"All My Relations” Indigenous ways of knowing Reading, Watching, Listening List
Indigenous tradition and culture have been passed down for generations through storytelling and artwork. With this reading, watching, listening list, we seek to bring attention to the unique experiences of Indigenous people that are often overlooked and undervalued. These authors and artists imaginatively engage their readers and viewers with the ways in which colonization, residential schools, and settler policies/practices have influenced their lives, culture, traditions and future. We hope you find something on this list that will inspire and challenge you. Enjoy!
We would like to thank Anna Johnson for providing these recommendations.
Resources
Blogs/Websites
Books/Poetry
Podcasts/Audio
Documentaries
Films
Videos
Reports/Articles
Organizations/Campaigns
Artists/Artwork
Webinars
Blogs Posts/Websites:
A Call to Personal Research: Indigenizing Your Curriculum
An article from the Canadian Journal for Teacher Research discusses challenges faced by Canadian teachers and how to Indigenize the curriculum.
Indigenous Content Requirements in Canada—A Resource Centre
This website contains resources relevant to Indigenous course content requirements (ICRs) in Canada.
Chelsea Vowel
Blog by Chelsea Vowel, containing a series of resources that addresses Indigenous myths/misunderstandings, identity, culture, law and more.
Beyond territorial acknowledgments Blog Post (2016) by âpihtawikosisân
This blog post contains information on the Territorial Acknowledgment Guide released by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) in 2016.
What is reconciliation?
A module provided by the University of Toronto (OISE) that addresses what reconciliation means, how to be an ally and how to think through concrete ways of contributing to social justice and positive change.
Tean and Bannock
A collective blog by Indigenous women and photographers
Indigenous Nationhood (Blog)
Blog by Dr. Pamela Palmater, a Mi’kmaw citizen and member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick. She has been a practicing lawyer for 20 years and is currently an Associate Professor and the Chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University
Books/Poetry (both Fiction and Non-Fiction):
First Nations (FN) Books and Poetry
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (FN) by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment andcelebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return."
Calling Down the Sky (FN) by 
Rosanna Deerchild
"Calling Down the Sky" is a poetry collection that describes deep personal experiences and post generational effects of the Canadian Aboriginal Residential School confinements in the 1950's when thousands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were placed in these schools against their parents' wishes. Many were forbidden to speak their language and practice their own culture. The author portrays how the ongoing impact of the residential schools problem has been felt throughout generations and has contributed to social problems that continue to exist today.
My Conversations with Canadians (FN) by Lee Maracle
In prose essays that are both conversational and direct, Maracle seeks not to provide any answers to these questions she has lived with for so long. Rather, she thinks through each one using a multitude of experiences she's had as a First Nations leader, a woman, a mother, and grandmother over the course of her life. Lee Maracle's My Conversations with Canadians presents a tour de force exploration into the writer's own history and a reimagining of the future of our nation.
Seven Fallen Feathers (FN) by 
Tanya Talaga
In 1966, twelve-year-old Chanie Wenjack froze to death on the railway tracks after running away from residential school. An inquest was called and four recommendations were made to prevent another tragedy. None of those recommendations were applied. More than a quarter of a century later, from 2000 to 2011, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave home and live in a foreign and unwelcoming city. Five were found dead in the rivers surrounding Lake Superior, below a sacred Indigenous site. Jordan Wabasse, a gentle boy and star hockey player, disappeared into the minus twenty degrees Celsius night. The body of celebrated artist Norval Morrisseau’s grandson, Kyle, was pulled from a river, as was Curran Strang’s. Robyn Harper died in her boarding-house hallway and Paul Panacheese inexplicably collapsed on his kitchen floor. Reggie Bushie’s death finally prompted an inquest, seven years after the discovery of Jethro Anderson, the first boy whose body was found in the water.
A Mind Spread out on the Ground (FN) by Alicia Elliott
In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrifcation, writing and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political—from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities.
All Our Relations: Indigenous trauma in the shadow of colonialism (FN) by 
Tanya Talaga
From Northern Ontario to Nunavut, Norway, Brazil, Australia, and the United States, the Indigenous experience in colonised nations is startlingly similar and deeply disturbing. It is an experience marked by the violent separation of Peoples from the land, the separation of families, and the separation of individuals from traditional ways of life -- all of which has culminated in a spiritual separation that has had an enduring impact on generations of Indigenous children. As a result of this colonial legacy, too many communities today lack access to the basic determinants of health -- income, employment, education, a safe environment, health services -- leading to a mental health and youth suicide crisis on a global scale.
