“Stitching Our Stories Together: Journeys into Indigenous Social Work”
Edited by Jeannine Carrière
and Catherine Richardson
Published by University of Regina Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$34.95
ISBN 9-781779-400574
The stimulating essays in Stitching
Our Stories Together: Journeys into Indigenous Social Work—edited by Métis
scholars and thesis supervisors Jeannine Carrière
and Catherine Richardson—reveal how nine Métis
social work graduate students from across Canada are incorporating individual
Indigeneity, histories and experiences, plus “Indigenous ways of knowing and
being,” into their research in innovative ways, from using dance as a method to
learn Michif to beading. The essays are disparate, imaginative, frank, and
encouraging.
The anthology includes an introduction and conclusion from the editors. They’ve chosen the culturally resonant metaphor of “stitches” in their title, as “Métis have stitched together blankets, quilts, fishing nets, and clothing[,] as well as mended relationships and kept families on track.” They hope the book will inspire “Indigenous undergrads who are contemplating entering a post-graduate program,” and that future students will find a few of “the possibilities offered by Indigenous research” in this handsome collection. The editors point to the importance of “meaning making … the process of how we take the gifts of participant interviews or other information to a level that adds to existing knowledge,” and in their roles as supervisors/mentors, they express a desire to support students in ways that are “meaningful” to the scholars.
The thesis topics are varied, from Robert Mahikwa’s aspiration to support “Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Ministry Care”—whilst simultaneously “working towards a genuine re-connection with, and re-understanding of” his own “cultural knowledges, traditions, and ancestral peoples”—to Juliet Mackie’s research project, “Reconstituting Indigenous Identities through Portraiture and Storytelling: Reclaiming Representation for Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People.”
Even as a non-academic, it was compelling to read about the various scholars’ Indigenous research methodologies. Mahikwa used “Storywork” as his methodology and incorporated “oral traditions and storytelling practices as [his] methods.” Shelley LaFrance, in BC, utilized “storytelling and autoethnography” in her project, “A Métis Grandmother’s Knowledge,” with research guided by “decolonizing theory” and “the Cree Medicine Wheel.” Tanille Johnston, from the We Wai Kai Nation, examined “Indigenous Fathers and Their Paths into Fatherhood.” Her essay “encourages social workers to strive for Father inclusion,” and she also used a storytelling methodology. mel lefebvre deliberately renounced capitals to honour the traditional, noncapitalized michif and nêhiyawêwin languages, and used podcasting to highlight the “decolonization, collective care, and self-care” of “urban indigiqueers, trans, two-spirit folks and indigenous women.” Juliet Mackie applied portraiture and storytelling in her research, and I applaud her “Métis Kitchen Table Methodology,” which includes visiting, food, and music.
My favourite piece is Shawna Bowler’s. Bowler employed “a beading methodology” to “explore the experiences of five urban Indigenous women in Winnipeg,” and gifted each participant with a beaded medicine bag she’d made. The act of beading with others was “decolonizing and healing,” and the writer did an excellent job of relating beading and social work. “Bead by bead, we retell our stories.”
As Carriére and Richardson maintain, “In the midst of ongoing colonizing practices in Canada, we look for signs of light.” This book is one of those bright signs.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
“nēhiyawētān kīkināhk /Speaking Cree in the Home: A Beginner’s Guide for Families”
By Belinda Daniels and Andrea Custer
Foreword by Solomon Ratt, Illustrations
by Lana Whiskeyjack
Published by University of Regina Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$89.95 Hardcover, $19.95 Paperback ISBN 9-780889-779037
It’s been said that learning one’s Indigenous language is fundamental to the process of decolonization, of understanding one’s culture, and also of understanding the world, and thus I’m pleased to see this book that helps Indigenous peoples’ learn Cree at home, and “begin their own journey of reclaiming and revitalizing Cree.”
nēhiyawētān kīkināhk / Speaking Cree in the Home: A Beginner’s Guide for Families is an attractive manual that “helps re-forge connections between identity, language, family, and community” in a practical way. Authors Belinda Daniels (founder of the not-for-profit language revitalization organization nēhiyawak Language Experience Inc. and an assistant professor at the University of Victoria in Indigenous Education, Daniels hales from Sturgeon lake, SK) and Andrea Custer (a Woodland Cree from Pelican Narrows who earned her MEd from the University of Saskatchewan, taught in numerous schools, writes curriculum, and now works at Regina’s First Nations University as a Cree language lecturer) are equally passionate about language revitalization. Custer says “language shapes our beliefs and values, which in turn affect our attitudes and behaviours.” On her website, andreacuster.ca, she writes: “For over a decade, I've dedicated my life to teaching and preserving nīhithawīwin, our Cree language, as I believe it holds the key to our identity, culture, and future.”
