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A review by srgower
Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente
challenging
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
This was an amazing book. I breezed through it because I wanted to keep going. It's definitely challenging - especially if you're not familiar with Indigenous-Canada relations. I didn't know much about Jesse Wente before starting the book but I got a good sense of who he is by reading this collection of essays. I hope that he has more work out there - but I haven't checked.
One particular section in his last essay stood out:
"Two generations.
All the effort Canada put into forcing my family's estrangement from our land, divorcing us from our community. All that money and violence, and all it got them was two generations. My mother and me. That's it. All the work to drive my grandmother away, to brutalize her into a life in the city, and yet her great-granddaughter wants to move back to the rez. What a waste. What a colossal waste of time, money effort, and lives."
The essays are at times entertaining, and at times tragic. Highly recommended read.
One particular section in his last essay stood out:
"Two generations.
All the effort Canada put into forcing my family's estrangement from our land, divorcing us from our community. All that money and violence, and all it got them was two generations. My mother and me. That's it. All the work to drive my grandmother away, to brutalize her into a life in the city, and yet her great-granddaughter wants to move back to the rez. What a waste. What a colossal waste of time, money effort, and lives."
The essays are at times entertaining, and at times tragic. Highly recommended read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism