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Indigenous Voices & the Environment

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge by Nancy J. Turner Volume 1: The History and Practice of Indigenous Plant KnowledgeVolume 2: The Place and Meaning of Plants in Indigenous Cultures and WorldviewsNancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge, she integrates her research into a two-volume ethnobotanical tour-de-force.Drawing on information shared by Indigenous botanical experts and collaborators, the ethnographic and historical record, and from linguistics, palaeobotany, archaeology, phytogeography, and other fields, Turner weaves together a complex understanding of the traditions of use and management of plant resources in this vast region. She follows Indigenous inhabitants over time and through space, showing how they actively participated in their environments, managed and cultivated valued plant resources, and maintained key habitats that supported their dynamic cultures for thousands of years, as well as how knowledge was passed on from generation to generation and from one community to another. To understand the values and perspectives that have guided Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge and practices, Turner looks beyond the details of individual plant species and their uses to determine the overall patterns and processes of their development, application, and adaptation.Volume 1 presents a historical overview of ethnobotanical knowledge in the region before and after European contact. The ways in which Indigenous peoples used and interacted with plants - for nutrition, technologies, and medicine - are examined. Drawing connections between similarities across languages, Turner compares the names of over 250 plant species in more than fifty Indigenous languages and dialects to demonstrate the prominence of certain plants in various cultures and the sharing of goods and ideas between peoples. She also examines the effects that introduced species and colonialism had on the region's Indigenous peoples and their ecologies.Volume 2 provides a sweeping account of how Indigenous organizational systems developed to facilitate the harvesting, use, and cultivation of plants, to establish economic connections across linguistic and cultural borders, and to preserve and manage resources and habitats. Turner describes the worldviews and philosophies that emerged from the interactions between peoples and plants, and how these understandings are expressed through cultures' stories and narratives. Finally, she explores the ways in which botanical and ecological knowledge can be and are being maintained as living, adaptive systems that promote healthy cultures, environments, and indigenous plant populations.Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge both challenges and contributes to existing knowledge of Indigenous peoples' land stewardship while preserving information that might otherwise have been lost. Providing new and captivating insights into the anthropogenic systems of northwestern North America, it will stand as an authoritative reference work and contribute to a fuller understanding of the interactions between cultures and ecological systems.
As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Winner: Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Best Subsequent Book 2017 Honorable Mention: Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award 2017 Across North America, Indigenous acts of resistance have in recent years opposed the removal of federal protections for forests and waterways in Indigenous lands, halted the expansion of tar sands extraction and the pipeline construction at Standing Rock, and demanded justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. In As We Have Always Done, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson locates Indigenous political resurgence as a practice rooted in uniquely Indigenous theorizing, writing, organizing, and thinking. Indigenous resistance is a radical rejection of contemporary colonialism focused around the refusal of the dispossession of both Indigenous bodies and land. Simpson makes clear that its goal can no longer be cultural resurgence as a mechanism for inclusion in a multicultural mosaic. Instead, she calls for unapologetic, place-based Indigenous alternatives to the destructive logics of the settler colonial state, including heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation.
Indigenous Food Systems: Concepts, Cases, and Conversations by Priscilla Settee (Editor); Shailesh Shukla (Editor) Unlike any other resource on the market, this textbook explores a diverse array of Indigenous food systems from across Canada, including Anishinaabeg, Asatiwisipe, Cree, Métis, Migmag, and Tsartlip. Seeking solutions to food insecurity and well-being for current and future generations, Indigenous and non-Indigenous food practitioners and scholars document the voices and experiences of community members encountered in their research, thus promoting an understanding of the barriers and challenges to Indigenous food systems and presenting ways used to reclaim cultural identity and food sovereignty. Offering in-depth case studies and critical conversations, Indigenous Food Systems reinforces the importance of the revitalization of Indigenous food knowledges for the health and well-being of Indigenous and Canadian populations. This unique collection is a critical resource for students studying food security and food sovereignty in Indigenous studies, public health, anthropology, and social sciences as well as a useful reader for policy-makers, researchers, and community practitioners.
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text) Winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize Winner of the 2018 Sunburst Award Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams. Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.
