Residential Schools - Recommended Reading for Adults

Updated March 26, 2024
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Winnipeg Public Library
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1

Nishga
Abel, Jordan
Paper Book
WINNER of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize at the 2022 BC and Yukon Book Prizes From Griffin Poetry Prize winner Jordan Abel comes a groundbreaking, deeply personal, and devastating autobiographical meditation that attempts to address the complicated legacies of Canada's...
Also available in eBook format.

2

Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools--Commemorative Edition
Fontaine, Theodore Niizhotay
Paper Book
A new commemorative edition of Theodore Fontaine's powerful, groundbreaking memoir of survival and healing after years of residential school abuse. Originally published in 2010, Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools chronicles the impact of Theodore...
Also available in eBook format and as a Book Club Kit.

3

Genocidal love : a life after residential school
Fox, Bevann
Paper Book
Winner, Indigenous Voices Award, 2021 Winner, Creative Saskatchewan Publishing Award, 2021 Shortlisted, Saskatchewan Book Award, Nonfiction, 2021 Shortlisted, Saskatchewan Book Award, City of Regina Prize, 2021 Shortlisted, Rasmussen & Co....
Also available in eBook format.

4

Finding my talk : how fourteen Native women reclaimed their lives after residential school
Grant, Agnes
Paper Book
When residential schools opened in the 1830s, First Nations envisioned their own teachers, ministers, and interpreters. Instead, students were regularly forced to renounce their cultures and languages and some were subjected to degradations and abuses that left severe emotional scars for generations...

5

The reason you walk
Kinew, Wab
Paper Book
No Marketing Blurb

When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant aboriginal man who'd raised him. The Reason You Walk spans the year 2012, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on a reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school.

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and DAISY formats.

6

The education of Augie Merasty : a residential school memoir
Merasty, Joseph Auguste
Paper Book
The Education of Augie Merasty offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school. Now a retired fisherman and trapper, Joseph A. (Augie) Merasty was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children who were...
Also available in eBook and DAISY formats.

7

Up Ghost River : a chief's journey through the turbulent waters of Native history
Metatawabin, Edmund
Paper Book
A powerful, raw and eloquent memoir about the abuse former First Nations chief Edmund Metatawabin endured in residential school in the 1960s, the resulting trauma, and the spirit he rediscovered within himself and his community through traditional spirituality and knowledge. After being seperated...
Also available in eBook format.

8

From Bear Rock Mountain : the life and times of a Dene residential school survivor
Mountain, Antoine
Paper Book
In 1949, Antoine Mountain was born on the land near Radelie Koe (Fort Good Hope) in the Northwest Territories just south of the Arctic Circle. At the tender age of seven, he was stolen away from his home and sent to a residential school--run by the Roman Catholic Church in collusion with...
Also available in eBook format.

9

Beauval Indian Residential School 1944-1954 : a residential school memoir
Paul, Raphael Victor
Paper Book

10

Five little Indians
Good, Michelle
Paper Book
WINNER: Canada Reads 2022 WINNER: Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction WINNER: Amazon First Novel Award WINNER: Kobo Emerging Author Prize  Finalist: Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist: Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize Finalist: BC & Yukon...
Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats and as a Book Club Kit.

11

Call me Indian : from the trauma of residential school to becoming the NHL's first Treaty Indigenous player
Sasakamoose, Fred
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Fred Sasakamoose played in the NHL before First Nations people had the right to vote in Canada. This page turner will have you cheering for 'Fast Freddy' as he faces off against huge challenges both on and off the ice--a great gift to every proud hockey fan,...
Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

12

They called me number one : secrets and survival at an Indian residential school
Sellars, Bev
Paper Book
BC Book Prize, Non-Fiction, Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One (Finalist) Burt Award for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Literature: Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One (Third Prize winner) Like thousands of Aboriginal children in Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world,...
Also available in eBook and DAISY formats.

13

Indian Horse
Wagamese, Richard.
Paper Book
Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he's a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he's sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he'll find it only through telling his...
Also available in eBook and DAISY formats and as a Book Club Kit.

