June is Indigenous History Month

21 things you may not know about the Indian Act : helping Canadians make reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a reality

Joseph, Robert P. C., 1963-.


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.
Date Published:2018

77 fragments of a familiar ruin : poems

King, Thomas, 1943-.



Date Published:2019

Aki-wayn-zih : a person as worthy as the Earth

Baxter, Eli,


Includes index. Members of Eli Baxter's generation are the last of the hunting and gathering societies living on Turtle Island. They are also among the last fluent speakers of the Anishinaabay language known as Anishinaabaymowin. Aki-wayn-zih is a story about the land and its spiritual relationship with the Anishinaabayg, from the beginning of their life on Miss-koh-tay-sih Minis (Turtle Island) to the present day. Baxter writes about Anishinaabay life before European contact, his childhood memories of trapping, hunting, and fishing with his family on traditional lands in Treaty 9 territory, and his personal experience surviving the residential school system. Examining how Anishinaabay Kih-kayn-daa-soh-win (knowledge) is an elemental concept embedded in the Anishinaabay language, Aki-wayn-zih explores history, science, math, education, philosophy, law, and spiritual teachings, outlining the cultural significance of language to Anishinaabay identity. Recounting traditional Ojibway legends in their original language, fables in which moral virtues double as survival techniques, and detailed guidelines for expertly trapping or ensnaring animals, Baxter reveals how the residential school system shaped him as an individual, transformed his family, and forever disrupted his reserve community and those like it. Through spiritual teachings, historical accounts, and autobiographical anecdotes, Aki-wayn-zih offers a new form of storytelling from the Anishinaabay point of view.
Date Published:2021

Includes index. Members of Eli Baxter's generation are the last of the hunting and gathering societies living on Turtle Island. They are also among the last fluent speakers of the Anishinaabay language known as Anishinaabaymowin. Aki-wayn-zih is a story about the land and its spiritual relationship with the Anishinaabayg, from the beginning of their life on Miss-koh-tay-sih Minis (Turtle Island) to the present day. Baxter writes about Anishinaabay life before European contact, his childhood memories of trapping, hunting, and fishing with his family on traditional lands in Treaty 9 territory, and his personal experience surviving the residential school system. Examining how Anishinaabay Kih-kayn-daa-soh-win (knowledge) is an elemental concept embedded in the Anishinaabay language, Aki-wayn-zih explores history, science, math, education, philosophy, law, and spiritual teachings, outlining the cultural significance of language to Anishinaabay identity. Recounting traditional Ojibway legends in their original language, fables in which moral virtues double as survival techniques, and detailed guidelines for expertly trapping or ensnaring animals, Baxter reveals how the residential school system shaped him as an individual, transformed his family, and forever disrupted his reserve community and those like it. Through spiritual teachings, historical accounts, and autobiographical anecdotes, Aki-wayn-zih offers a new form of storytelling from the Anishinaabay point of view.

Date Published:2021

All the little monsters : how I learned to live with anxiety

Robertson, David, 1977-,


With humour, warmth and heartbreaking honesty, award-winning author David A. Roberston explores the struggles and small victories of living with chronic anxiety and depression, and shares his hard-earned wisdom in the hope of making other people's mental health journeys a little less lonely. From the outside, David A. Robertson looks as if he has it all together--a loving family, a successful career as an author, and a platform to promote Indigenous perspectives, cultures and concerns. But what we see on the outside rarely reveals what is happening inside. Robertson lives with "little monsters": chronic, debilitating health anxiety and panic attacks accompanied, at times, by depression. During the worst periods, he finds getting out of bed to walk down the hall an insurmountable task. During the better times, he wrestles with the compulsion to scan his body for that sure sign of a dire health crisis. In All the Little Monsters, Robertson reveals what it's like to live inside his mind and his body and describes the toll his mental health challenges have taken on him and his family, and how he has learned to put one foot in front of the other as well as to get back up when he stumbles. He also writes about the tools that have helped him carry on, including community, therapy, medication and the simple question he asks himself on repeat: what if everything will be okay? In candidly sharing his personal story and showing that he can be well even if he can't be "cured," Robertson hopes to help others on their own mental health journeys.
Date Published:2025