Our History Is the Future by Nick Estes How two centuries of Indigenous resistance created the movement proclaiming "Water is life" In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century. Water Protectors knew this battle for native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anticolonial struggle would continue. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future is at once a work of history, a manifesto, and an intergenerational story of resistance.
Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings by Michael Asch (Editor); John Borrows (Editor); James Tully (Editor) The two major schools of thought in Indigenous-Settler relations on the ground, in the courts, in public policy, and in research are resurgence and reconciliation. Resurgence refers to practices of Indigenous self-determination and cultural renewal whereas reconciliation refers to practices of reconciliation between Indigenous and Settler nations, such as nation-with-nation treaty negotiations. Reconciliation also refers to the sustainable reconciliation of both Indigenous and Settler peoples with the living earth as the grounds for both resurgence and Indigenous-Settler reconciliation. Critically and constructively analyzing these two schools from a wide variety of perspectives and lived experiences, this volume connects both discourses to the ecosystem dynamics that animate the living earth. Resurgence and Reconciliation is multi-disciplinary, blending law, political science, political economy, women's studies, ecology, history, anthropology, sustainability, and climate change. Its dialogic approach strives to put these fields in conversation and draw out the connections and tensions between them. By using "earth-teachings" to inform social practices, the editors and contributors offer a rich, innovative, and holistic way forward in response to the world's most profound natural and social challenges. This timely volume shows how the complexities and interconnections of resurgence and reconciliation and the living earth are often overlooked in contemporary discourse and debate.
The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier; Bill McKibben (Foreword by) A "courageous and revelatory memoir" (Naomi Klein) chronicling the life of the leading Indigenous climate change, cultural, and human rights advocate For the first ten years of her life, Sheila Watt-Cloutier traveled only by dog team. Today there are more snow machines than dogs in her native Nunavik, a region that is part of the homeland of the Inuit in Canada. In Inuktitut, the language of Inuit, the elders say that the weather is Uggianaqtuq--behaving in strange and unexpected ways. The Right to Be Cold is Watt-Cloutier's memoir of growing up in the Arctic reaches of Quebec during these unsettling times. It is the story of an Inuk woman finding her place in the world, only to find her native land giving way to the inexorable warming of the planet. She decides to take a stand against its destruction. The Right to Be Cold is the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by a woman who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Indigenous environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. Raised by a single mother and grandmother in the small community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Watt-Cloutier describes life in the traditional ice-based hunting culture of an Inuit community and reveals how Indigenous life, human rights, and the threat of climate change are inextricably linked. Colonialism intervened in this world and in her life in often violent ways, and she traces her path from Nunavik to Nova Scotia (where she was sent at the age of ten to live with a family that was not her own); to a residential school in Churchill, Manitoba; and back to her hometown to work as an interpreter and student counselor.  The Right to Be Cold is at once the intimate coming-of-age story of a remarkable woman, a deeply informed look at the life and culture of an Indigenous community reeling from a colonial history and now threatened by climate change, and a stirring account of an activist's powerful efforts to safeguard Inuit culture, the Arctic, and the planet.
When the Caribou Do Not Come by Brenda L. Parlee (Editor); Ken J. Caine (Editor) In the 1990s, headlines about declining caribou populations grabbed international attention. Were caribou the canary in the coal mine for climate change, or did declining numbers reflect overharvesting or failed attempts at scientific wildlife management? Grounded in community-based research in northern Canada, a region in the forefront of co-management efforts, these collected stories and essays bring to the fore the insights of the Inuvialuit, Gwich'in, and Sahtú, people for whom caribou stewardship has been a way of life for centuries. Ultimately, this powerful book drives home the important role that Indigenous knowledge must play in understanding, and coping with, our changing Arctic ecosystems.
The Winona Laduke Chronicles by Sean Aaron Cruz (Editor) Chronicles is a major work, a collection of current, pressing and inspirational stories of Indigenous communities from the Canadian subarctic to the heart of Dine Bii Kaya, Navajo Nation. Chronicles is a book literally risen from the ashes--beginning in 2008 after her home burned to the ground--and collectively is an accounting of Winona's personal path of recovery, finding strength and resilience in the writing itself as well as in her work. Long awaited, Chronicles is a labor of love, a tribute to those who have passed on and those yet to arrive.
The Winter We Danced by The Kino-nda-niimi The Kino-nda-niimi Collective (Editor) The Winter We Danced is a vivid collection of writing, poetry, lyrics, art and images from the many diverse voices that make up the past, present, and future of the Idle No More movement. Calling for pathways into healthy, just, equitable and sustainable communities while drawing on a wide-ranging body of narratives, journalism, editorials and creative pieces, this collection consolidates some of the most powerful, creative and insightful moments from the winter we danced and gestures towards next steps in an on-going movement for justice and Indigenous self-determination.

