Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories, Poetry by Vera Manuel (author) and Michelle Coupal, Deanna Reder, Joanne Arnott, Emalene A. Manuel (editors) Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9780887558368 Reviewed by Diana French * Vera Manuel (1949-2010), actor, playwright, poet, drama therapist, and healer has been honoured with an anthology of…
Read more #610 Secwépemc playwright honoured
Our Coloured Past: The Arrow Lakes in the Age of Colour Photography by Kyle Kusch Nakusp: Arrow Lakes Historical Society, 2019 $30.00 / 9780969423683 Reviewed by Duff Sutherland * In Our Coloured Past: The Arrow Lakes in the Age of Colour Photography, Kyle Kusch presents 350 colour photographs from the collection of Nakusp’s Arrow Lakes…
Read more #604 BC Hydro’s destructive legacy
Interwoven Lives: Indigenous Mothers of Salish Coast Communities by Candace Wellman Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2019 $27.95 (U.S.) / 9780874223644 Reviewed by Marie Elliott * Researching settlement history can take you in many directions, some more challenging than others. While helping people with their family histories at the Washington State Archives in Bellingham,…
Read more #599 Coast Salish women revealed
Moccasin Square Gardens: Short Stories by Richard Van Camp Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2019 $19.95 / 9781771622165 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * Richard Van Camp, the celebrated Tłįcho storyteller, may be best known for his novel, The Lesser Blessed, or his involvement with the CBC program, North of 60. However, one would be remiss…
Read more #576 In conversation with Van Camp
At the Bridge: James Teit and An Anthropology of Belonging by Wendy Wickwire Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $34.95 / 9780774861526 Reviewed by Daniel Marshall * On February 6, 2020, At the Bridge: James Teit and An Anthropology of Belonging, by Wendy Wickwire, was shortlisted for the annual George Ryga Award, given to a B.C. writer…
Read more #575 The late, great, James Teit
Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 Stsq̓ey̓s-kucw by Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, with a foreword by Bonnie Leonard Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2017 $39.95 / 9780773551305 Reviewed by Cole Harris * Reviewed last year by Sarah Nickel in the Ormsby Review, Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws, by Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, was shortlisted…
Read more #574 Secwépemc Shuswap reflections
Before We Lost the Lake: A Natural and Human History of Sumas Valley by Chad Reimer Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781987915587 Reviewed by Jeff Oliver * Up until its disappearance, in matter or mind, Sumas Lake never really stood still. Since its birth at the end of the last ice age, it…
Read more #572 Settlers coveted Sumas Lake
The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land by Pamela Klassen London and Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018 $27.50 (U.S.) / 9780226552736 Reviewed by Susan Neylan * Colonialism has spiritual dimensions; the process of creating a country like Canada transcends physical space and expands into metaphysical realms to permeate the…
Read more #548 On a wing & a telepathic prayer
SENĆOŦEN; A Dictionary of the Saanich Language by Timothy Montler Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018 $150.00 (U.S.) / 9780295743851 Reviewed by Andrew Cienski * SENĆOŦEN; A Dictionary of the Saanich Language, by Timothy Montler, is the latest in a succession of Coast Salish language reference materials. It is the culmination of Montler’s and others’…
Read more #547 Big book, great language
First published May 5, 2019 Greg Younging (1961-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Formerly an Assistant Director of Research for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Dr. Gregory George Younging, a publisher of Theytus Books and a professor of Indigenous Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus, died at the Penticton Hospital on May…
Read more #544 Greg Younging (1961-2019)
Being Ts’elxwéyeqw: First Peoples’ Voices and History from the Chilliwack-Fraser Valley, British Columbia by the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe (producers) and David M. Schaepe (editor) Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $94.95 / 9781550178180 Reviewed Charles R. Menzies * Being Ts’elxwéyeqw is one of a growing genre of First Nations controlled and published reference books. Edited by UBC-trained…
Read more #516 Chilliwack to Ts’elxwéyeqw
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2018 $19.95 / 9780995266520 * Talking Back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories by Mary-Ellen Kelm and Keith D. Smith (editors) Toronto: University of Toronto Press,…
Read more #514 Consider the Indian Act
City in Colour: Rediscovered Stories of Victoria’s Multicultural Past by May Q. Wong Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2018 $22.00 / 9781771512855 Reviewed by Tom Koppel * When I was a kid, my father took me on a brief visit to Victoria. Part of the attraction, for him, was that he’d heard the city described as the…
Read more #513 Victoria’s secret: diversity
Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon by Karen Autio, illustrated by Loraine Kemp Vancouver: Crwth Press, 2018 $25.95 / 9781775331902 Reviewed by Ken Mather * At the heart of Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon is the beautifully illustrated story of the life of a Ponderosa Pine from a seed in the year 1780 to…
Read more #512 A Ponderosa Pine time capsule
Towards a New Ethnohistory: Community-Engaged Scholarship among the People of the River by Keith Thor Carlson, John Sutton Lutz, David Schaepe, and Albert “Sonny” McHalsie (Naxaxalhts’i) (editors) Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018 $27.95 / 9780887558177 Reviewed by Tyler McCreary * Towards a New Ethnohistory, a new collection edited by Keith Carlson, John Lutz, David…
Read more #506 Scribes of the Stó:lō Nation