Injichaag: My Soul in Story: Anishinaabe Poetics in Art and Words (FN) by Rene Meshake and Kim Anderson
This book shares the life story of Anishinaabe artist Rene Meshake in stories, poetry, and Anishinaabemowin “word bundles” that serve as a dictionary of Ojibwe poetics. Meshake was born in the railway town of Nakina in northwestern Ontario in 1948, and spent his early years living off-reserve with his grandmother in a matriarchal land-based community he calls Pagwashing. He was raised through his grandmother’s “bush university,” periodically attending Indian day school, but at the age of ten Rene was scooped into the Indian residential school system, where he suffered sexual abuse as well as the loss of language and connection to family and community. This residential school experience was lifechanging, as it suffocated his artistic expression and resulted in decades of struggle and healing. Now in his twenty-eighth year of sobriety, Rene is a successful multidisciplinary artist, musician and writer. Meshake’s artistic vision and poetic lens provide a unique telling of a story of colonization and recovery.
Heart Berries (FN) by 
Terese Marie Mailhot
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father―an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist―who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame.
Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs (FN) by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
In her debut collection of short stories, Islands of Decolonial Love, renowned writer and activist Leanne Simpson vividly explores the lives of contemporary Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially those of her own Nishnaabeg nation. Found on reserves, in cities and small towns, in bars and curling rinks, canoes and community centres, doctors offices and pickup trucks, Simpson's characters confront the often heartbreaking challenge of pairing the desire to live loving and observant lives with a constant struggle to simply survive the historical and ongoing injustices of racism and colonialism. Told with voices that are rarely recorded but need to be heard, and incorporating the language and history of her people, Leanne Simpson's Islands of Decolonial Love is a profound, important, and beautiful book of fiction.
Mamaskatch (FN) by 
Darrel J. McLeod
Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family’s history. In shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. McLeod was comforted by her presence and that of his many siblings and cousins, the smells of moose stew and wild peppermint tea, and his deep love of the landscape. Bertha taught him to be fiercely proud of his heritage and to listen to the birds that would return to watch over and guide him at key junctures of his life. However, in a spiral of events, Darrel’s mother turned wild and unstable, and their home life became chaotic. Sweet and innocent by nature, Darrel struggled to maintain his grades and pursue an interest in music while changing homes many times, witnessing violence, caring for his younger siblings and suffering abuse at the hands of his surrogate father. Meanwhile, his sibling’s gender transition provoked Darrel to deeply question his own sexual identity.
Inuit Books and Poetry
The Return of the Sun: Suicide and Reclamation Among Inuit of Arctic Canada (Inuit)
Based on two decades of participatory action and ethnographic research, The Return of the Sun is a historical and anthropological examination of suicide among Inuit youth in Arctic Canada. Conceptualizing suicide among Inuit as a response to colonial disruption of family and interpersonal relationships and examining how the community has addressed the issue, Kral draws on research from psychology, anthropology, Indigenous studies, and social justice to understand and address this population.
Life Among the Qallunaat (Inuit) by
Mini Aodla Freeman
The author was born at Cape Horn Island in James Bay in 1936 and tells of her life and childhood in the North and traditional Inuit culture and her exposure to whites (Qallunaat), residential schools, Christianity, and the world outside her close-knit Inuit family. At age 16 she commenced nurse's training at Ste. Therese School in Fort George and in 1957 went to Ottawa to accept a position as a translator with the Canada Dept. of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources.
Split Tooth (Inuit) by Tanya Tagao
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
Sanaaq (Inuit) by 
Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk
Sanaaq is an intimate story of an Inuit family negotiating the changes brought into their community by the coming of the qallunaat, the white people, in the mid-nineteenth century. Composed in 48 episodes, it recounts the daily life of Sanaaq, a strong and outspoken young widow, her daughter Qumaq, and their small semi-nomadic community in northern Quebec. Here they live their lives hunting seal, repairing their kayak, and gathering mussels under blue sea ice before the tide comes in. These are ordinary extraordinary lives: marriages are made and unmade, children are born and named, violence appears in the form of a fearful husband or a hungry polar bear. Here the spirit world is alive and relations with non-humans are never taken lightly. And under it all, the growing intrusion of the qallunaat and the battle for souls between the Catholic and Anglican missionaries threatens to forever change the way of life of Sanaaq and her young family.
The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet (Inuit) by Shila Watt-Cloutier
The Right to Be Cold is a human story of resilience, commitment, and survival told from the unique vantage point of an Inuk woman who, in spite of many obstacles, rose from humble beginnings in the Arctic community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec—where she was raised by a single parent and grandmother and travelled by dog team in a traditional, ice-based Inuit hunting culture—to become one of the most influential and decorated environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. The Right to Be Cold explores the parallels between safeguarding the Arctic and the survival of Inuit culture—and ultimately the world—in the face of past, present, and future environmental degradation.
Métis Books and Poetry
A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing 
Native Womanhood (Métis)
Over 15 years ago, Kim Anderson set out to explore how Indigenous womanhood had been constructed and reconstructed in Canada, weaving her own journey as a Cree/Métis woman with the insights, knowledge, and stories of the forty Indigenous women she interviewed. The result was A Recognition of Being, a powerful work that identified both the painful legacy of colonialism and the vital potential of self-definition.
The Break (Métis) by Katerena Vermetta
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.
