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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.
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.
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
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