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Selected Books and Reflections
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My Heart Fills with Happiness
by Monique Gray Smith (author) and Julie Flett (illustrator)
The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful board book, with illustrations from celebrated artist Julie Flett, serves as a reminder for little ones and adults alike to reflect on and cherish the moments in life that bring us joy.
The Creators: Monique Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage woman of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry and a proud mom of twins. Monique is an accomplished consultant, writer and international speaker. Her first novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature. Monique and her family are blessed to live on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.littledrum.com.
Julie Flett studied fine arts at Concordia University in Montreal and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. She received the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize and was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature for her book Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet / Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alphabet di Michif. Julie is Cree-Métis and currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit julieflett.com. Follow her on Twitter @julie_flett.
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Sitting by the Rapids
by Albert Dumont
The ancestors, living at the time of European contact had a way with words. Poetry spilled effortlessly from their lips because the spirit of the land guided their words. I take seriously my belief that medicine of extraordinary healing power is found in the verses of a poet who puts words together for the purpose of bringing peace and serenity to people in want of it. The counsels and poetry of a person living with pain are special and more meaningful to an individual in the throes of heartache.
The Creator: Albert Dumont writes to encourage healing; using the power of words for healing through poetry and story telling; through words reflecting the wisdom of the forest, of the rivers and lakes, of the birds, animals and fish and of Elders and of children.
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Fire Song
by Adam Garnet Jones
A family tragedy forces Shane, a gay Native American teenager in Northern Ontario, to choose between staying home to help support his family or leaving for college and the freedom to be himself.
The Creator: Adam Garnet Jones (Cree/Métis/ Danish) is a Two-Spirit screenwriter, director, bead-worker and novelist from Edmonton Alberta.
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It's Time for Bed
by Ceporah Mearns (Author) and Jeremy Debicki (Illustrator)
Although it is bedtime, Siasi would rather join the Arctic animals in such typical behavior as running with the caribou or howling with the wolves than get ready for bed.
The Creators: Ceporah Mearns is an Inuk from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, but calls Iqaluit, Nunavut home. She lives there with her husband and their children, Siasi and Siloah. Together, they enjoy cooking family dinners, visiting friends and family, going sliding, and spending time at their cabin. Siasi inspired this story by always coming up with so many things she needs to do when it’s time for bed.
Jeremy Debicki is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, but lives with his wife, Ceporah Mearns, and children in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
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The Journey Forward, Novellas on Reconciliation
by Richard Van Camp, Monique Gray Smith
The Journey Forward: Novellas on Reconciliation, which includes Lucy & Lola and When We Play Our Drums, They Sing! is a unique flip book published by McKellar and Martin publishers.
The Creators: Richard Van Camp, the eldest of four boys, is a member of the Dogrib nation from Canada's Northwest Territories. He graduated from the University of Victoria and the En'owkin International School of Writing.
Monique Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage woman of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry and a proud mom of twins. Monique is an accomplished consultant, writer and international speaker. Her first novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature. Monique and her family are blessed to live on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.littledrum.com.
Julie Flett studied fine arts at Concordia University in Montreal and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. She received the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize and was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature for her book Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet / Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alphabet di Michif. Julie is Cree-Métis and currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit julieflett.com. Follow her on Twitter @julie_flett.
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You Are Enough: Love Poems for the End of the World
by Smokii Sumac
A curated selection from hundreds of poems written over two years of a near-daily haiku practice. Sections of selected poems such as 'recovery,' 'courting,' and 'ceremony,' tell a story of what 2016-2018 was like in the life of a two-spirit, transmasculine, Ktunaxa PhD Candidate in their late 20s, living in Peterborough Ontario.