Custer is a first-language speaker, Daniels a second-language learner. Together these educators have the rich experience necessary to steer Cree language learners in the right direction, as “The way Indigenous people learn and understand this world is very different from how Europeans learn and understand this world.”
This guide, shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Book Award Publishing in Education Award 2023, includes short chapters that outline Cree language history, Cree’s broad geographical landscape and the five dialects of the language (Plains Cree is the ‘Y’ dialect), a section called “The Invasion” concerning the arrival of European explorers to “the territory of what is now called Saskatchewan,” plus a few pages on Indigenous ways of learning, education, and “Colonization and Decolonization.” In Part Three readers are treated to personal essays in which the editors “position [themselves] as mothers and caregivers of [their] homes.” Custer explains that her youngest daughter “learned English first and Cree second,” and her last-born child (she has five) “is currently immersed in Cree so that it becomes his first language.”
The chapter on various methods of learning Cree is interesting, ie: “Once you learn a word or phrase in Cree … never use that word in English again,” clapping syllables, using complete sentences when talking to children, and monthly goal-setting. As “language activists” and parents, Daniels and Custer include practical and fun ways to bring Cree into the everyday, ie: via beading, berry picking, road trips, mealtimes, nature walks, music, websites, Facebook, creating a photo album, smudging and praying.
Parents may chuckle over a few phrases in the glossary which demonstrate that this is a very realistic guide for contemporary families. If parents wish to communicate “Put your iPad away” or “No more gaming,” they’ll find the Cree translations here.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
"The Haunted Horn"
by Edward Willett
Published by Endless Sky Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$19.99
ISBN 978-1-998273-70-6
Wow: Regina’s Edward Willett has done it again. He’s written a book—this time a light-hearted, middle years’ horror—that’s certain to keep young readers transfixed. The longtime multi-genre writer and publisher’s cracked the code to literary success: his plots zoom; his characters are credible and maintain distinctive voices; and he understands literary craft. In The Haunted Horn, the American Civil War meets present day and reality meets the supernatural, and it’s all more fun that a bunch of bugles.
This engaging, republished novel (first edition, 2012) is set in “Oak Bluffs, Arkansas,” where Union soldiers defeated the Confederates in a fiery battle that closed out the Civil War. It revolves around eighth-grader Alex, a creative only child—he fancies himself “a future best-selling novelist”—small for his size, smart in science and English, and a French horn player in the school’s marching band. Willett notably reveals that Alex’s family is upper middle class: antique-obsessed Mom picks Alex up at school in a Lincoln SUV; Dad recently left retail management when elected to town council. Alex is a target for bully Sammy Findlater and his gang, and Sammy’s on the war path more than usual after Alex accidentally knocks over the fiend’s “elaborate toothpick model of the Great Wall of China.”
The aforementioned accident—Alex is clutzy—happens on an already horrid Friday, and after school Alex is forced to go to a country auction with his mom. While digging through “junk,” ie: “rusted horseshoe nails … a German Bible, three marbles, a bedraggled stuffed hummingbird posed rather stiffly on a piece of wire above a carved wooden flower”—Willett’s a master of including fine details— Alex also finds a “horned-toad ugly” Confederate bugle for $20. After two hours of polishing, the bugle “glowed in the soft light as though illuminated from within.” Before he’s even had time to blow it, cruel Sammy et al rough Alex up because the ringleader wants the bugle as retribution for the toothpick fiasco.
Everything’s heating up. Tough-looking Annie Parker sticks up for Alex and becomes a friend, though she’s self-conscious about the fact that her mother’s the mayor’s maid. And why does she want to bring Sammy down? Alex’s dad’s plans to stage a Battle of Oak Bluff’s anniversary re-enactment go haywire because someone (or something) keeps chewing up and burning the town square “battleground.” Even the four historic cannons have been moved. Alex’s band teacher wants him to play the bugle at Friday’s football game. And after a dramatic Chapter Five chase scene (with Chinese food), Alex finally lifts the old bugle to his lips, the “cold metal twisting in his hand as though alive,” and a ghost boy in Civil War garb is awakened. Visceral war nightmares commence, and Alex and Annie collaborate to learn what in the Sam Hill is going on.
Mystery, horror, and self-deprecating humour abound as Alex learns more about the ghost boy—and more about his adolescent self—in this dynamic, entertaining and highly recommended novel.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
