Residential Schools - Recommended Reading for Adults

Updated August 26, 2024
W
Winnipeg Public Library
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1

Broken circle : the dark legacy of Indian residential schools : a memoir
Fontaine, Theodore
Paper Book
Now an approved curriculum resource for grade 9-12 students in British Columbia and Manitoba. Theodore (Ted) Fontaine lost his family and freedom just after his seventh birthday, when his parents were forced to leave him at an Indian residential school by order of the Roman Catholic Church and the...
Also available in eBook format and as a Book Club Kit.

2

Genocidal love : a life after residential school
Fox, Bevann
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2021 INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARD How can we heal in the face of trauma? How can we transform intergenerational pain into a passion for community and healing?   Presenting herself as "Myrtle," residential school survivor and Indigenous television...
Also available in eBook format.

3

Finding my talk : how fourteen Native women reclaimed their lives after residential school
Grant, Agnes
Ebook

4

The reason you walk
Kinew, Wab
Ebook
A moving story of father-son reconciliation told by a charismatic aboriginal star 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...

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.

5

The education of Augie Merasty : a residential school memoir
Merasty, Joseph Auguste
Paper Book
Named the fourth most important "Book of the Year" by the National Post in 2015 and voted "One Book/One Province" in Saskatchewan for 2017, The Education of Augie Merasty launched on the front page of The Globe and Mail to become a national bestseller and an instant...
Also available in eBook and DAISY formats.

6

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.

7

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.

8

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.

9

Indian horse : a novel
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book
Named a "Best Novel of the Decade" by Literary Hub Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when...
Also available in eBook and DAISY formats and as a Book Club Kit.

10

Indian horse : a novel
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book
Named a "Best Novel of the Decade" by Literary Hub Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when...

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.

11

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.

12

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...

13

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.

14

This benevolent experiment : indigenous boarding schools, genocide, and redress in Canada and the United States
Woolford, Andrew John
Paper Book
AChoice Outstanding Academic Title, 2017 This important book, which students, scholars, and policy makers in the U.S. and Canada should read, is a testament to the quality of the work and the still limited understanding of its subject in both countries.-...

15

Waiting for the Long Night Moon: Stories Hardcover
Peters, Amanda.
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Berry Pickers In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place--from contact with the first European settlers, to the forced removal of...

16

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...

« 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.

17

Kiss of the fur queen
Highway, Tomson
Paper Book
"In his first novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, noted playwright Tomson Highway tells the story of two Cree brothers who were severely abused at a Catholic residential school, and he uses the full transformative power of magic and myth, as well as a compelling traditional novel plot, to...
Also available in eBook format.

18

Kiss of the fur queen
Highway, Tomson
Paper Book
"In his first novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, noted playwright Tomson Highway tells the story of two Cree brothers who were severely abused at a Catholic residential school, and he uses the full transformative power of magic and myth, as well as a compelling traditional novel plot, to...

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.

19

Celia's song
Maracle, Lee
Ebook
Also available in eBook format.

20

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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