Koyczan has written a Canada 151+ poem that asks readers to look honestly at Canadian history and colonization. Each stanza appears in both English and Cree. Koyczan views our time as a turning point. His honest and straightforward words get to the heart of the issues, questioning the actions of settlers (representing church and state) toward Indigenous Peoples. Topics include residential schools, broken treaties, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Idle No More, and Indigenous people’s loss of languages and cultures. Works of art accompany most stanzas and are images that not only bring the poem to life but exemplify the personal experiences of those Indigenous artists. | Cree translation by Solomon Ratt.

Caution: Sexual assault, violence, and genocide, and some artwork showing violence and nudity.

80 pp., 8.5 × 8.5", colour illustrations, colour photographs

Shane L. Koyczan (Cree) • Kent Monkman (Cree), Jim Logan (Métis), Joseph Sanchez (Taos Pueblo), Nadya Kwandibens (Anishinaabe), illus.

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Shane Koyczan is a Cree writer, poet and spoken-word artist who has performed around the globe. His writing and performance are vital, witty and sincere. He reaches the hearts of his audiences with his powerful verse and has brought the Canadian spoken-word movement to the international stage. He is the subject of Shut Up and Say Something, a documentary about his journey to reconnect with his estranged father, who is a residential school Survivor.

 

Shane L. Koyczan's profile page

Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who is well known for his provocative reinterpretations of romantic North American landscapes in a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance and installation. His glamorous gender fluid alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle reverses the colonial gaze, upending received notions of history and Indigenous people.

 

Kent Monkman's profile page

Nadya Kwandibens is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is a self-taught portrait and events photographer and has travelled extensively across Canada for over 10 years. Nadya's photography has been exhibited in group and solo shows across Canada and the United States.

 

Nadya Kwandibens' profile page

Joseph M. Sánchez, a leader in Indigenous and Chicano arts since the 1970s, has worked with hundreds of artists creating work, developing exhibitions and advocating for the rights of minority artists, most importantly with the Professional Native Indian Artists (Native Group of Seven). A spiritual surrealist, Joseph's work is sensual and dreamlike, provocative and thought-inducing.

 

Joseph M. Sánchez's profile page

Jim Logan was born in 1955 in New Westminster, British Columbia and studied at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson, BC. Logan's humor and affection for his culture is tempered by a concern for the restoration of identity and self-awareness within First Nations communities.

Jim Logan's profile page

• Winner, CODE Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature