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Spotlight on: 2024/25 Selected Titles
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Once the Smudge Is Lit
by Kelsey Borgford (Author), Cole Forrest (Author), and Tessa Pizzale (Artist)
Ceremony, community and connection - the poems of Once the Smudge is Lit carry the reader into deeply spiritual elements of Nishnaabe/Ojibwe culture. Co-written by Cole Forrest and Kelsey Borgford, the poetry of Once the Smudge is Lit highlights the Indigenous experience in post-colonial times through explorations of themes ranging from love to community. Bogford's and Forrest's verses seek to open a multidimensional window into the experience of being a contemporary Nishaabe. A profound sense of movement, connection, and continuity is emphasized by Tessa Pizzale's beautifully evocative illustrations, which include a line of smudge smoke that flows from page to page from beginning to end.
The Creator:
Kelsey Borgford is a Nbisiing Nishnaabekwe from the Marten clan. She is an emerging author, passionate about utilizing writing as a tool to revitalize cultural connections. After losing her Gokomis-baa in 2014, Kelsey sought out a means of connection with her grandmother and found that connection to her through the arts. Kelsey's work aims to pass along cultural traditions and identity. Her work is predominantly centered in the practice of beading and writing. She has a children's book, What's in a Bead, forthcoming from Second Story Press. In all aspects of her creativity, Kelsey draws inspiration from her culture, her mother, her community, and relatives in the natural world.
Cole Forrest is an Ojibwe filmmaker and programmer from Nipissing First Nation. They have written and directed independent short films that have been screened at film festivals including imagineNATIVE, TQFF, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. Cole is a recipient of the Ken and Ann Watts Memorial Scholarship and of the James Bartleman Indigenous Youth Creative Writing Award. They were the 2019 recipient of the imagineNATIVE + LIFT Film Mentorship and a 2020 Artist in Residence as a part of the Sundance Native Filmmakers Lab. Cole has supported programming at festivals including TIFF, imagineNATIVE, and Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film. They are a graduate of the Video Design and Production program at George Brown College. Cole is currently writing their first feature film. They are grateful to represent their community in all artistic pursuits.
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Heart Berry Bling
by Jenny Kay Dupuis (Author) and Eva Campbell (Artist)
On a visit to her granny, Maggie is excited to begin her first-ever beading project: a pair of strawberry earrings. However, beading is much harder than she expected! As they work side by side, Granny shares how beading helped her persevere and stay connected to her Anishinaabe culture when she lost her Indian status, forcing her out of her home community—all because she married someone without status, something the men of her community could do freely.
As she learns about patience and perseverance from her granny’s teachings, Maggie discovers that beading is a journey, and like every journey, it’s easier with a loved one at her side.
In this beautifully illustrated book, children learn about the tradition of Anishinaabe beadwork, strawberry teachings, and gender discrimination in the Indian Act.
The Creator:
Dr. Jenny Kay Dupuis is of Anishinaabe/Ojibway ancestry and a proud member of Nipissing First Nation. She is an educator, researcher, artist, and speaker who works full-time supporting the advancement of Indigenous education. Jenny’s interest in her family’s past and her commitment to teaching about Indigenous issues through literature drew her to co-write I am Not a Number, her first children’s book. She lives in Toronto.
Eva Campbell is a painter of the human form. She is the illustrator of The Matatu by Eric Walters. Eva has lived in Ghana and the Caribbean, but now resides in Victoria, British Columbia.
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Truth Telling: Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada
by Michelle Good (Author)
A bold, provocative examination of Canadian Indigenous issues from advocate, activist and award-winning novelist Michelle Good, Truth Telling is a collection of essays about the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.
From resistance and reconciliation to the resurgence and reclamation of Indigenous power, Michelle Good explores the issues through a series of personal essays. The collection includes an expansion and update of her highly popular Globe and Mail article about "pretendians," as well as "A History of Violence," an essay that appeared in a book about missing and murdered women.
Other pieces deal with topics such as discrimination against Indigenous children; what is meant by meaningful reconciliation; and the importance of the Indigenous literary renaissance of the 1970s.
With authority, intelligence and insight, Michelle Good delves into the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin social institutions in Canada and prevents meaningful and substantive reconciliation.
The Creator:
Michelle Good is a writer of Cree ancestry and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She obtained her law degree after three decades of working with indigenous communities and organizations. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, while still practising law, and won the HarperCollins/UBC Prize in 2018. Her poems, short stories and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada. Michelle Good lives and writes in south central British Columbia.
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Nipugtug
by Emma Metallic (Author) and Natalie Laurin (Artist)
Nipugtug (In the Forest–pronounced “nee-book-dook”) follows A’le’s, a young Mi’gmaw woman, as she snowshoes through the forest at different times in her life. On her journeys, she meets and converses with the animals and the trees, who guide her through the challenging and nourishing emotions of learning her Mi’gmaw language. Grounded in her relationship with the territory, A’le’s navigates memories of her language and culture that cling to realities within and beyond her life. A delightful and moving story illustrated with Natalie Laurin’s beautiful paintings, Nipugtug is written in both Mi’gmaw and English for language-learners of any age.
The Creators:
Emma Metallic (she/her) is from the Mi'gmaq community, Listuguj, Quebec, located in the seventh district Gespe'gewa'gi, Mi'gma'gi. Emma holds a BA in Contemporary studies and Law, Justice, & Society with a minor in Indigenous Studies from the University of King's College. Emma is passionate about writing stories that reflect her community's knowledge, needs, and desires. While a learner of the Mi'gmaw language, Emma strives to use the language as much as she can in her day-to-day life. Nipugtug is her debut book.
