Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Paying the Land by Joe Sacco

4 reviews

franz_comme_kafka's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Addiction, Colonisation, Animal death, Genocide, Xenophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Drug use

Moderate: Suicide, Incest, and Bullying

Minor: Blood and Mental illness

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

Joe Sacco is a treasure. He documents what he sees in precise line drawings, illustrating his books in depth and detail that add to the words that his people say. 

In this book, he shows the collective trauma visited upon the Dene, an indigenous people who primarily live in Canada’s Northwest Territories. His interviews with natives across Dene land, from the old to the young, show the problems they as a group face, and the ways the communities are struggling to resolve them. 

The section on the residential schools, where children were removed from their families and forced to adopt the white people’s culture, was the most disturbing. In addition to being kidnapped and held prisoner for 8-10 years by the government, the children were physically punished and frequently sexually abused. 

By the time they returned home, they were so emotionally damaged that they could no longer communicate with their parents and grandparents. They relied on alcohol and drugs to mute their pain, and they passed their misery onto their own families. It is beyond tragic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Confinement, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Bullying, Child death, Kidnapping, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Suicide

serendipitysbooks's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

 Paying the Land is exemplary graphic journalism - graphic in format not content. Sensitive topics like sexual abuse are handled sensitively. The author travelled extensively in the Dene land (part of what many know as Canada’s Northwest Territory). His focus was on the impacts of and attitudes towards development and the extraction of natural resources like oil, gas and diamonds. Is fracking an economic opportunity to be embraced or the antithesis of traditional ways and beliefs that should be rejected? The book inevitably is broader in scope highlighting traditional ways of life, and the impacts of colonialism especially the residential schools. I appreciated the way the author gave space to differing opinions and points of view, letting willing Dene people speak for themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual violence

annabunce's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Excellent read - a holistic look at Dene and their relationship to resource extraction, the impacts of colonization and residential schools, and the complexity of community politics. Would highly recommend to anyone although I do have some questions about whether any of the funds from this book were directed back to community and noticed a couple errors that made me wonder about the editing process (ex writing Inuits instead of Inuit)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexual violence, and Suicide