With humour, warmth and heartbreaking honesty, award-winning author David A. Roberston explores the struggles and small victories of living with chronic anxiety and depression, and shares his hard-earned wisdom in the hope of making other people's mental health journeys a little less lonely. From the outside, David A. Robertson looks as if he has it all together--a loving family, a successful career as an author, and a platform to promote Indigenous perspectives, cultures and concerns. But what we see on the outside rarely reveals what is happening inside. Robertson lives with "little monsters": chronic, debilitating health anxiety and panic attacks accompanied, at times, by depression. During the worst periods, he finds getting out of bed to walk down the hall an insurmountable task. During the better times, he wrestles with the compulsion to scan his body for that sure sign of a dire health crisis. In All the Little Monsters, Robertson reveals what it's like to live inside his mind and his body and describes the toll his mental health challenges have taken on him and his family, and how he has learned to put one foot in front of the other as well as to get back up when he stumbles. He also writes about the tools that have helped him carry on, including community, therapy, medication and the simple question he asks himself on repeat: what if everything will be okay? In candidly sharing his personal story and showing that he can be well even if he can't be "cured," Robertson hopes to help others on their own mental health journeys.

Date Published:2025

An anthology of monsters : how story saves us from our anxiety

Dimaline, Cherie, 1975-,


"An Anthology of Monsters by Cherie Dimaline, award-winning Métis author of The Marrow Thieves, is the tale of an intricate dance with life-long anxiety. It is about how the stories we tell ourselves—both the excellent and the horrible—can help reshape the ways in which we think, cope, and ultimately survive. Using examples from her published and forthcoming books, from her mère, and from her own late night worry sessions, Dimaline choreographs a deeply personal narrative about all the ways in which we cower and crush through stories. Witches emerge as figures of misfortune but also empowerment, and the fearsome Rougarou inspires obedience, but also belonging and responsibility. Dimaline reveals how to collect and curate these stories, how they elicit difficult and beautiful conversations, and how family and community is a place of refuge and strength."--
Date Published:2023

"An Anthology of Monsters by Cherie Dimaline, award-winning Métis author of The Marrow Thieves, is the tale of an intricate dance with life-long anxiety. It is about how the stories we tell ourselves—both the excellent and the horrible—can help reshape the ways in which we think, cope, and ultimately survive. Using examples from her published and forthcoming books, from her mère, and from her own late night worry sessions, Dimaline choreographs a deeply personal narrative about all the ways in which we cower and crush through stories. Witches emerge as figures of misfortune but also empowerment, and the fearsome Rougarou inspires obedience, but also belonging and responsibility. Dimaline reveals how to collect and curate these stories, how they elicit difficult and beautiful conversations, and how family and community is a place of refuge and strength."--

Date Published:2023

Atanarjuat, the fast runner : Atanarjuat, la légende de l'homme rapide


CATEGORY: DRAMA. Disc label title. Based on a traditional Inuit legend. Originally released as a motion picture in 2000. Widescreen version. Special features: fact track, the legend, production diary, filmmaker biographies, cast and character biographies, a look at art direction, photo gallery, about Igloolik Isuma, trailer. Scene selection list inserted in container. When Atanarjuat, an unassuming young man, falls in love with Atuat, whose hand has already been promised to the scheming Oki, the son of the tribal chief, the jealous Oki challenges Atanarjuat to a brutal contest for Atuat's hand which Atanarjuat wins, and weds his love, but his problems are far from over as Oki plans his revenge.
Date Published:2002

CATEGORY: DRAMA. Disc label title. Based on a traditional Inuit legend. Originally released as a motion picture in 2000. Widescreen version. Special features: fact track, the legend, production diary, filmmaker biographies, cast and character biographies, a look at art direction, photo gallery, about Igloolik Isuma, trailer. Scene selection list inserted in container. When Atanarjuat, an unassuming young man, falls in love with Atuat, whose hand has already been promised to the scheming Oki, the son of the tribal chief, the jealous Oki challenges Atanarjuat to a brutal contest for Atuat's hand which Atanarjuat wins, and weds his love, but his problems are far from over as Oki plans his revenge.

Date Published:2002

Auntie's rez surprise

O'Watch, Heather,


Auntie always greets Cree in nēhiyawēwin when she comes for a visit. When Auntie arrives with a surprise gift hidden in her bag, Cree can't wait to discover what it is. The first clue? It's from the rez. As Cree tries to figure out what it might be, the bag starts to move. Cree is thrilled when the bag opens and out jumps a rez puppy! Cree asks Auntie how to take care of the new puppy. Auntie talks to Cree about the importance of dogs in their culture. They are our relatives, she explains, and need to be well taken care of. Cree decides she will name her new puppy "Atim", the nēhiyawēwin word for dog.
Date Published:2023

Auntie always greets Cree in nēhiyawēwin when she comes for a visit. When Auntie arrives with a surprise gift hidden in her bag, Cree can't wait to discover what it is. The first clue? It's from the rez. As Cree tries to figure out what it might be, the bag starts to move. Cree is thrilled when the bag opens and out jumps a rez puppy! Cree asks Auntie how to take care of the new puppy. Auntie talks to Cree about the importance of dogs in their culture. They are our relatives, she explains, and need to be well taken care of. Cree decides she will name her new puppy "Atim", the nēhiyawēwin word for dog.

Date Published:2023

Bad Cree : a novel

Johns, Jessica,


Title also in Cree language. A Cree millennial, wakes up in her small, one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the deep prairies of Treaty 8. 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. As Mackenzie's life spirals into the living nightmare--crows follow her around and she receives texts from someone claiming to be her dead sister-- it becomes clear that the dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her family in her small hometown in Alberta. Together, they work to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie. .
Date Published:2023

Title also in Cree language. A Cree millennial, wakes up in her small, one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the deep prairies of Treaty 8. 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. As Mackenzie's life spirals into the living nightmare--crows follow her around and she receives texts from someone claiming to be her dead sister-- it becomes clear that the dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her family in her small hometown in Alberta. Together, they work to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie. .

Date Published:2023

Beans


CATEGORY: DRAMA. DVD. Originally released as a motion picture in 2020. Widescreen version. Bilingual packaging (English/French). "Based on true events, Tracey Deer's debut feature chronicles the 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces in 1990 in Quebec."--www.imdb.com.
Date Published:

Bedtime in Nunatsiavut

Brown, Raeann,


Indigenous. "A little girl named Nya yearns to fly, swim, and wander like the goose, salmon, bear, fox, and other animals that populate her world. Each night, her loving AnÃ¢nak (mother) tucks her into bed and gives her a kunik (nose-to-nose rub) to help Nya dream and transform into the animals she longs to be like. In Nya's dreams, she moves with the wonder and the freedom of the natural world, dancing beneath the dark Nunatsiavut skies, empowered and emboldened by her AnÃ¢nak's constant love."
Date Published:2022

Indigenous. "A little girl named Nya yearns to fly, swim, and wander like the goose, salmon, bear, fox, and other animals that populate her world. Each night, her loving AnÃ¢nak (mother) tucks her into bed and gives her a kunik (nose-to-nose rub) to help Nya dream and transform into the animals she longs to be like. In Nya's dreams, she moves with the wonder and the freedom of the natural world, dancing beneath the dark Nunatsiavut skies, empowered and emboldened by her AnÃ¢nak's constant love."

Date Published:2022

The berry pickers

Peters, Amanda,


July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family's youngest child, vanishes mysteriously. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a berry field. 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. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. 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. .
Date Published:2023

July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family's youngest child, vanishes mysteriously. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a berry field. 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. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. 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. .

Date Published:2023

Berry song

Goade, Michaela.


