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103 reviews for:
Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, & Inuit Issues in Canada
Chelsea Vowel
4.68 AVERAGE
103 reviews for:
Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, & Inuit Issues in Canada
Chelsea Vowel
4.68 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is THE new book I’m taking with me everywhere, and recommending to everyone.
What is an "American Indian"? Seems like an easy enough question. And I am sure we all have an idea in our mind.
And we are probably all wrong.
This book. This book should be read by everyone. It should be read by Canadians. It should be read by Americans. The rest of the world can read it too, if they want. The point is, this book breaks down and explains to the "settlers", to the children of colonialists, to the non-indigenous what Indigenous peoples are. And as Chelsea says:
You would think that you might not need a whole book about First Nation people. How could Chelsea have that much to say, but she does, and there is that much. Because we aren't educated in Indigenous history. If we are taught about Indians at all, at least in American schools, it is as a part of history, as though they were all removed from modern times. As one Native American told me, it makes him feel invisible, as though he is not standing there.
Chelsea has a wry sense of humor and although she is educating, she is also entertaining. Her main sections are Terminology of Relationship (about who are Indians), Culture and Identity (what it says on the tin), Myth Busting (all the things you thought you knew about Indians, such as that they got free housing, that they are more susceptible to being drunk and that they don't have to pay taxes, to name a few), State Violence (where she discusses Residency School, and forced fostering out of Native children to non Native families), and Land, Learning, Law and Treaties.
And if you are this point, rolling your eyes, and saying, oh, that sounds boring, it isn't.
The author likes to pull out interesting facts such as:
She also has some comments on how Indians are defined by their blood.
And we are probably all wrong.
This book. This book should be read by everyone. It should be read by Canadians. It should be read by Americans. The rest of the world can read it too, if they want. The point is, this book breaks down and explains to the "settlers", to the children of colonialists, to the non-indigenous what Indigenous peoples are. And as Chelsea says:
The Canadian government basically takes the position that "you're an Indian if we say you're an Indian"
You would think that you might not need a whole book about First Nation people. How could Chelsea have that much to say, but she does, and there is that much. Because we aren't educated in Indigenous history. If we are taught about Indians at all, at least in American schools, it is as a part of history, as though they were all removed from modern times. As one Native American told me, it makes him feel invisible, as though he is not standing there.
Chelsea has a wry sense of humor and although she is educating, she is also entertaining. Her main sections are Terminology of Relationship (about who are Indians), Culture and Identity (what it says on the tin), Myth Busting (all the things you thought you knew about Indians, such as that they got free housing, that they are more susceptible to being drunk and that they don't have to pay taxes, to name a few), State Violence (where she discusses Residency School, and forced fostering out of Native children to non Native families), and Land, Learning, Law and Treaties.
And if you are this point, rolling your eyes, and saying, oh, that sounds boring, it isn't.
The author likes to pull out interesting facts such as:
...from 1941 to 1978, Inuit were forced to weare"Eskimo" identification discs similar to dog tags. This was for ease of colonial administration, as the bureaucrats had difficulty pronousing Inuit names, and the Inuit, at this time, did not have surnames. For a while, Inuit were officially defined as "one to whom an identification disc has been issued.
She also has some comments on how Indians are defined by their blood.
The idea that Indian blood has some sort of magic quality that imbues one with legitimate Indigenous culture is as ridiculous a notion as I can think of, and so is the idea that "outside" blood can dilute or destroy Indigenous culture.
This is such an important book. I do hope that others read it, and perhaps get some idea of what the Indigenous peoples have gone through. There has been and still is so much prejudice against them, and such unfairness. It is important that they speak out, are published, and well read. We could all stand to have a little education.
Thanks to Netgalley, and Highwater Press for making this book available for an honest review.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
It is extremely important readers of this book remind themselves we probably do not know one another in real life – what I am saying, dismissing, or getting a little snarky about is not something personal to you, the reader. Instead, I am reacting to wider social beliefs. Basically, this is not about you as a person. It can’t be, because, as I pointed out, we are strangers. If you start to get the eerie feeling that I am peering out from these pages and fixing you with an accusatory stare, go back and see if I’ve actually named you. From time to time, I will name names, so if yours is not there, you can relax.
