Reading List: National Indigenous History Month

In honour of National Indigenous History Month, we’ve compiled a list of recently published and forthcoming books that highlight the history, art, and literature of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.

Use the code MQIS to receive a 20% discount on Indigenous Studies books for the month of June.

Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut / Hunter with Harpoon / Chasseur au harpon

By Markoosie Patsauq, Edited and translated by Valerie Henitiuk and Marc-Antoine Mahieu

Published fifty years ago under the title Harpoon of the Hunter, Markoosie Patsauq’s novel helped establish the genre of Indigenous fiction in Canada. This new English translation unfolds the story of Kamik, a young hero who comes to manhood while on a perilous hunt for a wounded polar bear. In this astonishing tale of a people struggling for survival in a brutal environment, Patsauq describes a life in the Canadian Arctic as one that is reliant on cooperation and vigilance.

Aki-wayn-zih

A Person as Worthy as the Earth

By Eli Baxter, Edited by Matthew Ryan Smith

Aki-wayn-zih is one man’s story of growing up in the hunting and gathering society of the Ojibways and surviving the residential school system, woven together with traditional legends in their original language. A story about the land and its relationship with the Anishinaabayg, from the beginning of their life on Turtle Island to the present day.

Wendat Women’s Arts

By Annette W. de Stecher

Breaking new ground in Indigenous art histories, Wendat Women’s Arts is the first book to bring together a full, richly illustrated history of the Wendat embroidery artform. De Stecher argues for the central role of Wendat women artists in the narrative of community events and ceremony to challenge the historical anonymity of Indigenous women.

Odagahodhes 

Reflecting on Our Journeys

By Gae Ho Hwako Norma Jacobs, Edited by Timothy B. Leduc

Odagahodhes follows an Indigenous sharing circle, relaying teachings by Cayuga Elder Gae Ho Hwako Norma Jacobs and the diverse experiences and knowledge participants bring into reflective relation with the teachings. Each circle ends by inviting the reader into the sacred space of odagahodhes and calls for a transformation in how we live.

Heirs of an Ambivalent Empire

French-Indigenous Relations and the Rise of the Métis in the Hudson Bay Watershed

By Scott Berthelette

Heirs of an Ambivalent Empire explores the lives of ordinary Canadiens who used kinship ties to navigate the space between sovereign Indigenous homelands and the French colonial government in the Hudson Bay watershed from the early 1660s to the 1780s – leading to the emergence of a new Indigenous culture, language, people, and nation: the Métis.