From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way (Metis) 
by Jesse Thistle
Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, but their tough-love attitudes meant conflicts became commonplace. And the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. One day, he finally realized he would die unless he turned his life around.
The Marrow Thieves (Metis) by Cherie Dimaline
In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's Indigenous people, and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow, and dreams, means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a fifteen-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones and take refuge from the "recruiters" who seek them out to bring them to the marrow-stealing "factories."
River Woman (Métis) by 
Katherena Vermette
Like the river they speak to, these poems return again and again to the same source in search of new ways to reconstruct what has been lost. Vermette suggests that it’s through language and the body — particularly through language as it lives inside the body — that a fragmented self might resurface as once again whole. This idea of breaking apart and coming back together is woven throughout the collection as the speaker revels in the physical pleasures of learning Anishnaabemowin (“the language / I should have already known”), as she contemplates the ongoing negotiation between the natural world and urban structures, and as she finds herself falling into trust with the ones she loves.
Other
Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada by The Royal Canadian Geographical Society/Canadian Geographic
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, in partnership with Canada's national Indigenous organizations, has created a groundbreaking four-volume atlas that shares the experiences, perspectives, and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. It's an ambitious and unprecedented project inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. Exploring themes of language, demographics, economy, environment and culture, with in-depth coverage of treaties and residential schools, these are stories of Canada's Indigenous Peoples, told in detailed maps and rich narratives.
Hope Matters by Lee Maracle, Columpa Bobb 
and Tania Carter
Hope Matters, written by multiple award-winner Lee Maracle, in collaboration with her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter, focuses on the journey of Indigenous people from colonial beginnings to reconciliation.
Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist
In her powerful debut collection of poetry, Arielle Twist unravels the complexities of human relationships after death and metamorphosis. In these spare yet powerful poems, she explores, with both rage and tenderness, the parameters of grief, trauma, displacement, and identity. Weaving together a past made murky by uncertainty and a present which exists in multitudes, Arielle Twist poetically navigates through what it means to be an Indigenous trans woman, discovering the possibilities of a hopeful future and a transcendent, beautiful path to regaining softness
One Native Life by 
Richard Wagamese
In One Native Life, Wagamese looks back down the road he has travelled in reclaiming his identity and talks about the things he has learned as a human being, a man and an Ojibway in his fifty-two years. Whether he’s writing about playing baseball, running away with the circus, attending a sacred bundle ceremony or meeting Pierre Trudeau, he tells these stories in a healing spirit. Through them, Wagamese celebrates the learning journey his life has been.
The Truth about Stories by Thomas King
In The Truth About Stories, Native novelist and scholar Thomas King explores how stories shape who we are and how we understand and interact with other people. From creation stories to personal experiences, historical anecdotes to social injustices, racist propaganda to works of contemporary Native literature, King probes Native culture's deep ties to storytelling. With wry humor, King deftly weaves events from his own life as a child in California, an academic in Canada, and a Native North American with a wide-ranging discussion of stories told by and about Indians.
Colonized Classrooms: Racism, Trauma and Resistance in Post-Secondary Education
by Sheila Cote-Meek
In Colonized Classrooms, Sheila Cote-Meek discusses how Aboriginal students confront narratives of colonial violence in the postsecondary classroom, while they are, at the same time, living and experiencing colonial violence on a daily basis. Basing her analysis on interviews with Aboriginal students, teachers and Elders, Cote-Meek deftly illustrates how colonization and its violence are not a distant experience, but one that is being negotiated every day in universities and colleges across Canada.
Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit by Marie Battiste
Drawing on treaties, international law, the work of other Indigenous scholars, and especially personal experiences, Marie Battiste documents the nature of Eurocentric models of education, and their devastating impacts on Indigenous knowledge. Chronicling the negative consequences of forced assimilation and the failure of current educational policies to bolster the social and economic conditions of Aboriginal populations, Battiste proposes a new model of education. She argues that the preservation of Aboriginal knowledge is an Aboriginal right and a right preserved by the many treaties with First Nations.
Visioning a Mi'kmaw Humanities: Indigenizing the Academy by 
Marie Battiste
In this volume, Mi’kmaw and non-Mi’kmaw scholars, teachers and educators posit an interdisciplinary approach to explicate and animate a Mi’kmaw Humanities. Drawing on the metaphor of a basket as a multilayered metaphor for engaging postsecondary institutions, these essays reveal historical, educational, legal, philosophical, visual and economic frameworks to develop a knowledge protocol that can direct, transform and enrich conventional Humanities within the complex dynamics of territory, energy, stewardship, alterity and consciousness.
Living Treaties: Narrating Mi'kmaw Treaty Relations Marie Battiste
First Nations, Métis and Inuit lands and resources are tied to treaties and other documents, their relevance forever in dispute. Contributors share how they came to know about treaties, about the key family members and events that shaped their thinking and their activism and life’s work.
Cardinal, C., & Sinclair, R. (2018). Ohpikiihaakan-ohpihmeh — Raised somewhere else: A 60s scoop adoptee's story of 
coming home. Fernwood Publishing.