14

Cheval Indian
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book

Enferme dans un centre de desintoxication, Saul Cheval Indien touche le fond et il semble qu'il n'y ait plus qu'une seule issue a son existence. Plonge en pleine introspection, cet Ojibwe, d'origine Anishinabeg du Nord ontarien, se rememore a la fois les horreurs vecues dans les pensionnats autochtones et sa passion pour le hockey, sport dans lequel il excelle. Saul, confronte aux dures realites du Canada des annees 1960-1970, a ete victime de racisme et a subi les effets devastateurs de l'alienation et du deracinement culturels qui ont frappe plusieurs communautes des Premieres Nations.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

15

The red files
Bird-Wilson, Lisa
Paper Book
This debut poetry collection from Lisa Bird-Wilson reflects on the legacy of the residential school system: the fragmentation of families and histories, with blows that resonate through the generations. Inspired by family and archival sources, Bird-Wilson assembles scraps of a history torn...
Also available in eBook format.

16

Burning in this midnight dream
Halfe, Louise
Paper Book
Burning in the Midnight Dream is the latest collection of poems by Louise Bernice Halfe. Many were written in response to the grim tide of emotions, memories, dreams and nightmares that arose in her as the Truth and Reconciliation process unfolded.In heart-wrenching detail, Halfe recalls the damage...
Also available in eBook format.

17

Calling down the sky
Deerchild, Rosanna
Paper Book
"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...

18

The Knowing: The Enduring Legacy of Residential Schools
Talaga, Tanya
Paper Book
From Tanya Talaga, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers, comes a riveting exploration of her family's story and a retelling of the history of the country we now call Canada For generations, Indigenous People have known that their family members...

19

Tsqelmucwílc : the Kamloops Indian Residential School--resistance and a reckoning
Haig-Brown, Celia
Paper Book
In May 2021, the world was shocked by news of the detection of 215 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) in British Columbia, Canada. Ground-penetrating radar confirmed the vestiges of children as young as three on this site of the infamous...

20

Surviving Canada : indigenous peoples celebrate 150 years of betrayal
Ladner, Kiera L.
Paper Book
Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal is a collection of elegant, thoughtful, and powerful reflections about Indigenous Peoples' complicated, and often frustrating, relationship with Canada, and how--even 150 years after Confederation--the fight for recognition of...
Also available in eBook format.

21

Residential schools : with the words and images of survivors
Loyie, Larry
Paper Book
For over a century, Canada removed more than 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families to attend church-run residential schools, often in remote locations far from home. This hidden history is told by award-winning author and former student Larry Loyie in Residential Schools, With the Words...

22

Spirit of the grassroots people : seeking justice for indigenous survivors of Canada's colonial education system
Mason, Raymond
Paper Book
Raymond Mason is an Ojibway activist who campaigns for the rights of residential school survivors and a founder of Spirit Wind, an organization that played a key role in the development of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. This memoir offers a firsthand account of the personal and...

23

A national crime : the Canadian government and the residential school system, 1879 to 1986
Milloy, John Sheridan.
Paper Book
"I am going to tell you how we are treated. I am always hungry." -- Edward B., a student at Onion Lake School (1923)"[I]f I were appointed by the Dominion Government for the express purpose of spreading tuberculosis, there is nothing finer in existance that the average Indian residential school." --...
Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

24

Picking up the pieces : residential school memories and the making of the Witness Blanket
Newman, Carey
Paper Book
"Will educate and enlighten Canadians for generations to come. It's a must-read for anyone seeking to understand Canada's residential-school saga. Most importantly, it's a touchstone of community for those survivors and their families still on the path to healing."--Waubgeshig Rice, journalist...
Also available in eBook format.

25

Did You See Us?: Reunion, Remembrance, and Reclamation at an Urban Indian Residential School
Woolford, Andrew
Paper Book
The Assiniboia school is unique within Canada's Indian Residential School system. It was the first residential high school in Manitoba and one of the only residential schools in Canada to be located in a large urban setting. Operating between 1958 and 1973 in a period when the residential school...

26

This Benevolent Experiment: Indigenous Boarding Schools, Genocide, and Redress in the Canada and the United States
Woolford, Andrew
Paper Book
At the end of the nineteenth century, Indigenous boarding schools were touted as the means for solving the "Indian problem" in both Canada and the United States. With the goal of permanently transforming Indigenous young people into Europeanized colonial subjects, the schools were ultimately a means...