Indigenous Women

#Notyourprincess by Lisa Charleyboy (Editor); Mary Beth Leatherdale (Editor) Native Women demand to be heard in this stunning anthology. Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming in Indian, #Not Your Princess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. Sometimes angry, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have been virtually invisible.  
Bearskin Diary by Carol Daniels Raw and honest, Bearskin Diary gives voice to a generation of First Nations women who have always been silenced, at a time when movements like Idle No More call for a national inquiry into the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Carol Daniels adds an important perspective to the Canadian literary landscape. 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. But she was never sent back into the foster system, and for that she considers herself lucky. From this tragic period in her personal life and in Canadian history, Sandy does not emerge unscathed, but she emerges strong--finding her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties Scoop had tried to deny. Those very roots allow Sandy to overcome the discriminations that she suffers every day from her co-workers, from strangers and sometimes even from herself.
Blue Bear Woman by Virginia Bordeleau; Ouriou Susan (Translator); Christelle Morelli (Translator) Blue Bear Woman is the first novel written by an Indigenous woman that was published in Quebec in the French language. The story of a young Cree woman's search for her roots and identity, Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau's debut novel, Ourse bleue, was originally published in 2007, and is her second novel to be translated into English. The novel explores contemporary Indigenous life and the impact on the Cree of the building of the Eastmain dam in northern Quebec, posited as "virgin" territory, yet which has actually been part of the Cree traditional territory since time immemorial. In search of her roots, Victoria takes a trip to the country of her Cree ancestors with her companion, Daniel. It is a long journey to the north along the shores of James Bay. Colours, smells, and majestic landscapes arouse memories that soon devolve into strange and hauntings dreams at night. In bits and pieces, uncles, aunties, and cousins arrive to tell the story of Victoria's family and bring with them images of her childhood that are tinged both with joy and sadness. Guided by her totem, the Blue Bear, she returns home to make peace with her soul, as well as release the soul of her Great-Uncle George, a hunter who has been missing in the forest for over twenty years.
Daughters of Aataentsic by Kathryn Magee Labelle Daughters of Aataentsic highlights and connects the unique lives of seven Weⁿdat/Waⁿdat women whose legacies are still felt today. Spanning the continent and the colonial borders of New France, British North America, Canada, and the United States, this book shows how Wendat people and place came together in Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and how generations of activism became intimately tied with notions of family, community, motherwork, and legacy from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. The lives of the seven women tell a story of individual and community triumph despite difficulties and great loss. Kathryn Magee Labelle aims to decolonize the historical discipline by researching with Indigenous people rather than researching on them. It is a collaborative effort, guided by an advisory council of eight Weⁿdat/Waⁿdat women, reflecting the needs and desires of community members. Daughters of Aataentsic challenges colonial interpretations by demonstrating the centrality of women, past and present, to Weⁿdat/Waⁿdat culture and history. Labelle draws from institutional archives and published works, as well as from oral histories and private collections. Breaking new ground in both historical narratives and community-guided research in North America, Daughters of Aataentsic offers an alternative narrative by considering the ways in which individual Weⁿdat/Waⁿdat women resisted colonialism, preserved their culture, and acted as matriarchs.
Disinherited Generations by Nellie Carlson; Kathleen Steinhauer; Linda Goyette (As told to); Maria Campbell (Foreword by) This oral autobiography of two remarkable Cree women tells their life stories against a backdrop of government discrimination, First Nations activism, and the resurgence of First Nations communities. Nellie Carlson and Kathleen Steinhauer, who helped to organize the Indian Rights for Indian Women movement in western Canada in the 1960s, fought the Canadian government's interpretation of treaty and Indigenous Rights, the Indian Act, and the male power structure in their own communities in pursuit of equal rights for Indigenous women and children. After decades of activism and court battles, First Nations women succeeded in changing these oppressive regulations, thus benefitting thousands of their descendants. Those interested in human rights, activism, history, and Indigenous Studies will find that these personal stories, enriched by detailed notes and photographs, form a passionate record of an important, continuing struggle.