Natalie Laurin is a Métis and settler illustrator and interdisciplinary designer. She is from the Dusome-Clermont family line with roots in the Georgian Bay Métis community. Natalie holds a Bachelor of Design from NSCAD University, where she majored in Interdisciplinary Design and minored in Illustration.
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The First Few Feet in a World of Wolves
by Scott Mainprize (Author)
The First Few Feet in a World of Wolves chronicles the fictionalization of the year the author spent teaching in Aupaluk (a remote Inuit community on the Ungava Coast of Nunavik). This personal journey is woven into a narrative that outlines, and explores, the history of oppression experienced by the more than six hundred and ninety-six Indigenous nations across northern Turtle Island at the hands of the Canadian government since the Royal Proclamation. Told through the voice of Nomad, who finds himself very much at odds with the land itself. Nomad slowly learns how to reconnect with his fractured history as he embraces and is embraced by the Elders and his own students.
The Creator:
Scott Mainprize is an Algonquin Two-Spirit lawyer and university instructor who has lived across Turtle Island. Primarily working in the areas of restorative justice, criminal law, and Indigenous - colonial history, his work is grounded in the Calls to Action and focuses on understanding where we are situated in relation to our individual, and collective, reconciliation journeys. Outside of professional life, Scott enjoys the therapeutic benefits of performing stand-up comedy, and being put in his place by a wolf and her cat. His debut novel entitled The First Few Feet in a World of Wolves will be published by At Bay Press in the Fall, 2023.
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The Berry Pickers: A Novel
by Amanda Peters (Author)
Growing up as the only child of affluent and overprotective parents, Norma, troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination, searches for the truth, leading her to the blueberry fields of Maine, where a family secret is finally revealed.
The Creator:
Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review and Filling Station Magazine. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars program. A graduate of the Master of Fine Arts Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Amanda Peters has a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. She lives in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, with her fur babies, Holly and Pook.
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Smile So Big
by Sunshine Quem Tenasco (Author) and Chief Lady Bird (Artist)
When Challa comes home in tears after being teased about her smile, her mom gives her a special gift. It’s a magic mirror — shiny, beaded and beautiful — passed on from her mom, and from her djo djo before her.
Challa’s mom tells her that when anyone looks into the mirror, they will see their true self. There’s just one rule: Everyone has to say what they see in the reflection. At first the mirror seems to work for everyone but her. Challa keeps looking and looking. The more beauty she sees in herself, the happier she feels, and the longer she looks into the mirror, the more beauty she sees, until finally Challa sees so much beauty, she can't contain her smile!
This special story, from award-winning activist Sunshine Quem Tenasco and artist Chief Lady Bird, introduces readers to concepts of self-acceptance, self-empowerment, and recognition of the unique beauty that comes from within.
The Creators:
Sunshine Tenasco is Anishinabe, from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Quebec. She is a clean water activist, mother of four and an entrepreneur, founder of Her Braids and Pow Wow Pitch. Her first book was Nibi’s Water Song.
Chief Lady Bird is a Chippewa and Potawatomi artist from Rama First Nation and Moosedeer Point First Nation, who is currently based in Toronto. She graduated from OCAD University in 2015 with a BFA in Drawing and Painting and a minor in Indigenous Visual Culture. Through her art practice, Chief Lady Bird uses street art, community-based workshops, digital illustration and mixed media work to challenge the lens that Indigenous people are often viewed through. She was the recipient of the Donna McLean Award for Portraiture and Life Study in 2015; and known across Turtle Island for her murals.
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Adult/YA and Children's Selected 2024/2025 Titles
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And Then She Fell
by Alicia Elliott
When strange things start happening, Alice, a young Indigenous woman living in a posh Toronto neighborhood, starts losing bits of time and hearing voices she can't explain and discovers the picture-perfect life she's always hoped for may have horrifying consequences—and may be linked to the Haudenosaunee creation story.
The Creator:
Alicia Elliot is a Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario. She has written for The Globe and Mail, CBC, Hazlitt and many other publications. She's had numerous essays nominated for National Magazine Awards, winning Gold in 2017 and an honorable mention in 2020. Her short fiction was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2018 (by Roxane Gay), Best Canadian Stories 2018, and The Journey Prize Stories 30. Alicia was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Her first book, A Mind Spread Out On The Ground, was a national bestseller in Canada. It was also nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and won the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award.
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Freddie the Flyer
by Fred Carmichael (Author), Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail (Author), and Audrea Loreen-Wulf (Artist)
When Freddie was young, he saw a plane up close for the first time when it dropped off supplies at his family's remote bush camp. He was instantly hooked. Freddie has flown for nearly seventy years, doing everything from supply runs to search and rescue to transporting dog teams to far-flung areas.
The Creators:
Frederick “Freddie” Carmichael split his childhood between the trapline and the town of Aklavik, Northwest Territories (NWT). He worked hard to become the first Indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic, founded multiple aviation companies and has served the people of the Mackenzie Delta in the air and as a leader and Elder. Fred is a Member of the Order of Canada and Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, and he holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Saskatchewan. Fred still flies his Cessna 170 from his home in Inuvik, NWT, where he lives with his wife, Miki, and their dog, Shadow.
Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail is a historian and a former Historian Laureate for the city of Edmonton, as well as a former president of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society. She has written For the Love of Flying: The Story of the Laurentian Air Services and Polar Winds: A Century of Flying the North, and edited In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth and Reconciliation. Her first book for children is Alis the Aviator. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
Artist Audrea Loreen-Wulf was born in the Tuktoyaktuk area and lived there as a young child. She now lives in Salmon Arm, BC. She expresses her deep love for the North through her paintings.
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