Ohpikiihaakan-ohpihmeh delves into the personal and provocative narrative of Colleen Cardinal’s journey growing up in a non- Indigenous household as a 60s Scoop adoptee. Cardinal speaks frankly and intimately about instances of violence and abuse throughout her life, but this book is not a story of tragedy. It is a story of empowerment, reclamation and, ultimately, personal reconciliation. It is a form of Indigenous resistance through truth-telling, a story that informs the narrative on missing and murdered Indigenous women, colonial violence, racism and the Indigenous child welfare system.
Archibald, Jo-ann [Q’um Q’um Xiiem]. 2008. Indigenous Storywork: Educating, the Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Jo-ann Archibald worked closely with Elders and storytellers, who shared both traditional and personal life-experience stories, in order to develop ways of bringing storytelling into educational contexts. Indigenous Storywork is the result of this research and it demonstrates how stories have the power to educate and heal the heart, mind, body, and spirit. It builds on the seven principles of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy that form a framework for understanding the characteristics of stories, appreciating the process of storytelling, establishing a receptive learning context, and engaging in holistic meaning-making.
Asch, Michael, John Borrows, and James Tully, eds. 2018. Resurgence and Reconciliation: 
Indigenous—Settler Relations and Earth Teachings.
Resurgence and Reconciliation is multi-disciplinary, blending law, political science, political economy, women's studies, ecology, history, anthropology, sustainability, and climate change. Its dialogic approach strives to put these fields in conversation and draw out the connections and tensions between them. By using “earth-teachings” to inform social practices, the editors and contributors offer a rich, innovative, and holistic way forward in response to the world’s most profound natural and social challenges. This timely volume shows how the complexities and interconnections of resurgence and reconciliation and the living earth are often overlooked in contemporary discourse and debate.
Green, Joyce, ed. 2017. Making Space for Indigenous Feminism. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
The first edition of Making Space for Indigenous Feminism proposed that Indigenous feminism was a valid and indeed essential theoretical and activist position, and introduced a roster of important Indigenous feminist contributors. This new edition builds on the success and research of the first and provides updated and new chapters that cover a wide range of some of the most important issues facing Indigenous peoples today: violence against women, recovery of Indigenous self-determination, racism, misogyny and decolonization. Specifically, new chapters deal with Indigenous resurgence, feminism amongst the Sami and in Aboriginal Australia, neoliberal restructuring in Oaxaca, Canada’s settler racism and sexism, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Kovach, Margaret. 2009. Indigenous Methodologies. Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. Toronto: 
University of Toronto Press.
Kovach includes topics such as Indigenous epistemologies, decolonizing theory, story as method, situating self and culture, Indigenous methods, protocol, meaning-making, and ethics. In exploring these elements, the book interweaves perspectives from six Indigenous researchers who share their stories, and also includes excerpts from the author's own journey into Indigenous methodologies. Indigenous Methodologies is an innovative and important contribution to the emergent discourse on Indigenous research approaches and will be of use to graduate students, professors, and community-based researchers of all backgrounds - both within the academy and beyond.
LaRoque, Emma. 2010. When the Other is Me. Native Resistance Discourse 1850-1990. Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press.
In When the Other is Me, LaRocque brings a metacritical approach to Native writing, situating it as resistance literature within and outside the postcolonial intellectual context. She outlines the overwhelming evidence of dehumanization in Canadian historical and literary writing, its effects on both popular culture and Canadian intellectual development, and Native and non-Native intellectual responses to it in light of the interlayered mix of romanticism, exaggeration of Native difference, and the continuing problem of internalization that challenges our understanding of the colonizer/colonized relationship.
Lawrence, Bonita. 2004. "Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous 
Nationhood. Vancouver: UBC Press
In “Real” Indians and Others, Lawrence draws on the first-person accounts of thirty Toronto residents of Aboriginal descent, as well as archival materials, sociological research, and her own urban Native heritage and experiences. She sheds light on the Canadian government’s efforts to define Native identity through the years by means of the Indian Act and shows how policies such as residential schooling, loss of Indian status, and adoption have affected Native identity. Lawrence looks at how Native people with “Indian status” react and respond to “nonstatus” Native people and how reserve-based and other federally recognized Native people attempt to impose an identity on urban Native people. Drawing on extensive interviews, she describes the devastating loss of community that has resulted from identity legislation and how urban Native people have wrestled with their past and current identities. Lawrence also addresses the future and explores the forms of nation-building that can reconcile the differences in experiences and distinct agendas of urban and reserve-based Native communities.
McGregor, Derborah, Restoule, Jean-Paul, and Rochelle Johnston, eds. 2018. Indigenous Research. Theories, Practices, and Relationships. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars.