Can we just stop here and appreciate the kindness of this woman for a second? It might be just because I'm reading a lot of feminist non-fiction lately, but... I was expecting anger. Especially in the feminist books of women of colour, anger is one of the central themes (see [b:White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color|53260224|White Tears/Brown Scars How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color|Ruby Hamad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1657388210l/53260224._SX50_.jpg|71770367], [b:Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty|229445|Killing the Black Body Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty|Dorothy Roberts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388801372l/229445._SY75_.jpg|222199], [b:Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot|36687229|Hood Feminism Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot|Mikki Kendall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1577489813l/36687229._SY75_.jpg|58481445]). It's understandable... and just overall anger can be a very transformative emotion and I believe we need to see it more positively. But this book is so f*cking kind it made me cry while she explained her terminology which kind of makes me question my sanity. There were places where I wanted to scream at her that she has every right to be angry and that the patience she exercised while explaining things was way too much. Don't get me wrong, she gets angry toward the end of the book, but it's not dominant emotion - that would be grief and sadness and that makes this book that much harder...
I want to be very clear that the term settler does not, and can never, refer to the descendants of Africans who were kidnapped and sold into chattel slavery. Black people, removed and cut off from their own indigenous lands – literally stripped of their humanity and redefined legally as property – could not be agents of settlement. The fact that slavery has been abolished does not change this history. Although Black people are not all indigenous to the Americas, the Americas are home to the descendants of enslaved African peoples.
The most valuable part of this books is without a doubt the vast number of other cited sources and recommendations. I already knew quite a lot, but even in the areas that were more familiar to me, she points the reader in direction of next possible paths and I loved that. Appart from academic/traditional non-fiction sources, she also recommends: movies, documentaries, critical reading sites, musical bands, videogame etc. She is great lively narrator and natural talent in explaining things. I would highly recommend her chapter on cultural appropriation to your attention, that was a theme to me that I wasn't completely certain about, but she explains it in a way that... just makes sense? I also discovered that my idea about what sixties scoops entailed was completely wrong (I thought it was more connected to the boarding school system, not realising it was the "next step in the system"). The Canadian context was also mostly new to me, so that was interesting as was the parts concerning Métis and Inuit, because those doesn't really seem to be the focus of "mainstream" discussions.
The killing of qimmiit has become a flash point in Inuit memories of the changes imposed on their lives by outsiders. In community after community that we visited, Inuit told me, often through tears, “I remember the day my dogs were shot,” or “I remember when my father’s dogs were killed.” The pain still felt from these memories is a testament to the symbiotic relationship between Inuit and qimmiit, and to the fact that the loss of qimmiit was a stark challenge to their independence, self-reliance, and identity as hunters and providers for their family.
One of the other themes that were shocking to me was the slaughters of qimmiit (sled dogs) and the extreme allocations Inuits were experiencing. In some aspects this seems to be comparable to forced cutting of hair of plain nations in boarding schools (you cut your hair when a member of your family dies). The allocations were always awful, but in this case they just seem really extreme...
Also, on a different note, I would have been interested how this goes together with the "import" of Sámi people and their reindeer. I don't actually know much about it, only that Sámi people (indigenous people of Skandinavia) were offered a way to "New World" for teaching Inuit their way of life, because it was thought that reindeer heards could solve some of the famine issues (which were caused by excessive industrialized fishing if I'm not mistaken). I'm just not sure how this would go together with the "dog-centric" culture... or the killings of the dogs... especially if the dog slaughters were to keep Inuit put, why give them reindeer who need nomadic life? (I think that the introduction of reindeer was before this, but...) As I said, I know nothing about this (Vowel doesn't mention reindeer at all), but it's definitely something I would be interested in.
I thought that in honor of this book, I'll finish this review with a list of resources I already went through and would recommend, but there actually isn't that many of them. And they aren't that much of resources...
First, I have to mention Tanya Tagaq, because I'm strangely fascinated by her music which has real inner strenght.
The second would be Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, it's the first fully Inuit movie that won some movie awards (I'm shit at movie snobbism, so I don't know which it were). It's a movie that requests dedication from non-Inuit/non-Indigenous people, because it's not easy to follow, but... it's important cultural piece and just overall really interesting.
But there are several other things she mentioned that really caught my attention, so I'll add them when I watch/read/etc. them.
The final point is, I would definitely recommend this book!
Strongly recommended! Vowel writes about tough issues in a very approachable manner. All Canadians should read this.
