Harold Rhenisch's poems balance the settler and Indigenous experiences of land and water in the Pacific Northwest
A collection of shanties (songs) laid out in couplets that move between English and Chinook Wawa, The Salmon Shanties celebrates a poetic tradition deeply rooted on the West Coast. Harold Rhenisch explores memories of people, place, and of returning home, speaking the land's names as a music of its own and creating a series of aural maps.
Imbued with rhythms of Secwepemc grass dances, the colloquial chatter of the Canadian poet Al Purdy, and the voice of poet and historian Charles Lillard, Rhenisch's work sings of roots to the land lifted up by the sea into the sky--as if Ezra Pound had sung of Cascadia instead of Europe.
Do not be in Mareuil and Périgeux tonight; it is 1912 no longer.
We, the land's singers, are walking the star road on the long way home
with the crickets of a July evening above Tuc el Nuit,
the burrowing owls of N'kmp,
and the long memories of the dwarf shrews of Nighthawk.
Breath cannot be denied. Poh cannot be forsaken. Ezra, shantie.

Uncut explores the significance of the foreskin in contemporary culture

Uncut: A Cultural Analysis of the Foreskin takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the foreskin and its position in contemporary Anglo-American culture. From language to art, from religion to medicine and public health, Uncut is a provocative book that asks us to ask ourselves what we know and don't know about this seemingly small piece of skin.

The uncut penis is viewed by some as attractive or erotic, and by others as ugly or undesirable. Secular parents of male infants worry about whether or not the foreskin should be removed so their little boy can grow up to look like dad or to avoid imagined bullying in the locker room. Medical experts and public health organizations argue back and forth about whether circumcision is medically necessary, while intactivists advocate that removing an infant's foreskin without their consent is mutilation.

Drawing on all these threads, Jonathan A. Allan leads us through the history and cultural construction of the foreskin--from Michelangelo's David to parenting manuals, from nineteenth-century panic over masturbation to foreskin restoration--to ultimately ask: what is the future of the foreskin?

How one veteran empowered a generation of soldiers to heal from PTSD

After serving in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and civil war, Lieutenant Colonel St phane Grenier returned home haunted by his experiences. Facing post-traumatic stress disorder and an archaic establishment, he spent ten years confronting--and changing--the military mental health system from within.

Coining the term Operational Stress Injury to allow the military to see mental injury in the same light as a physical wound, he founded the Operational Stress Injury Social Support program that provides help for mentally injured soldiers and veterans.

Since retiring from the military in 2012, his ground breaking approach has been adopted by civilian society. Through his social enterprise Mental Health Innovations, Grenier delivers his direct walk the talk method to improve mental well being in government and business.

Stories of indigenous lifeways from kisisk ciwan territory

This groundbreaking anthology from territory that is now Saskatchewan, kisisk ciwan, includes rich oral narratives from Cree, Saulteaux, Nakoda, Dakota, Dene, and Metis cultures; early writings from Cree missionaries; speeches and letters by Treaty Chiefs; stories from elders; archival discoveries; and contemporary literary works in all genres.

Historically and culturally comprehensive, voices include Big Bear, Thunderchild, Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Edward Ahenakew, Maria Campbell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Rita Bouvier, Harold Johnson, Gregory Scofield, Warren Cariou, Louise Halfe, and many more.

The harrowing story of one Indigenous child's experience in Canada's residential schools

Named the fourth most important Book of the Year by the National Post and voted One Book/One Province in Saskatchewan, The Education of Augie Merasty launched on the front page of The Globe and Mail to become a national bestseller.

Publishers Weekly called the book historically significant, and The Toronto Star recommended it as a must read for any Canadian interested in truth and reconciliation. Writing in The Globe and Mail, educator J.D.M. Stewart noted that it is well suited to a teenage audience because of its brevity and frankness.

This new edition includes a Learning Guide that deepens our understanding of the residential school experience, making it ideal for classroom and book club use. It also features a new postscript by David Carpenter, describing how the publication of his memoir changed Augie Merasty's life.

Long-listed for the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize

A memoir of addiction, intergenerational trauma, and the lasting wounds of sexual violence

Helen Knott, a highly accomplished Indigenous woman, seems to have it all. But in her memoir, she offers a different perspective. In My Own Moccasins is an unflinching account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, and the wounds brought on by sexual violence. It is also the story of sisterhood, the power of ceremony, the love of family, and the possibility of redemption.

With gripping moments of withdrawal, times of spiritual awareness, and historical insights going back to the signing of Treaty 8 by her great-great grandfather, Chief Bigfoot, her journey exposes the legacy of colonialism, while reclaiming her spirit.