Scholars understand what Indigenous research is, but how we practice Indigenous research ethically and respectfully in Canada is under exploration. This ground-breaking edited collection provides readers with concrete and in-depth examples of how to overcome the challenges of Indigenous research with respect to Indigenous worldviews, epistemologies, and ontology. In collaboration with their communities, and with guidance from Elders and other traditional knowledge keepers, each contributor links their personal narrative of Indigenous research to current discussions and debates. Accessible in nature, this interdisciplinary research tool is an essential read for all students and scholars in Indigenous Studies, as well as in the education, anthropology, sociology, and history research methodology classroom.
Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed.
London: Zed Books.
To the colonized, the term "research" is conflated with colonialism; academic research steeped in imperialism remains a painful reality. This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research - specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as "regimes of truth." Concepts such as "discovery" and "claiming" are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Battiste, Marie (Ed.). 2000. Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision. Vancouver: UBC Press.
This book seeks to clarify postcolonial Indigenous thought beginning at the new millennium. It represents the voices of the first generation of global Indigenous scholars and converges those voices, their analyses, and their dreams of a decolonized world. -- Marie Battiste, Author. The essays in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision spring from an International Summer Institute held in 1996 on the cultural restoration of oppressed Indigenous peoples. The contributors, primarily Indigenous, unravel the processes of colonization that enfolded modern society and resulted in the oppression of Indigenous peoples.
Coulthard, Glen Sean. 2014. Red Skin White Masks. Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. 
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Presagra.
In a work of critically engaged political theory, Glen Sean Coulthard challenges recognition as a method of organizing difference and identity in liberal politics, questioning the assumption that contemporary difference and past histories of destructive colonialism between the state and Indigenous peoples can be reconciled through a process of acknowledgment. Beyond this, Coulthard examines an alternative politics—one that seeks to revalue, reconstruct, and redeploy Indigenous cultural practices based on self-recognition rather than on seeking appreciation from the very agents of colonialism.
Wilson, Shawn. 2008. Research is Ceremony. Indigenous Research Methods. Winnipeg: MB Fernwood Publishing
Indigenous researchers are knowledge seekers who work to progress Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing in a modern and constantly evolving context. This book describes a research paradigm shared by Indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia and demonstrates how this paradigm can be put into practice. Relationships don’t just shape Indigenous reality, they are our reality. Indigenous researchers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony that is Indigenous research. Indigenous research is the ceremony of maintaining accountability to these relationships. For researchers to be accountable to all our relations, we must make careful choices in our selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis and finally in the way we present information.
Podcasts/audio:
Stories from the land
In this episode of Stories From The Land we feature the erotic hilarity of Anishinaabe poet, writer and academic, Geraldine King. Geraldine brilliantly reminds us that there is no love in colonialism, that decolonization starts with our bodies, and that NDN's love to laugh!
All My Relations
The podcast came from a desire to have more Indigenous voices accessible in mainstream media—both Matika and Adrienne are surrounded every day in life and work by brilliant Native folks who are fighting and resisting settler colonialism, while also celebrating and uplifting their communities and cultures. The majority of Americans never see this side of Indian Country, and instead only see stereotypical Hollywood Indians set in the historic past or sad, dark poverty porn. We want to offer an alternative, to move beyond bland stereotypes and misrepresentations, and engage in the messy, beautiful, and complicated parts of being Indigenous. We want this space to be for everyone—for Native folks to laugh, to hear ourselves reflected, and give us a chance to think deeper about some of the biggest issues facing our communities, and for non-Native folks to listen and learn.
The Secret Life of Canada
The Secret Life of Canada is a history podcast about the country you know and the stories you don't.
Metis in Space
From a decolonial perspective, the hosts Molly and Chelsea review Sci-Fi movies or television episodes featuring Indigenous peoples, tropes and themes.
The Legacy of Idle No More put InFocus (January 22, 2020)
Join host Melissa Ridgen as she puts the news, viewers want to see “in focus”, providing in-depth analysis to give the ‘story behind the story’. Informational and educational, InFocus provides a detailed examination of the issues affecting our communities
Coffee with my Ma
My radical activist mother Kahentinetha Horn tells me stories of her very long adventurous life, always with the sense of humour that carried herthrough.
Unreserved
Unreserved is the radio space for Indigenous community, culture, and conversation. Host Rosanna Deerchild takes you straight into Indigenous Canada, from Halifax to Haida Gwaii, from Shamattawa to Ottawa, introducing listeners to the storytellers, culture makers and community shakers from across the country.
Four Directions Teachings
FourDirectionsTeachings.com is a visually stunning audio narrated resource for learning about Indigenous knowledge and philosophy from five diverse First Nations in Canada.
Documentaries:
nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up
On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. The jury’s subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada’s legal system and propelling Colten’s family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands
Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance
In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness. Director Alanis Obomsawin—at times with a small crew, at times alone—spent 78 days behind Kanien’kéhaka lines filming the armed standoff between protestors, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. Released in 1993, this landmark documentary has been seen around the world, winning over a dozen international awards and making history at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it became the first documentary ever to win the Best Canadian Feature award. Jesse Wente, Director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office, has called it a “watershed film in the history of First Peoples cinema.”
We were Children
In this feature film, the profound impact of the Canadian government’s residential school system is conveyed through the eyes of two children who were forced to face hardships beyond their years. As young children, Lyna and Glen were taken from their homes and placed in church-run boarding schools, where they suffered years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the effects of which persist in their adult lives. We Were Children gives voice to a national tragedy and demonstrates the incredible resilience of the human spirit.
Sisters and Brothers
In a pounding critique of Canada's colonial history, this short film draws parallels between the annihilation of the bison in the 1890s and the devastation inflicted on the Indigenous population by the residential school system.
Films:
Indian Horse
In the late 1950’s Ontario, eight-year-old Saul Indian Horse is torn from his Ojibway family and committed to one of the notorious Catholic Residential Schools. In this oppressive environment, Saul is denied the freedom to speak his language or embrace his Indigenous heritage while he witnesses horrendous abuse at the hands of the very people entrusted with his care. Despite this, Saul finds salvation in the unlikeliest of places and favourite winter pastime -- hockey. Fascinated by the game, he secretly teaches himself to play, developing a unique and rare skill. He seems to see the game in a way no other player can. His talent leads him away from the misery of the school, eventually leading him to the Pros. But the ghosts of Saul’s past are always present, and threaten to derail his promising career and future. Forced to confront his painful past, Saul draws on the spirit of his ancestors and the understanding of his friends to begin the process of healing.
The Body Remembers Where the
World Broke Open
In an audacious act of heroism and kindness, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) chooses to console a young woman she finds barefoot and sobbing in the streets. She soon discovers that Rosie (Violet Nelson) has just escaped an assault by her boyfriend. Compelled to take action, Áila chooses to bring Rosie into her home and, over the course of the evening, the two women explore the after-effect of this traumatic event.
Videos:
Youth Voices & the TRC: 5 years later, are we any closer? (APTN News)
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report. APTN News and Canadian Roots Exchange are sharing youth perspectives and looking at how the TRC has changed Canada.
Reconciliation and Education: Starleigh Grass (TEDxWestVancouverED)
Lessons to remember before thinking about, talking about and teaching about residential schools and reconciliation.
Sixties Scoop: More Than Sorry
Alberta Government apologized to families affected by the 60s scoop, in which families were removed and placed in non-Indigenous homes.
Picking up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket
The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognize the atrocities of the Indian residential school era, honour the children, and symbolize ongoing reconciliation.
Senator Murray Sinclair: The truth is hard. Reconciliation is harder.
Keynote speech at CCPA-BC's 20th Anniversary Gala: Senator (and former Justice) Murray Sinclair was the Chair of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He was the first Indigenous judge appointed in Manitoba, and is a current member of the Canadian senate. His talk comes at an opportune time for British Columbia, as we seek to understand how best to implement the TRC’s recommendations.
Reports/Articles:
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. 1996. Bridging the Cultural Divide. Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Service Canada.
The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) concerns government policy with respect to the original historical nations of this country. Those nations are important to Canada, and how Canada relates to them defines in large measure its sense of justice and its image in its own eyes and before the world.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2015. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes the following calls to action.
Debassige, Brent. 2010. “Re-conceptualizing Anishinaabe Mino-Bimaadiziwin (the Good Life) as Research Methodology: A Spirit-Centred Way in Anishinaabe Research” Canadian Journal of Native Education 33(1): 11-28.
Over the past two decades, North American and international indigenous researchers, policy makers and communities have identified key issues of relevance to them, but ignored by most institutional or university-based RECs. They critique the current research review structure, and propose changes on a variety of levels in an attempt to develop more community sensitive research ethics review processes. In doing so, they have emphasized recognition of collective rights including community consent. Critics see alternative policy guidelines and community-based review bodies as challenging the current system of ethics review. We examine the process and content of these frameworks and ask how this contrasts with emerging Aboriginal proposals for community-based research ethics review. We follow this with recommendations on how current REC review models might accommodate the requirements of both communities and RECs.
Voices of Our Sisters in Spirit: A Report to Families and Communities
This is a second edition of Voices of Our Sisters In Spirit, originally published in November 2008. The second edition includes new life stories of Debbie Sloss, Georgina Papin and Terrie Ann Dauphinais. The stories of Amber, Nina and Daleen include new messages, updates, photos and poems from their families. Tashina General and Tiffany Morrison are included as stolen and missing sisters and information has been added to Claudette Osborne‟s missing alerts, as well as Gladys Tolley‟s memorium. Also, included in the second edition is an expanded research framework, updated research results as of March 31, 2009 and reports on communications and education highlights. We conclude with interim Sisters In Spirit trends and recommendations developed to address the serious levels of violence against Aboriginal women and girls in Canada.
Reclaiming Power and Place
The National Inquiry’s Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.
The Final Report is comprised of the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers shared over two years of cross-country public hearings and evidence gathering. It delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians. As documented in the Final Report, testimony from family members and survivors of violence spoke about a surrounding context marked by multigenerational and intergenerational trauma and marginalization in the form of poverty, insecure housing or homelessness and barriers to education, employment, health care and cultural support. Experts and Knowledge Keepers spoke to specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in communities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence.
