National Network for Equitable Library Service

Burning in this Midnight Dream is the latest collection of poems by Louise Bernice Halfe. Many were written in response to the grim tide of emotions, memories, dreams and nightmares that arose in her as the Truth and Reconciliation process unfolded. 

In the wake of colonization, in a landscape of loss and dispossession, can we rediscover ways to share the land with other creatures and one another? Towards a Prairie Atonement addresses this question by enlisting the help of a Métis Elder and revisiting the history of one corner of the Great Plains. Set on a prairie remnant seven thousand years old, this book's lyrical blend of personal narrative, prairie history, imagery, and argument begins with the cause of protecting native grassland on community pastures.

In a passionate call to action, Harold Johnson, Cree trapper and Crown Prosecutor, examines alcohol--its history, its myths, and its devastating impact on his community. Confronting what he calls a crime against humanity--one in every two will die an alcohol-related death in northern communities--Johnson refuses to be silent any longer. Asserting that the "lazy, drunken Indian" story is a root cause of the alcohol problems, Johnson sets out to recast the narrative of his people, urging them to reject this racist description of who they are.

As an Elder once said, "Learn one Cree word a day for 100 days, and emerge a different person." In 100 Days of Cree Neal McLeod offers a portal into another way of understanding the universe--and our place within it--while demonstrating why this funny, vibrant, and sometimes salacious language is "the sexiest" of them all (according to Tomson Highway).

Sometime during the summer of 1690, in east-central Saskatchewan, Englishmen Henry Kelsey and his Indian escorts walked out of the boreal forest and into a new world -- the northern great plains of western Canada. It was a landscape never encountered before by another European.

When freelance journalist Alexandra Shimo arrives in Kashechewan, a fly-in, northern Ontario reserve, to investigate rumours of a fabricated water crisis and document its deplorable living conditions, she finds herself drawn into the troubles of the reserve. Unable to cope with the desperate conditions, she begins to fall apart.

When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime. In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim police, family, and friends tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend.

In Joseph Boyden's novella, an Ojibwe boy runs away from a North Ontario Indian School.

He realizes too late just how far away he is from home. Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest, who comment on his plight by cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering comfort on his difficult journey.

De nos jours, on ne défend plus l’idée que les peuples autochtones conquis et colonisés étaient sans culture ou sans histoire, tout en reconnaissant néanmoins que leur histoire était obscure et leur univers culturel opaque pour les premiers voyageurs européens. Roland Viau écrit ici la rencontre entre l’Europe et l’Amerindia en donnant la parole à l’Autre. Sa perspective est globale, proche de la world history – symbiose entre les disciplines de la mémoire: ethnologie, histoire et archéologie – et loin de la vision d’un monde façonné par le seul Occident.

Overview of the diverse and complex lives of First Nations people with subjects including veterans, youth, urbanization, child welfare, appropriate questions to ask a First Nations person, feminism, the medicine wheel, Two-spirit (LGBTQ), residential schools, the land bridge theory, and language preservation.