The Creator: Smokii Sumac is a proud member of the Ktunaxa nation, a PhD Candidate at Trent University, and a faculty member at College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, BC. He is also a poet, releasing his debut poetry collection you are enough: love poems for the end of the world in December 2018 with Kegedonce Press, which won the Indigenous Voices Award in the published poetry category for that year. Smokii is honoured to have performed across the country, including at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (2017) and at the Queer Arts Festival (2018). As a two-spirit and transgender educator, Smokii has facilitated workshops for various organizations and groups, including as a knowledge holder at the Trent Elder’s Gathering. As of fall 2019, Smokii lives in Kimberley, BC with his cat, Miss Magoo. If you are interested in having Smokii do a talk, workshop, performance, or classroom visit, he is happy to work with your organization to meet your needs.
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Explore the 2020 - 2021 Longlist!
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Perception: A Photo Series
by KC Adams
Artist KC Adams's Perception: Photo Series first appeared on billboards, in storefronts, in bus shelters, and projected on Winnipeg's downtown buildings. The photographs confronted common stereotypes about First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people to reveal the contemporary truth. Gathered here in the book Perception: A Photo Series, Adams's images will inspire viewers to act against prejudice of all kinds.
The Creator: KC Adams (she/her/hers) is a Cree/Ojibway/British Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A in studio arts. Adams has had several solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and was included in the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams was the set designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. Adams has designed public art sculptures for the Winnipeg Forks South Point Project and the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams have been teaching about Indigenous pottery and learning from elders at the annual nibi (water) gathering at Whiteshell Provincial Park. KC recently won the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and the Aboriginal Circle of Educator’s Trailblazing Award. She is an instructor in Visual and Aboriginal Art at Brandon University.
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The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation
by Jean Teillet
There is a missing chapter in the narrative of Canada’s Indigenous peoples—the story of the Métis Nation, a new Indigenous people descended from both First Nations and Europeans Their story begins in the last decade of the eighteenth century in the Canadian North-West. Within twenty years the Métis proclaimed themselves a nation and won their first battle. Within forty years they were famous throughout North America for their military skills, their nomadic life and their buffalo hunts.
The Creator: Jean Teillet, IPC (B.F.A., LL.B., LL.M.), Partner, Pape Salter Teillet LLP, Barristers & Solicitors, Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON. Ms. Teillet is called to the Bar in Ontario, BC, NWT, Manitoba and Yukon. She specializes in aboriginal rights litigation and negotiations and is currently the chief negotiator for the Stó:lo Xwexwilmexw, who are negotiating a treaty in the lower Fraser Valley in BC. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ms. Teillet worked for twenty years as a writer, dancer, actor, choreographer, director and producer. Jean has also been a visual artist for over thirty years. Her work is in private collections in the United States and Canada. Ms. Teillet is the great grand niece of Louis Riel.
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Crow Gulch by Douglas Walbourne-GoughIn his debut poetry collection, Douglas Walbourne-Gough reflects on the legacy of a community that sat on the shore of the Bay of Islands, less than two kilometres west of downtown Corner Brook. Crow Gulch began as a temporary shack town to house migrant workers in the 1920s during the construction of the pulp and paper mill. After the mill was complete, some of the residents, many of Indigenous ancestry, settled there permanently -- including the poet's great-grandmother Amelia Campbell and her daughter, Ella -- and those the locals called the "jackytars," a derogatory epithet used to describe someone of mixed French and Mi'kmaq descent. Many remained there until the late 1970s, when the settlement was forcibly abandoned and largely forgotten. Walbourne-Gough lyrically sifts through archival memory and family accounts, resurrecting story and conversation, to patch together a history of a people and place. Here he finds his own identity within the legacy of Crow Gulch and reminds those who have forgotten of a glaring omission in history.
The Creator: Douglas Walbourne-Gough. Poet. Newfoundlander. Mixed/adopted Mi’kmaw. Life is hyphenated. Walbourne-Gough’s father’s family lived in Crow Gulch until the community was legally ushered out, mostly relocating to Corner Brook’s first social housing project, Dunfield Park. Walbourne-Gough holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC-Okanagan. His poetry has appeared in Riddle Fence, Canadian Literature, Prairie Fire, Newfoundland Quarterly, QWERTY, Forget Magazine, the Capilano Review, and Contemporary Verse 2. Crow Gulch is his debut collection.
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