Organizations/Campaigns:
Assembly of First Nations
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is a national advocacy organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada, which includes more than 900,000 people living in 634 First Nation communities and in cities and towns across the country.
Congress of Aboriginal Peoples
The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) is one of five National Indigenous Organizations recognized by the Government of Canada. Founded in 1971 as the Native Council of Canada (NCC), the organization was originally established to represent the interests of Métis and non-status Indians. Reorganized and renamed in 1993, CAP has extended its constituency to include all off-reserve status and non-status Indians, Métis and Southern Inuit Aboriginal Peoples, and serves as the national voice for its provincial and territorial affiliate organizations. CAP also holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which facilitates its participation on international issues of importance to Indigenous Peoples.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
The national representational organization protecting and advancing the rights and interests of Inuit in Canada.
Métis Nation
The Métis emerged as a distinct Indigenous people and nation in the historic Northwest during the late 18th century. The historic Métis Nation Homeland encompasses the Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta and extends into contiguous parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northern United States. In 1870 the Métis Provisional Government of Louis Riel negotiated the entry of the Red River Settlement into Confederation as the Province of Manitoba. The Métis Nation is represented at the national and international levels by the Métis National Council which receives its mandate and direction from its Governing Members, the democratically elected governments of the Métis Nation within the five westernmost provinces.
Native Women’s Association of Canada
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is a National Indigenous Organization representing the political voice of Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people in Canada, inclusive of First Nations on and off reserve, status and non-status, disenfranchised, Métis and Inuit. An aggregate of Indigenous women’s organizations from across the country, NWAC was founded on the collective goal to enhance, promote and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of Indigenous women within their respective communities and Canada societies.
A Voice for Indigenous Women’s Issues
The Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) is a not for profit organization to empower and support all Indigenous women and their families in the province of Ontario through research, advocacy, policy development and programs that focus on local, regional and provincial activities.
Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres
The Friendship Centre vision is to improve the quality of life for Indigenous people living in an urban environment by supporting self-determined activities which encourage equal access to and participation in Canadian society and which respect Indigenous cultural distinctiveness.
We Matter Campaign
We Matter is an Indigenous youth-led and nationally registered organization dedicated to Indigenous youth support, hope and life promotion. Our work started with the We Matter Campaign – a national multi-media campaign in which Indigenous role models, youth, and community members from across Canada submit short videos, written and artistic messages sharing their own experiences of overcoming hardships, and communicating with Indigenous youth that no matter how hopeless life can feel, there is always a way forward.
The First Nations Health Authority
The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) works to reform the way health care is delivered to BC First Nations through direct services and collaboration with provincial partners. The FNHA is governed by and serves BC First Nations individuals and communities.
Indigenous Corporate Training Inc.
The ICT mission is to provide training to get everyone Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples® in their day-to-day jobs and lives. We do this by providing a safe training environment for learners to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitude required to be effective.
Centre for First Nations Governance
The Centre for First Nations Governance is a non-profit organization that supports First Nations as they develop effective self- governance. We are a leader in this field and the only organization in Canada dedicated strictly to First Nations governance. We are guided by the traditional values of respect, trust, honesty and recognition. Our facilitators are trained, experienced Aboriginal professionals.
Canadian Research Data Centre Network
Some of the research undertaken with data available through the CRDCN is related to Indigenous Peoples. This section was developed to help you find relevant news, publications, and videos.
A First Nations Profiles Interactive Map
Centre for Indigenous Envrionmental Resources
We work with Indigenous communities to build environmental capacity. We educate, conduct research, and build skills to assist Indigenous communities in taking action to solve the environmental problems that affect their lands and waters. We learn with, teach, and connect Indigenous communities and organizations with the resources they need to achieve their goals.
Legacy of Hope Foundation
We are a national Indigenous charitable organization with the mandate to educate and create awareness and understanding about the Residential School System, including the intergenerational impacts such as the removal of generations of Indigenous children from their families, including the Sixties Scoop, the post-traumatic stress disorders that many First Nations, Inuit, and Métis continue to experience, all while trying to address racism, foster empathy and understanding and inspire action to improve the situation of Indigenous Peoples today. The LHF supports the ongoing healing process of Residential School Survivors, and their families and seeks their input on projects that honour them.
Native Earth Performing Arts
Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Currently in our 37th year, we are dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada.
First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres
The First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres (FNCCEC) is a non-profit national organization comprising of over fifty Cultural Education Centres which are located in every part of the country and represents the language and cultural diversity among First Nations.
Woodland Cultural Centre
Woodland Cultural Centre serves to preserve and promote Indigenous history, art, language and culture. We welcome you to visit and learn with us as we bring the story of the Haudenosaunee people of the Eastern Woodlands to life through innovative exhibitions and programs.