On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, a girl and her grandmother gather gifts from the earth. Salmon from the stream, herring eggs from the ocean, and in the forest, a world of berries. Salmonberry, Cloudberry, Blueberry, Nagoonberry. Huckleberry, Snowberry, Strawberry, Crowberry. Through the seasons, they sing to the land as the land sings to them. Brimming with joy and gratitude, in every step of their journey, they forge a deeper kinship with both the earth and the generations that came before, joining in the song that connects us all.
Date Published:2022

On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, a girl and her grandmother gather gifts from the earth. Salmon from the stream, herring eggs from the ocean, and in the forest, a world of berries. Salmonberry, Cloudberry, Blueberry, Nagoonberry. Huckleberry, Snowberry, Strawberry, Crowberry. Through the seasons, they sing to the land as the land sings to them. Brimming with joy and gratitude, in every step of their journey, they forge a deeper kinship with both the earth and the generations that came before, joining in the song that connects us all.

Date Published:2022

Birdsong

Flett, Julie.


When a young girl moves from the country to a small town, she feels lonely and out of place. But soon she meets an elderly woman next door, who shares her love of arts and crafts. Can the girl navigate the changing seasons and failing health of her new friend? Acclaimed author and artist Julie Flett's textured images of birds, flowers, art, and landscapes bring vibrancy and warmth to this powerful story, which highlights the fulfillment of intergenerational relationships and shared passions.
Date Published:2019

When a young girl moves from the country to a small town, she feels lonely and out of place. But soon she meets an elderly woman next door, who shares her love of arts and crafts. Can the girl navigate the changing seasons and failing health of her new friend? Acclaimed author and artist Julie Flett's textured images of birds, flowers, art, and landscapes bring vibrancy and warmth to this powerful story, which highlights the fulfillment of intergenerational relationships and shared passions.

Date Published:2019

Black Water : family, legacy and blood memory

Robertson, David, 1977-,


David A. Robertson, the son of a Cree father and a white, settler mother, grew up with virtually no knowledge or understanding of his family's Indigenous roots. His father, Dulas, or Don as he became known, had grown up on the trapline in the bush only to be transplanted permanently to a house on reserve in Manitoba, where he was not permitted to speak his language--Swampy Cree--and was forced to learn and speak only English while in day school, unless in secret in the forest with his friends. Robertson's mother, Beverly Eyers, grew up in a small town in Manitoba, a town with no Indigenous families, until Don came to town as a United Church minister and fell in love with her. Robertson's parents made the decision to raise their children, in his words, "separate from his Indigenous identity." He grew up without his father's teachings or knowledge of his life or experiences. All he had left was blood memory, the pieces of who he was engrained in the fabric of his DNA. Pieces that he has spent a lifetime putting together. Black Water is a family memoir of intergenerational trauma and healing, of connection, of story, of how David Robertson's father's life--growing up in Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, then making the journey from Norway House to Winnipeg--informed the author's own life, and might even have saved it. Facing a story nearly erased by the designs of history, father and son journey together back to the trapline at Black Water, through the past to create a new future.
Date Published:2020

David A. Robertson, the son of a Cree father and a white, settler mother, grew up with virtually no knowledge or understanding of his family's Indigenous roots. His father, Dulas, or Don as he became known, had grown up on the trapline in the bush only to be transplanted permanently to a house on reserve in Manitoba, where he was not permitted to speak his language--Swampy Cree--and was forced to learn and speak only English while in day school, unless in secret in the forest with his friends. Robertson's mother, Beverly Eyers, grew up in a small town in Manitoba, a town with no Indigenous families, until Don came to town as a United Church minister and fell in love with her. Robertson's parents made the decision to raise their children, in his words, "separate from his Indigenous identity." He grew up without his father's teachings or knowledge of his life or experiences. All he had left was blood memory, the pieces of who he was engrained in the fabric of his DNA. Pieces that he has spent a lifetime putting together. Black Water is a family memoir of intergenerational trauma and healing, of connection, of story, of how David Robertson's father's life--growing up in Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, then making the journey from Norway House to Winnipeg--informed the author's own life, and might even have saved it. Facing a story nearly erased by the designs of history, father and son journey together back to the trapline at Black Water, through the past to create a new future.

Date Published:2020

Braiding sweetgrass

Kimmerer, Robin Wall.


As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.
Date Published:2013

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.

Date Published:2013

The break

Vermette, Katherena.