Hiraeth by Carol Rose Daniels (GoldenEagle) Finalist for the 2019 Rasmussen, Rasmussen and Charowsky Indigenous Peoples' Writing Award Hiraeth is about women supporting and lending strength and clarity to other women so they know that moving forward is always possible-- and always necessary. It documents a journey of struggle that pertains to a dark point in Canadian history that few talk about and of which even fewer seem aware. Poems speak to the 1960's "scoop up" of children and how this affected the lives of (one or thousands) of First Nations and Métis girls-- girls who later grew to be women with questions, women with wounds, women who felt like they had no place to call home. That is, until they allowed themselves to be open to the courage others have lived and shared. "Hiraeth" is a word that is Celtic in origin and it means looking for a place to belong that never existed. But this place does exist -- in the heart.
Iskwewak Kah' Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomakanak: Neither Indian Princesses nor Easy Squaws by Janice Acoose (Author) This groundbreaking work of literary and cultural criticism analyzes representations of Indigenous women in Canadian literature. By deconstructing stereotypical images of the "Indian princess" and "easy squaw," Janice Acoose calls attention to the racist and sexist depictions of Indigenous women in popular literature. Blending personal narrative and literary criticism, this revised edition draws a strong connection between the persistent negative cultural attitudes fostered by those stereotypical representations and the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.
Keeping the Campfires Going by Susan Applegate Krouse (Editor); Heather A. Howard-Bobiwash (Editor) The essays in this groundbreaking anthology, Keeping the Campfires Going, highlight the accomplishments of and challenges confronting Native women activists in American and Canadian cities. Since World War II, Indigenous women from many communities have stepped forward through organizations, in their families, or by themselves to take action on behalf of the growing number of Native people living in urban areas. This collection recounts and assesses the struggles, successes, and legacies of several of these women in cities across North America, from San Francisco to Toronto, Vancouver to Chicago, and Seattle to Milwaukee. These wide-ranging and insightful essays illuminate Native communities in cities as well as the women activists working to build them.
Living on the Land by Nathalie Kermoal (Editor); Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez (Editor); Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez (Editor) An extensive body of literature on Indigenous knowledge and ways ofknowing has been written since the 1980s. This research has for themost part been conducted by scholars operating within Westernepistemological frameworks that tend not only to deny the subjectivityof knowledge but also to privilege masculine authority. As a result,the information gathered predominantly reflects the types of knowledgetraditionally held by men, yielding a perspective that is at oncegendered and incomplete. Even those academics, communities, andgovernments interested in consulting with Indigenous peoples for thepurposes of planning, monitoring, and managing land use have largelyignored the knowledge traditionally produced, preserved, andtransmitted by Indigenous women. While this omission reflectspatriarchal assumptions, it may also be the result of the reductionisttendencies of researchers, who have attempted to organize Indigenousknowledge so as to align it with Western scientific categories, and ofpolicy makers, who have sought to deploy such knowledge in the serviceof external priorities. Such efforts to apply Indigenous knowledge havehad the effect of abstracting this knowledge from place as well as fromthe world view and community--and by extension the gender--towhich it is inextricably connected. Living on the Land examines how patriarchy, gender, andcolonialism have shaped the experiences of Indigenous women as bothknowers and producers of knowledge. From a variety of methodologicalperspectives, contributors to the volume explore the nature and scopeof Indigenous women's knowledge, its rootedness in relationshipsboth human and spiritual, and its inseparability from land andlandscape. From the reconstruction of cultural and ecological heritageby Naskapi women in Québec to the medical expertise of Métis women inwestern Canada to the mapping and securing of land rights in Nicaragua,Living on the Land focuses on the integral role of women as stewards ofthe land and governors of the community. Together, these contributionspoint to a distinctive set of challenges and possibilities forIndigenous women and their communities.