Gwich'in Renewable Resource Board
The Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board (GRRB) was established under the guidance of the Gwich’in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement (GCLCA) to be the main instrument of wildlife, fish and forest management in the Gwich'in Settlement Area (GSA). The powers and responsibilities of the Board are detailed in Chapters 12 & 13, Vol.1 of the Agreement.
Artists/Artwork:
Artistic Impressions: National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls
The National Inquiry is honoured to share some of the hundreds of artistic expressions gifted throughout the Truth Gathering Process.
WITNESSES: Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools
This exhibition was occasioned by a gathering, the Dialogue on the History and Legacy of the Indian Residential Schools, held at the University of British Columbia First Nations House of Learning on November 1, 2011. At the conclusion of the daylong meeting, Chief Robert Joseph asked those of us present if we could act to raise awareness of the history and legacy of the residential schools. Thus, the idea of the present exhibition came to be – as a response to a request. An exhibition of art seemed a way to bring the issues around residential schools to a broad audience, while considering the impact of the schools on art itself
Wabimeguil Fine Art
The artist uses many materials, such as ink, pastels, pencil drawings and acrylic to create images depicting ceremonies, dreams and big sky country.
Christi Belcourt
Christi Belcourt is a Michif (Métis) visual artist with a deep respect for Mother Earth, the traditions and the knowledge of her people. In addition to her paintings she is also known as a community based artist, environmentalist and advocate for the lands, waters and Indigenous peoples.
An Inside Look at the Work of Sioux Artist Maxine Noel
From the internal creative process to the creation itself, art is an extension of healing and community-building for Maxine Noel.
Red Works
Nadya Kwandibens is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is a self-taught portrait and events photographer and has travelled extensively across Canada for over 10 years. Red Works is a dynamic photography company empowering contemporary Indigenous lifestyles and cultures through photographic essays, features, and portraits.
Dorset Fine Arts
At the Kinngait Studios, this creativity has been channelled into the making of images that represent the Inuit way of life. We southerners call it art, but interestingly, there is no equivalent word in Inuktitut. One of the words used for art in Inuktitut is isumanivi, which means “your own thoughts.” In the early years, when drawing was a new and unfamiliar task, people would frequently ask, “what should I draw?,” and the answer was, “whatever comes to mind,” or isumanivi - think your own thoughts.
Rene Meshake
He works to fuse Ojibwe and English words into his stories, poetry and spoken word performances, Rene communicates his Ojibwe spiritual heritage to the contemporary world.
Daphne Odjig
Daphne Odjig is a Canadian artist of Aboriginal ancestry. She was born September 11,1919 and raised on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island (Lake Huron), Ontario
Bearclaw Gallery
The Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta carries a diverse selection of Canadian First Nations, Metis and Inuit art including paintings, stone sculptures, wood carvings, clay works, jewelry, craft and gifts. The gallery features works by internationally acclaimed First Nations artists Daphne Odjig, Norval Morrisseau, Alex Janvier, Jane Ash Poitras, Maxine Noel, (all of whom are recipients of the Order of Canada), Roy Thomas, Jim Logan, Aaron Paquette, Jason Carter, Linus Woods and many others.
Dawn Oman
Dawn is a self taught First Nations Artist, born in Yellowknife, NT. She is a direct descendant of Chief Snuff of the Yellow Knifes, one of the signers of the original Treaty 8 with the Government of Canada
Loretta Gould
I’m a Mi'kmaq Artist from a little Community called Waycobah 1st Nation, Cape Breton NS. I'm a stay at home mom that loves painting, married with 6 kids, been married since 1994. Creating Art is not a competition its comes From the heart.
Dorothy Francis
Depicting Canada's aboriginal peoples, particularly the Inuit of the far north, developed into a life-long passion for Francis, resulting in more than 500 images rendered in acrylic, pastel, watercolour and oil. While her works reflect the authenticity of her subjects, it is the unique sensitivity and appreciation for the grace in day-to-day life, exhibiting a light-hearted joyfulness, that have caused her work to be widely published and sought after around the world.
Francis Dick
Francis Dick was born in in 1959 in ‘Ya̱lis' (Alert Bay). She is from the Musǥa̱'makw Dzawada̱'enux̱w or, Four Tribes of Kingcome Inlet, and descends from the Kawadelakala (Supernatural Wolf). In 1994, Francis was initiated Hamatsa. Her work depicts her Kwakwaka’wakw heritage by blending social awareness and cultural values in a contemporary NorthWest coast style. Francis’ work is not limited to any one medium. She is prolific with acrylics, wood carvings, jewelry design and glass etchings. Her art is not bound by the constraints of expectations; she creates her visions as she wants them to be seen.
Richard Shorty
Northern Tuchone artist Richard Shorty was born In Whitehorse Yukon in 1959. Currently living in Vancouver, he often returns home to visit his family.
Webinars:
Racism, Reconciliation, and Indigenous Cultural Safety
Cultural Safety in the Classroom: Addressing Anti-Indigenous Racism in Education Settings