Indigenous Studies Resources Guide

We find our way forward by going back. The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home." See settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. 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 with a forceful call to "unforget" our history.

This text exposes the medical establishment's role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Includes government documentation, historical scholarship, media reports, public inquiries, and personal testimonies, to connect the draconian medevac practice with often-disregarded crimes and medical violence inflicted specifically on Indigenous children.

An explosive examination of the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Highway 16 - the Highway of Tears - and a searing indictment of the society that failed them. For decades, women--overwhelmingly from Indigenous backgrounds--have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern B.C. Systemic racism and indifference towards Indigenous lives have created a culture of "over-policing and under-protection," simultaneously hampering justice while endangering young Indigenous women.

Documents the rise and fall of North American transracial adoption projects, including the Adopt Indian and Métis Project and the Indian Adoption Project mirrored the new direction in post-war Indian policy and welfare services. This removal of Indigenous children from family took on increasing political and social urgency

Describes the intergenerational trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America, the ongoing legacy of colonialism and its links to depression, and loss of language--both figurative and literal? How does white privilege operate in different contexts? Discusses race, parenthood, sexuality, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, writing and representation.

“I am going to tell you how we are treated. I am always hungry.” — Edward B., a student at Onion Lake School (1923)
For over 100 years, thousands of Aboriginal children passed through the Canadian residential school system. Begun in the 1870s, it was intended, in the words of government officials, to bring these children into the “circle of civilization,” the results, however, were far different. More often, the schools provided an inferior education in an atmosphere of neglect, disease, and often abuse.

Over the span of eleven years, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They were hundreds of kilometres away from their families, forced to leave home because there was no adequate high school on their reserves. Five were found dead in the rivers surrounding Lake Superior, below a sacred Indigenous site. Using a sweeping narrative focusing on the lives of the students, award-winning author Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest Canada’s long struggle with human rights violations against Indigenous communities.

Discusses the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada: the fundamental issues from the time of contact -- the terminology of relationships; culture and identity; myth-busting; state violence; and land, learning, law and treaties--along with wider social beliefs about these issues.

Can Indigenous and non-Indigenous people live in a treaty relationship despite over 200 years of social, cultural, and political alienation? Twenty-five years after the Ipperwash crisis Menzies showed up in Nishnaabe territory in Southwestern Ontario, near where her forebears settled, hoping to meet her would-be treaty kin. She was invited to help document the broken-treaty story behind the crisis, as remembered by Nishnaabe Elders and other community members involved in reclaiming their homeland at Stoney Point. Her story shows how a settler, through respectful listening, can learn what being in a treaty relationship might mean, and what changes - personal and institutional - are needed to embrace genuine reconciliation.

The TRC reviewed the history of the residential school system, a brutal colonial project that killed and injured many Indigenous children and left a legacy of trauma and pain. Analysis of the visual culture of reconciliation and memory using archival photographs from the residential school system, representations of the schools in popular media and literature, and testimonies from TRC proceedings

Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or how to take the next step. For Wilson-Raybould, what individuals and organizations need to do to advance true reconciliation is self-evident, accessible, and achievable. True Reconciliation broken down into three core practices - Learn, Understand, and Act - that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments.

It is time to increase the visibility, role, and responsibility of the emerging modern $100 billion Indigenous economy and the people involved as well as well as being a foundation for economic reconciliation. It is built around relationships, multigenerational stewardship of resources, and care for all. Highlights include: the ongoing power shift and rise of the modern Indigenous economy, voices of leading Indigenous business leaders, the unfolding story in the law courts that is testing Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples, exposure of the false media narrative of Indigenous dependency. Calls for a new model of development, one that advances Indigenous self-determination, collective well-being, and reconciliation.

Explanation of why reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is failing and what needs to be done to fix it. From Wet'suwet'en opposition to a pipeline in northern British Columbia, to Mi'kmaw exercising their fishing rights in Nova Scotia with the historical and social forces that underpin the development of Indigenous law. Covers many of the most important issues that have become part of a national dialogue, including systemic racism, treaty rights, violence against Indigenous people, Métis identity, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and the duty to consult

Combining socio-legal and ethnohistorical studies, this book presents the history of doodem, or clan identification markings, left by Anishinaabe on treaties and other legal documents from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. These doodems reflected fundamental principles behind Anishinaabe governance that were often ignored by Europeans, who referred to Indigenous polities in terms of tribe, nation, band, or village - classifications that failed to fully encompass longstanding cultural traditions of political authority within Anishinaabe society.

