Standing in a River of Time by Jónína Kirton Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2022 $19.95 / 9781772013795 Reviewed by Cathy Ford * If, when you begin reading, and then rereading, a book by this author, soon after the second anniversary of National Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada, perhaps you should know already your life will change….
Read more 1603 Writing to shape one’s future
Namwayut: We Are All One. A Pathway to Reconciliation by Chief Robert Joseph Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2022 $29.95 / 9781774580059 Reviewed by Linda Rogers * At last, the building, its outline terrorizing The Bay or Yalis, the community framed by open legs, both sides of the water which feeds the people, has come down….
Read more 1598 All together now
Tsqelmucwílc: The Kamloops Indian Residential School – Resistance and a Reckoning by Celia Haig-Brown, Garry Gottfriedson, Randy Fred, and the KIRS Survivors Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022 $22.95 / 9781551529059 Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore * Celia Haig-Brown’s Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School was the first book ever published in Canada about…
Read more 1581 Resistance and resilience
My Indian Summer by Joseph Kakwinokanasum New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2022 $22.95 / 9781990160127 Reviewed by Brett Grubisic * With chapters that share titles with huge seventies radio hits by the likes of ABBA, Kenny Rogers, Nick Gilder, and Captain & Tennille, My Indian Summer appears to point readers in the direction of a wholly…
Read more 1575 The Red Rock chronicles
Literatures, Communities, and Learning: Conversations with Indigenous Writers by Aubrey Jean Hanson Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2021 $29.99 / 9781771124508 Reviewed by Harper Campbell * Indigenous literatures are relational. They are “moves” within existing relationships, calls to action, therapeutic texts, books that change the world simply by existing in a society that silences Indigenous…
Read more 1555 Affirming Indigenous learning
Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity by Darrel J. McLeod Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $29.95 / 9781771622318 Reviewed by Heather Simeney MacLeod * Darrel McLeod attended the University of British Columbia where he obtained two degrees – a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature and another in Education. Prior to becoming a writer, McLeod worked…
Read more 1545 Cree identity in exile
Okanagan Women’s Voices: Syilx and settler writing and relations, 1870s to 1960s by Jeannette Armstrong, Lally Grauer, and Janet MacArthur (editors) Penticton: Theytus Books, 2021 $34.95 / 9781926886527 Reviewed by Ken Favrholdt * Three women authors have compiled and written about seven other female writers, creating a unique and important tribute to the early voices…
Read more 1537 syilx and Okanagan women
Fight or Submit: Standing Tall in Two Worlds by Ronald M. Derrickson Toronto: ECW Press, 2020 $34.95 / 9781770415669 Reviewed by David Milward * Sometimes there is just no winning for Indigenous peoples. If Indigenous peoples remain in poverty with no meaningful economy to sustain themselves, it becomes easy for non-Indigenous peoples to label them…
Read more 1536 Setting the record straight
Mischief Making: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play by Nicola Levell, with a foreword by Nobuhiro Kishigami Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $29.95 / 9780774867368 Reviewed by Victoria Wyatt * Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas explains, “I am committed to the idea of human hybridity as a good thing: difference is a fertile…
Read more 1531 High end mischief
First Nations Wildfire Evacuations: A Guide for Communities and External Agencies by Tara K. McGee, Amy Cardinal Christianson, and First Nations Wildfire Evacuation Partnership Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $25.00 / 9780774880664 Reviewed by Kim Naqvi * This concise, clear guide for wildfire evacuations in First Nations communities is more than just practical, informative, and accessible…
Read more 1530 Fight fire with foresight
Cordage from the Ozette Village Archaeological Site: A Technological, Functional and Comparative Study by Dale R. Croes with Darby C. Stapp (editor) and Victoria Boozer (publications assistant) Richland, WA: Journal of Northwest Anthropology (JONA) Memoir Number 21, May 2021 $24.99 (U.S.) / 9798504397573 Reviewed by Andrea Laforet * Ozette, a village on Cape Alava on…
Read more 1528 The cords that bind
Emily Carr, Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr by Kathryn Bridge (editor) Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9780772679642 Reviewed by Colin Browne * Turbulence and Eruption: Emily Carr, Unvarnished There’s a scene in Kathryn Bridge’s wonderful collection, Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr, that sticks in my mind. It’s June 1936….
Read more 1527 Turbulence and eruption
MEMOIR: Along the empty corridor of British Columbia by Richard Mackie * In January 1989, while researching in Winnipeg as part of my doctoral dissertation in Canadian history and historical geography, I had a vivid and unusual dream. My hosts, John and Katherine Selwood, had turned the sunroom at the back of their house in…
Read more 1523 Along the empty corridor of British Columbia
Possessing Meares Island: A Historian’s Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound by Barry Gough Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $26.95 / 9781550179576 Reviewed by Jason M. Colby * Barry Gough opens his newest book with a phone call that he received in early 1986. On the other end of the line was Jack Woodward,…
Read more 1513 History matters: Meares Island
Learning to Carve Argillite by Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson, illustrated by Janine Gibbons Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2021 (Sk’ada Stories Series, ages 6-8) $21.95 / 9781553799849 * Jigging for Halibut with Tsinii by Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson, illustrated by Janine Gibbons Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2021 (Sk’ada Stories Series, ages 6-8) $21.95 /…
Read more 1511 Haida Gwaii halibut & argillite
Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice by Dempsey Bob, with a foreword by Sarah Milroy Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2022, in collaboration with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection & the Audain Art Gallery $40.00 / 9781773271613 Reviewed by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa * I flip open the Dempsey Bob in his own voice book and I am…
Read more 1510 Truths from Tahltan & Tuscany
Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call, Second Edition by Arthur Manuel and Ronald M. Derrickson, with a foreword by Naomi Klein Toronto: Between the Lines, 2021 (first published 2016) $29.95 / 9781771135566 Reviewed by Ken Favrholdt * Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call has been called a roadmap to action for Indigenous peoples in Canada…
Read more 1507 A decolonization manifesto
Plants of Haida Gwaii: Third Edition by Nancy J. Turner Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $29.95 / 9781550179149 Reviewed by Jasḵwaan Bedard * Plants of Haida Gwaii: Third Edition by Nancy Turner is a celebrated study of the Haida people’s relationship with the plants of Haida Gwaii. Dr. Turner, a renowned ethnobotanist, chronicles her extensive…
Read more 1500 Plant journey in Haida Gwaii
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2018 $29.95 / 9781771622004 Reviewed by Heather Simeney MacLeod * Editor’s note: From time to time we get our wires crossed at The BC Review, or — very rarely — a publisher sends the reviewer the wrong book or kindly…
Read more 1494 A Cree hero’s journey
Wilson Duff: Coming Back, A Life by Robin Fisher Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $39.95 / 9781550179750 Reviewed by Rob Hancock * A casual observer might be surprised to learn that Wilson Duff’s life had been the subject of two operas and a novel before the first full-length biography was written about him. On the one…
Read more 1471 In search of a deeper meaning