Making Space for Indigenous Feminism, 2nd Edition by Joyce Green (Editor) The first edition of Making Space for Indigenous Feminism proposed that Indigenous feminism was a valid and indeed essential theoretical and activist position, and introduced a roster of important Indigenous feminist contributors. This new edition builds on the success and research of the first and provides updated and new chapters that cover a wide range of some of the most important issues facing Indigenous peoples today: violence against women, recovery of Indigenous self-determination, racism, misogyny and decolonization. Specifically, new chapters deal with Indigenous resurgence, feminism amongst the Sami and in Aboriginal Australia, neoliberal restructuring in Oaxaca, Canada's settler racism and sexism, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Written by Indigenous feminists and allies, this book provides a powerful and original intellectual and political contribution demonstrating that feminism has much to offer Indigenous women, and all Indigenous peoples, in their struggles against oppression.
A Recognition of Being by Kim Anderson Over 15 years ago, Kim Anderson set out to explore how Indigenous womanhood had been constructed and reconstructed in Canada, weaving her own journey as a Cree/Métis woman with the insights, knowledge, and stories of the forty Indigenous women she interviewed. The result was A Recognition of Being, a powerful work that identified both the painful legacy of colonialism and the vital potential of self-definition. In this second edition, Anderson revisits her groundbreaking text to include recent literature on Indigenous feminism and two-spirited theory and to document the efforts of Indigenous women to resist heteropatriarchy. Beginning with a look at the positions of women in traditional Indigenous societies and their status after colonization, this text shows how Indigenous women have since resisted imposed roles, reclaimed their traditions, and reconstructed a powerful Native womanhood. Featuring a new foreword by Maria Campbell and an updated closing dialogue with Bonita Lawrence, this revised edition will be a vital text for courses in women and gender studies and Indigenous studies as well as an important resource for anyone committed to the process of decolonization.
Recollecting by Sarah Carter (Editor); Patricia McCormack (Editor) Recollecting is a rich collection of essays that illuminate the lives of late eighteenth-century to mid-twentieth-century Aboriginal women who have been overlooked in sweeping narratives of the history of the West. Some essays focus on individual women - a trader, a performer, a non-human woman - while others examine cohorts of women - wives, midwives, seamstresses, nuns. The authors look beyond the documentary record and standard representations of women, drawing also on records generated by the women themselves, including their beadwork, other material culture, and oral histories.
Who Took My Sister? by Shannon Webb-Campbell Poetry. Indigenous Studies. Joining a host of important contemporary voices such as Gregory Scofield, Liz Howard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Mi'kmaq writer Shannon Webb-Campbell's WHO TOOK MY SISTER? is a collection of poems and letters written to the many members of her community that hold and carry trauma; they are a choir and a haunting testament. Falling somewhere between Indigenous wisdom and contemporary poetic strategies WHO TOOK MY SISTER? creates a space where readers are brought face to face with Mother Earth, Grandfather Sky, waterways, ancestors who give voice to the land, extreme national genocide, and Indigenous women whose lives are cut short by the colonial agenda. Laced with piercing provocative awareness, cutting truths, and the reality of oppression, WHO TOOK MY SISTER? is a decolonial orchestra and a rallying cry in the wilderness of our tumultuous times. "Through a series of poems, some written directly to specific Indigenous writers, this collection is a choir lifting up, holding and affirming our lives and our words. Grounded in honouring, WHO TOOK MY SISTER? is a beautiful homage to the strength, resistance and presence of Indigenous peoples, and as such, none of us are missing."--Leanne Betasamosake Simpson "WHO TOOK MY SISTER? is luminous. Shannon Webb-Campbell's poems swim through the waters of history and recirculate the stories of loss and grief that have been allowed to sediment out of public view. I could not put this book down, I could not look away. Part witness, part storyteller, Webb-Campbell's lyric voice is a downpour for a parched epoch. These poems are like water, in fact: they restore vitality, they rain down, they nourish, surge, and cleanse."--Erin Wunker "Shannon Webb-Campbell's WHO TOOK MY SISTER? is a brilliant and heartbreaking collection of poetry. Not only does this book speak to the complexities of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, but it also speaks to what it means to be Indigenous, what it means to love, what it means to mourn, and what it means to come together as a community. WHO TOOK MY SISTER? is an absolutely essential book that everyone should read."--Jordan Abel

National Indigenous History Month - Online Display

Indigenous Poetry

Indigenous Art

Indigenous People in Canada

Indigenous Voices & the Environment

Indigenous Women