Launched by healthcare providers in January 2018, Hand2Hold campaign confronted the Quebec government's practice of separating children from their families during medical evacuation airlifts, which disproportionately affected remote and northern Indigenous communities. The pediatric emergency physician-author seeks to answer lingering questions about why such a cruel practice remained in place for so long. In doing so it serves as an indispensable case study of contemporary medical colonialism in Quebec. Exposes the medical establishment's role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada and connects the draconian medi-vac practice with often-disregarded crimes and medical violence inflicted specifically on Indigenous children.

Implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is a pivotal opportunity to explore the relationship between international law, Indigenous peoples' own laws and Canada's constitutional narratives and is 'a way forward' on the path to genuine nation-to-nation relationships with Indigenous peoples.

An Indigenous leader who has dedicated her life to Indigenous Rights, Jody Wilson-Raybould has represented both First Nations and the Crown at the highest levels with straight talk on what has to be done to collectively move beyond our colonial legacy and achieve true reconciliation in Canada.

For the Anishinaabeg--the indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes--literary writing has long been an important means of asserting their continued existence as a nation, with its own culture, history, and sovereignty. At the same time, literature has also offered American writers a way to make the Anishinaabe Nation disappear, often by relegating it to a distant past. These two traditions in conversation with one another, show how novels, poetry, and drama have been the ground upon which Anishinaabeg and Americans have clashed as representatives of two nations contentiously occupying the same land.

A guide to understanding the Indian Act and its impact on generations of Indigenous Peoples, as well as an examination of how Indigenous Peoples can return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance.

Canada's relationship with its Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the residential school system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools. Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by Survivors and their families.

Features examples of the growing Indigenous multi-million dollar businesses and partnering to lead innovative economic development projects that positively impact the national economy. Resources are scarce and inadequate, an oversight that is to our detriment. Includes concepts along with the voices of Aboriginal leaders, officials, Elders, and other members of Aboriginal communities. Addresses contemporary concerns and issues in the doing of Aboriginal business in Canada, reveals some of the challenges and diverse approaches to business in indigenous contexts from coast to coast to coast, and demonstrates the direct impact that history and policy, past and present, have on business and business education.

A residential school survivor finds his way back to his language and culture through his family's traditional stories. When reflecting on forces that have shaped his life, Ratt says his Cree education was interrupted by his schooling at the age of six. Reflects on memories and the life-long challenges endured through his telling of âcimisowin (autobiographical stories) and also âcathôhkîwina, (sacred stories).

Told in contemporary Anishinaabe storytelling style, Otter's Journey takes us across the globe to explore how the work in Indigenous language revitalization can inform the emerging field of Indigenous legal revitalization.

This book uses the Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) Double Vowel writing system. Teachers and students can use the book to learn the alphabet and words associated with each letter symbol. Teachers may wish to discuss the cultural relevancy of the word associated with each letter. Students can look at the illustrations for help with translating the word to English. A glossary is provided at the back of the book.

In this haunting, groundbreaking, historical novel, Danielle Daniel from Sudbury, imagines the lives of her ancestors in the Algonquin territories of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family link to a girl murdered near Trois-Rivières in the early days of French settlement.

Born in a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the 11th of 12 children in a nomadic, caribou-hunting Cree family who lived off the land. His parents, wanted their two youngest sons, Tomson and Rene, to enjoy opportunities as big as the world. So when Tomson was 6, they were flown south by float plan to attend a residential school and begin the rest of their education.

Reveals important lessons about how we must continue to strengthen our political institutions and culture, and the changes we must make to meet challenges such as racial justice and climate change, and demonstrates the need for greater independence and less partisanship in how we govern.

Inspired by true events, Elder Betty Ross from Cross Lake First Nation, abandoned as a young child, is adopted into a loving family. At the age of 8 she is taken away to a residential school and endures abuse and indignity. But Betsy recalls the words her father who spoke to her at Sugar Falls--words that give her the resilience, strength, and determination to survive. Reading age: 18+

This is a collection of Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors truths who share a look at what life was like before, during, and after their Residential School experiences.