27

Waiting for the Long Night Moon : Stories
Peters, Amanda.
Paper Book
National Bestseller An intimate and personal debut collection of short fiction from the bestselling author of The Berry Pickers. The stories in Waiting for the Long Night Moon explore the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place--from contact with...

28

Tears in the grass : a novel
Archer, Lynda A.
Paper Book
Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction -- Shortlisted For Elinor Greystone, the only way forward is back into the past. At ninety years of age, Elinor, a Saskatchewan Cree artist, inveterate roll-your-own smoker, and talker to...
Also available in eBook format.

29

Cin petits indiens : roman
Good, Michelle
Paper Book

« On ne t'a pas abandonee, Lily. On t'a ramenee parmi nous. ». Canada, fin des annees 1960. Des milliers de jeunes autochtones, liberes des pensionnats, essaient de survivre dans le quartier d'East Vancouver, entre prostitution, drogue et petits boulots.. Il y a Maisie, qui semble si forte ; la discrete Lucy, epanouie dans la maternite ; Clara, la rebelle, engagee dans l'American Indian Movement ; Kenny, qui ne sait plus comment s'arreter de fuir, et, enfin, Howie, condamne pour avoir rosse son ancien tortionnaire.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

30

Kiss of the fur queen
Highway, Tomson
Paper Book
Born into a magical Cree world in snowy northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis are all too soon torn from their family and thrust into the hostile world of a Catholic residential school. Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are...
Also available in eBook format.

31

Kiss of the fur queen
Highway, Tomson
Paper Book
Born into a magical Cree world in snowy northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis are all too soon torn from their family and thrust into the hostile world of a Catholic residential school. Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are...

Champion et Ooneemeetoo, ce sont deux freres cris nes d'aurores boreales, eleves au rythme des rires et des sabots de caribou martelant le sol de la toundra. Un jour, ils sont envoyes tres loin dans le sud dans un pensionnat autochtone, ou une tout autre realite les attend. Heureusement, la Reine blanche veille sur eux. Impregnes a la fois de la magie et de l'humour de la culture crie, et du potentiel redempteur de l'art, les freres se fabriqueront, l'un par la musique et le theatre, l'autre par la danse, une liberte nouvelle.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

32

This house is not a home
Lafferty, Catherine
Paper Book
After a hunting trip one fall, a family in the far reaches of so-called Canada's north return to nothing but an empty space where their home once stood. Finding themselves suddenly homeless, they have no choice but to assimilate into settler-colonial society in a mining town that has encroached on...

33

Celia's song
Maracle, Lee
Paper Book
Mink is a witness, a shape shifter, compelled to follow the story that has ensnared Celia and her village, on the West coast of Vancouver Island in Nu:Chahlnuth territory. Celia is a seer who - despite being convinced she's a little "off" - must heal her village with the assistance of her sister,...
Also available in eBook format.

34

Canada's Residential Schools: the History, Part 1, Origins To 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 1
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

35

Canada's Residential Schools: the History, Part 2, 1939 To 2000: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 1
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Truth and
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

36

Canada's Residential Schools - the Inuit and Northern Experience: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

37

Canada's Residential Schools : the Métis experience
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

38

Canada's residential schools : the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Volume 4, Missing children and unmarked burials
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

39

Canada's Residential Schools : the legacy
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

40

Canada's residential schools : the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize" Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and...

41

Honorer la ve?rite?, re?concilier pour l'avenir : sommaire du rapport final de la Commission de ve?rite? et re?conciliation du Canada
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Paper Book
Entre 1867 et 2000, le gouvernement canadien a placé plus de 150 000 enfants autochtones dans des pensionnats d'un bout à l'autre du pays. Les autorités gouvernementales et les missionnaires étaient d'avis qu'afin de « civiliser et de christianiser » les enfants autochtones, il fallait les éloigner...

42

A knock on the door : the essential history of residential schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Paper Book
"It can start with a knock on the door one morning. It is the local Indian agent, or the parish priest, or, perhaps, a Mounted Police officer." So began the school experience of many Indigenous children in Canada for more than a hundred years, and so begins the history of residential schools...

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