An expert on the buffalo tells the history of this keystone species through extensive research and beautiful photographs.

The mere mention of the buffalo instantly brings to mind the vast herds that once roamed the North American continent, and few wild animals captivate our imaginations as much as the buffalo do. Once numbering in the tens of millions, these magnificent creatures played a significant role in structuring the varied ecosystems they occupied. For at least 24,000 years, North American Indigenous Peoples depended upon them, and it was the abundance of buffalo that initially facilitated the dispersal of humankind across the continent.

With the arrival of Europeans and their rapacious capacity for wildlife destruction, the buffalo was all but exterminated. In a span of just thirty years during the mid-1800s, buffalo populations plummeted from more than 30 million to just twenty-three. And with them went all of the intricate food webs, the trophic cascades, and the inter-species relationships that had evolved over thousands of years.

Despite this brush with extinction, the buffalo survived, and isolated populations are slowly recovering. As this recovery proceeds, the relationships the animals once had with thousands of species are being re-established in a remarkable process of ecological healing. The intricacy of those restored relationships is the subject of this book.

Based on author Wes Olson's thirty-five years of working intimately with bison--and featuring Johane Janelle's stunning photography--The Ecological Buffalo is a story that takes the reader on a journey to understand the myriad connections this keystone species has with the Great Plains.

Explores the far-reaching impacts of pesticides in Ecuador's banana industry, tracing their roots through more than a century of history in the banana-producing Americas
At the southern end of Ecuador's la costa region lies the city of Machala, the self-described Banana Capital of the world. There, farmers and workers experience alarming health effects associated with widespread pesticide use in banana production, compounded by precarious and unsafe working conditions. Banana Capital: Stories, Science, and Poison at the Equator reveals the often grim realities of daily life in banana-producing parts of the world and, beyond that, seeks to understand and address these challenges.
Ben Brisbois's search for solutions leads him back to the 19th-century origins of banana production in the Americas and through over a century of imperialism, bloodshed, ecological devastation, diverse workforces, and not-so-diverse bananas. Along the way, however, attempts by powerful Northern corporations and their government allies to extract wealth from Latin American territories and bodies prove vulnerable when met with resistance mounted by workers, Latin American nations, and the ever-unpredictable natural world.
Banana Capital issues an urgent call to action, unveiling the power dynamics of life in the banana industry--dynamics vividly experienced by workers in ways that are rooted in significant relationships to communities, the land, and neocolonial power structures. Ultimately, the book provides a roadmap toward social justice and sustainability in the uncertain future of banana production.

The award-winning book about how Canada's first prime minister starved Indigenous peoples in the pursuit of nationhood

Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada.
In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of Indigenous people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's National Dream.

It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day.

This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, an opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called one of the most important books of the twenty-first century by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others.

Explores the integral roles that Métis women assumed to ensure the survival of their communities during the fur trade era and onward

Métis Matriarchs examines the roles of prominent Métis women from across Western Canada from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, providing a rare glimpse into the everyday lives of these remarkable women who were recognized as Matriarchs and respected for their knowledge, expertise, and authority within their families and communities.

This edited collection provides an opportunity to learn about the significant contributions made by Métis women during a transitional period in Western Canadian history as the fur trade gave way to a more sedentary, industrialized, and agrarian economy. Challenging how we think about Western Canadian settlement processes that removed Indigenous peoples from the land, this collection of stories examines the ways Métis matriarchs responded to colonial and settler colonial interventions into their lives and livelihoods and ultimately ensured the cultural survival of their communities.

Rediscovering, valuing, and embracing Indigenous spirituality and wisdom is critical for humanity to survive in the future.

Civilization is a western, Eurocentric construct borne from a distrust of nature, a desire to endlessly exploit it and profit from it. Despite being a relatively recent development, civilization's inherent logic has resulted in over-population, inequality, poverty, misery, war, and climate change and now threatens humanity's very survival. How can humanity expect to survive if it continues to look for solutions from the very structures and ideologies that have brought it to the brink of extinction?

In this final book of his trilogy, Dr. Blair Stonechild deftly illustrates how Indigenous spirituality, wisdom, and land-based knowledge is critical to human survival in the face of environmental destruction and human-induced climate change. Reinterpreting world history from an Indigenous perspective, Stonechild's solution to this unfolding catastrophe is ecolization, a state in which humans recognize they are not the central purpose of creation and a way of existing harmoniously with the natural and spiritual worlds.

Beautifully written, urgent, and critical, Challenge to Civilization reminds us that it is not Earth that is in danger of extinction, but ourselves, and Indigenous spiritual wisdom can be the guiding light through what will otherwise be humanity's final, ever-darkening days.