I think the first thing all Canadians need to have firmly rooted in their consciousness is that Indigenous peoples are not going away. Ever. Never, ever, ever. (p. 225)
Chelsea Vowel est catégorique: impossible d'avoir une conversation collective sur l'avenir des Premières Nations, des Métis et des Inuit sans rectifier un paquet d'affaires qui circulent à leur sujet. Dans Indigenous Writes, elle prend sur elle de poser les bases nécessaires à cet échange. Elle discute terminologie, elle déconstruit les mythes les plus tenaces, elle décortique la Loi sur les Indiens. Dans un style accessible mais sans complaisance, elle explique les traités, les tortueuses questions d'identité & les règles de degrés de sang, le territoire & les réserves; elle révèle les bases chancelantes qui ont justifié, & justifient encore, la colonisation. Elle revient sur les plus grandes violences perpétrées par l'État contre les peuples autochtones & trace d'un doigt sûr le chemin qu'elles continuent à prendre aujourd'hui.
L'ensemble est captivant, aussi éclairant que frustrant, jamais aride -- mêmes les notes de fin de chapitre sont le fun à lire, c'est pour dire. Vowel a cette capacité incroyable de mettre en mots simples des enjeux complexes, sans jamais arrêter d'appuyer fort sur les incohérences & les injustices. Elle est agréable à lire, drôle & ironique, visiblement brillante & profondément investie dans ce qu'elle fait. J'ai traversé Indigenous Writes en étant constamment ébahie par l'ampleur de ce que je ne connais pas. C'est une leçon d'humilité qui, je pense, m'aura permis de mieux prendre la mesure de ma part de responsabilité.
Je lisais déjà le très bon blogue de Vowel, âpihtawikosisân; dans ce livre, j'ai aussi appris qu'elle co-anime un podcast, Métis in Space. Avec Molly Swain, une Métis de Calgary, elles dédient chaque épisode au visionnement & à l'analyse d'un film ou d'un épisode de télévision de science-fiction qui met en scène des Autochtones. C'est aussi mordant, fascinant & occasionnellement hilarant qu'on peut l'imaginer; je le recommande fois mille, comme ce livre.
Chelsea Vowel est catégorique: impossible d'avoir une conversation collective sur l'avenir des Premières Nations, des Métis et des Inuit sans rectifier un paquet d'affaires qui circulent à leur sujet. Dans Indigenous Writes, elle prend sur elle de poser les bases nécessaires à cet échange. Elle discute terminologie, elle déconstruit les mythes les plus tenaces, elle décortique la Loi sur les Indiens. Dans un style accessible mais sans complaisance, elle explique les traités, les tortueuses questions d'identité & les règles de degrés de sang, le territoire & les réserves; elle révèle les bases chancelantes qui ont justifié, & justifient encore, la colonisation. Elle revient sur les plus grandes violences perpétrées par l'État contre les peuples autochtones & trace d'un doigt sûr le chemin qu'elles continuent à prendre aujourd'hui.
L'ensemble est captivant, aussi éclairant que frustrant, jamais aride -- mêmes les notes de fin de chapitre sont le fun à lire, c'est pour dire. Vowel a cette capacité incroyable de mettre en mots simples des enjeux complexes, sans jamais arrêter d'appuyer fort sur les incohérences & les injustices. Elle est agréable à lire, drôle & ironique, visiblement brillante & profondément investie dans ce qu'elle fait. J'ai traversé Indigenous Writes en étant constamment ébahie par l'ampleur de ce que je ne connais pas. C'est une leçon d'humilité qui, je pense, m'aura permis de mieux prendre la mesure de ma part de responsabilité.
Je lisais déjà le très bon blogue de Vowel, âpihtawikosisân; dans ce livre, j'ai aussi appris qu'elle co-anime un podcast, Métis in Space. Avec Molly Swain, une Métis de Calgary, elles dédient chaque épisode au visionnement & à l'analyse d'un film ou d'un épisode de télévision de science-fiction qui met en scène des Autochtones. C'est aussi mordant, fascinant & occasionnellement hilarant qu'on peut l'imaginer; je le recommande fois mille, comme ce livre.
A clearly written and informative book. I'm pretty sure that I am simply scratching the surface of understanding. But her essays (succinct and wryly humorous in parts) seek to set out the issues and tackle them one by one. Excellent resources at the end of each chapter that, should you want to delve deeper into a topic,will let you do so.
This should be required reading for all Canadians. It is truth-telling and challenging and myth-busting, and exposes the ongoing colonialism and racism still being perpetuated against Indigenous peoples in Canada.