Drawing from the foundational teachings of Ojibway tradition, the Grandfather Teachings of humility, respect and courage with contains simple ceremonies that anyone can do anywhere, alone or in a group, to foster harmony and connection. There is a shaman in each of us, and we are all teachers and in the world of the spirit there is no right way or wrong way.

Once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, this book chronicles a life on the streets and overcoming trauma and addiction. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, about love and support and finding happiness despite the odds.

After humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming and when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow: the key to the ability to dream.

Taken from the arms of her mother as soon as she was born, Sandy was only one of over twenty thousand Aboriginal children scooped up by the federal government between the 1960s and 1980s. Sandy was adopted by a Ukrainian family and grew up as the only First Nations child in a town of white people. Ostracized by everyone around her and tired of being different, at the early age of five she tried to scrub the brown off her skin. She finds her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties Scoop had tried to deny.

Anaana is eager to teach Ukpik how to prepare caribou skin, dry it, and use it to sew a pair of simple, useful mitts. But Ukpik can't stop thinking about the beautiful new beads her mother traded the Captain for on his last visit. They are so bright and beautiful! Anaana knows it is more important for Ukpik to learn the skills she will need to make her own clothing in the cold Arctic climate, so she insists that Ukpik sit with her and learn the basics, while having a bit of fun, too. Reading age: 6-8

In just four days young Shi-shi-etko will have to leave her family and all that she knows to attend residential school. She spends her last days at home treasuring the beauty of her world -- the dancing sunlight, the tall grass, each shiny rock, the tadpoles in the creek, her grandfather's paddle song. Her mother, father and grandmother, each in turn, share valuable teachings that they want her to remember. And so Shi-shi-etko carefully gathers her memories for safekeeping. Not knowing she is on the verge of great loss -- a loss that Indigenous Peoples have endured for generations because of the residential school system. Reading age: 4-7

The first treaty that was made was between the earth and the sky. It was an agreement to work together. We build all of our treaties on that original treaty. On the banks of the river that have been Mishomis's home his whole life, he teaches his granddaughter to listen--to hear both the sounds and the silences, and so to learn her place in Creation. Most importantly, he teaches her about treaties--the bonds of reciprocity and renewal that endure for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow. Reading age: 10-13

In this introduction to the Anishinaabe tradition of totem animals, young children explain why they identify with different creatures such as a deer, beaver or moose. Delightful illustrations show the children wearing masks representing their chosen animal, while the few lines of text on each page work as a series of simple poems throughout the book. In a brief author's note, Danielle Daniel explains the importance of totem animals in Anishinaabe culture and how they can also act as animal guides for young children seeking to understand themselves and others. Reading age: 4-7

When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis' grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada's history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to. Reading age: 7-11

Telling the story of real-life water protectors, Autumn and her great-aunt Josephine Mandamin, inspire a tidal wave of change. The seventh generation is creating a sea of change. It was a soft voice, at first. Like a ripple. But with practice it grew louder. Reading age: 4-8

Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all. When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource. Inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, this bold and lyrical picture book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption. Reading age: 3-6

An Anishinaabe child and her grandmother explore the natural wonders of each season in this lyrical, bilingual story-poem. In this lyrical story-poem, written in Anishinaabemowin and English, a child and grandmother explore their surroundings, taking pleasure in the familiar sights that each new season brings. Reading age: 3-7

A young girl notices things about her grandmother that make her curious. Why does she speak Cree and spend so much time with her family? As the girl asks questions, her grandmother shares her experiences in a residential school, when all of these things were taken away. Download the free teacher guide on the Portage & Main Press website. Reading age: 6-8

Encourage children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other's well-being in their everyday actions. This story prompts a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with others, this is a foundational book about building relationships, fostering empathy and encouraging respect between peers, starting with our littlest citizens. Reading age: 3-5

This true story also inspired the movement of Orange Shirt Day. When Phyllis Webstad (nee Jack) turned six, she went to the residential school for the first time. On her first day at school, she wore a shiny orange shirt that her Granny had bought for her, but when she got to the school, it was taken away from her and never returned. Reading age: 6-8

Indigenous methodologies have been silenced and obscured by the Western scientific means of knowledge production. Includes how Indigenous re-searchers re-theorize and re-create methodologies. Understanding Indigenous methodologies as guided by Indigenous paradigms, worldviews, principles, processes and contexts, and how they are wholistic, relational, inter-relational and interdependent with Indigenous philosophies, beliefs and ways of life.