An introduction to North African Indigenous cinema through a new understanding of the Amazigh homelands
Amazigh Cinema: An Introduction to North African Indigenous Film examines the emergence of Amazigh visual media in its historical and cultural contexts and engages in a decolonization of the studies of Amazigh expression. An exploration of film from across the Tamazgha or Amazigh homeland produced by and about Imazighen, Indigenous peoples historically referred to as Berbers, the book underscores the role of cinematic art in language preservation and the shaping of contemporary Amazigh identity against a backdrop of historical repression and exclusion. Opening up debate on the growing archive of Amazigh cinema for global audiences, this collection contrasts Amazigh production with national and global cinema and traces links between oral performance, amateur video, and feature films. These films expose fault lines in post-colonial belief systems and interrogate the tension between the pull of nostalgia and push for change as filmmakers use their cameras to re-establish a sense of presence and continuity in a changing world.
Resisting folklorization, Amazigh Cinema shows how Amazigh filmmakers engage multiple spectatorships in the everyday lives of rural and immigrant people who have overcome discrimination and cultural apathy using the ancient methods and modern tools at hand. Their use of visual mediums to craft new narratives of Amazigh life creates a space for all audiences to witness Indigenous lives and their strategies--and celebration-- of survival.

A collection of graduate research by emerging Indigenous social work scholars
Between its covers, Stitching Our Stories Together highlights the research of Indigenous graduate students from universities across Canada. Focusing on their own nations, communities, and individual realities, these academics demonstrate how Indigenous epistemologies can challenge settler ideas and myths around pan-Indigeneity.
This collection is bookended with reflections from the scholars' thesis supervisors, who describe their philosophy of mentoring and supporting students through an Indigenous lens, and how their pedagogies embrace the significance of relationality in Indigenous worldviews.
By celebrating the work of Indigenous researchers, Stitching Our Stories Together points toward a future where Indigenous ways of knowing and being take their rightful place in the halls of higher learning and beyond.

Master storyteller and bestselling author Richard Van Camp on how to tell a good story

Gathering around a campfire, or the dinner table, we humans have always told stories. Through the stories we tell, we define our own identities and shape our understanding of the world. Master storyteller and bestselling author Richard Van Camp writes of the power of storytelling and its potential to transform both the speaker and the audience in Gather. Describing the elements required to make a story, he offers insights into how to read a room, how to capture the attention of listeners, how to create community through storytelling, and how to banish loneliness. A member of the Tlicho Dene First Nation, Van Camp includes stories from Elders whose wisdom influenced him.

In The Surprising Lives of Small-Town Doctors, physicians put down their stethoscopes and pick up their pens to share some of the most frightening and pivotal moments of their careers.

From igloo house calls to bandaging animal bites to performing surgeries they are barely equipped to do, these accounts speak of the many rewards of practising medicine in small communities. They also detail the fears, failures, and challenges of providing health care in the farthest reaches of our country--where the need for doctors is the greatest. Collectively, they capture both the history and the future of rural medicine in Canada.

Illuminating two hundred years of lost Black History through the lens of an iconic abolitionist settlement
In the Light of Dawn shares the compelling story of how the iconic Dawn Settlement--now largely within the boundaries of Dresden, Ontario-- shaped (and was shaped by) a broader course of international events along a 200-year continuum of resistance and contribution. Using a geographic approach, the book reveals that the town's size, scope, and importance eclipses its previous narrow interpretations as a failed utopian colony at a terminus of the Underground Railroad lead by the Reverend Josiah Henson (the real Uncle Tom of Harriet Beecher Stowe's landmark anti-slavery novel).
Beyond Henson, Dawn's history contains familiar figures like Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks as well as a pantheon of lesser known but equally important Black leaders including Dennis Hill, William Whipper, William Carter, and Hugh Burnett. The trajectories of Dawn's residents often intersect with pivotal international events from the time of the fur trade to the modern Civil Rights movement. Activism from 19th-century Pennsylvania's Black Elite and other major American centres run like a golden thread through successive generations in Dawn, resulting in landmark actions such as the challenge to segregation of private businesses and publicly funded schools. Dawn's people not only resisted slavery and oppression but also made successful and lasting contributions to the growth of local communities and wider society.
Far from being a failed colony, the Dawn Settlement emerges as a vibrant community of racial and economic diversity, where people of agency and ability influenced wider societal change. In the Light of Dawn presents an expansive yet nuanced account of a small rural town that challenges traditional notions of Black History and the contributions of early Black pioneers, leaving behind an enduring legacy.