Date Published:2016

Call me Indian : from the trauma of residential school to becoming the NHL's first treaty Indigenous player

Sasakamoose, Fred, 1933-,


Fred Sasakamoose suffered abuse in a residential school for a decade before becoming one of 125 players in the most elite hockey league in the world--and has been heralded as the first Canadian Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL. After twelve games, he returned home. When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL after only a dozen games to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. Having been uprooted once, Sasakamoose could not endure it again. It was not homesickness; a man who spent his childhood as "property" of the government could not tolerate the uncertainty and powerlessness of being a team's property. Fred's choice to leave the NHL was never as clear-cut as reporters have suggested. And his story was far from over. He continued to play for another decade in leagues around Western Canada. He became a band councillor, served as Chief, and formed athletic programs for kids. Sasakamoose's groundbreaking memoir intersects Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows his journey to reclaim pride in an identity that had previously been used against him.
Date Published:2021

Fred Sasakamoose suffered abuse in a residential school for a decade before becoming one of 125 players in the most elite hockey league in the world--and has been heralded as the first Canadian Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL. After twelve games, he returned home. When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL after only a dozen games to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. Having been uprooted once, Sasakamoose could not endure it again. It was not homesickness; a man who spent his childhood as "property" of the government could not tolerate the uncertainty and powerlessness of being a team's property. Fred's choice to leave the NHL was never as clear-cut as reporters have suggested. And his story was far from over. He continued to play for another decade in leagues around Western Canada. He became a band councillor, served as Chief, and formed athletic programs for kids. Sasakamoose's groundbreaking memoir intersects Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows his journey to reclaim pride in an identity that had previously been used against him.

Date Published:2021

Cold : a novel

Taylor, Drew Hayden, 1962-,


Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book. What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone -- or something -- is hunting them all. .
Date Published:2024

Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book. What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone -- or something -- is hunting them all. .

Date Published:2024

Crow winter : a novel

McBride, Karen.


Since coming home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, Hazel Ellis has been dreaming of an old crow. He tells her heœs here to help her, save her. From what, exactly? Sure, her dadœs been dead for almost two years and she hasnœt quite reconciled that grief, but is that worth the time of an Algonquin demigod?Soon Hazel learns that thereœs more at play than just her own sadness and doubt. The quarry thatœs been lying unsullied for over a century on her fatherœs property is stirring the old magic that crosses the boundaries between this world and the next. With the aid of Nanabush, Hazel must unravel a web of deceit that, if left untouched, could destroy her family and her home on both sides of the Medicine Wheel.
Date Published:2019

Since coming home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, Hazel Ellis has been dreaming of an old crow. He tells her heœs here to help her, save her. From what, exactly? Sure, her dadœs been dead for almost two years and she hasnœt quite reconciled that grief, but is that worth the time of an Algonquin demigod?Soon Hazel learns that thereœs more at play than just her own sadness and doubt. The quarry thatœs been lying unsullied for over a century on her fatherœs property is stirring the old magic that crosses the boundaries between this world and the next. With the aid of Nanabush, Hazel must unravel a web of deceit that, if left untouched, could destroy her family and her home on both sides of the Medicine Wheel.

Date Published:2019

The dancing trees

Kelly, Masiana, 1984-,


First Nation Communities Read (FNCR) 2022/23, Children's category nominee. "Thomas loves to tell stories. Big stories. Stories about how skilled he is on the land. But when one of his friends grows tired of his tall tales, Thomas has to prove how skilled he really is. Taking the challenge to spend a night alone in the forest, Thomas heads into the wilderness. The trees, who have heard his stories, watch him tear off their bark and litter as he goes. And so, while Thomas sleeps, they dance a dance that will leave Thomas with a very different kind of story to tell--if he can find his way home ..."--Back cover.
Date Published:2021

First Nation Communities Read (FNCR) 2022/23, Children's category nominee. "Thomas loves to tell stories. Big stories. Stories about how skilled he is on the land. But when one of his friends grows tired of his tall tales, Thomas has to prove how skilled he really is. Taking the challenge to spend a night alone in the forest, Thomas heads into the wilderness. The trees, who have heard his stories, watch him tear off their bark and litter as he goes. And so, while Thomas sleeps, they dance a dance that will leave Thomas with a very different kind of story to tell--if he can find his way home ..."--Back cover.

Date Published:2021