power, Michelle Good explores the issues through a series of personal essays. Michelle Good delves into the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin social institutions in Canada and prevents meaningful and substantive reconciliation.