Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club | Nos récits : club de lecture autochtone

Women of the Fur Trade playwright Frances Končan shares the inspiration and creative process behind their play, and the importance of sitting around and talking. About the bookIn eighteen hundred and something something, somewhere upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for twenty-first century slang sit in a fort sharing their views on life, love, and the hot nerd Louis Riel. This lively historical satire of survival and cultural inheritance shifts perspectives from the male gaze onto women’s power in the past and present through the lens of the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade. About the AuthorFrances Končan is a Two-Spirit director, playwright, and actor of mixed Anishinaabe and Slovene descent. Originally hailing from Couchiching First Nation, she now lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Končan is a winner of the REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award and the Winnipeg Arts Council's 2017 RBC On the Rise Award. Women of the Fur Trade won the Toronto Fringe Festival Best New Play award in 2018. Končan is known for her use of humour to tackle the difficult chapters of Indigenous history while also celebrating the wit, the pride, and the power of Indigenous women.

This month we are joined by Norma Dunning, Inuit writer, scholar, professor and grandmother, to talk about her book Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity. This poetry collection examines the author’s lived history as an Inuk who was born, raised and continues to live south of sixty. Her writing takes into account the many assimilative practices that Inuit continue to face and the expectations of mainstream as to what an Inuk can and should be. Her words examine what it is like to feel the constant rejection of her work from non-Inuit and how she must in some way find the spirit to carry through with what she holds to be true demonstrating the importance of standing tall and close to her words as an Indigenous woman.Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club and the Children’s Indigenous Book Club are in partnership with Goodminds.com, a First Nations-owned family business. Looking to read along with us? Purchase your books from GoodMinds.com and use code NAC-CNA2022 to get free shipping! Thank you to our Major Partners, Indigenous Programming: Slaight Family Foundation and TD Ready Commitment.

A Nlaka’pamux from the Lytton First Nation in British Columbia, Kevin Loring, Artistc Director of Indigenous Theatre, is an accomplished Canadian playwright, actor and director and was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for English Language Drama for his outstanding play, Where the Blood Mixes in 2009. His latest play to hit the stage and our book for this month’s Book Club is Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer. The story follows Little Red, the last remaining member of the Little Red Warrior First Nation, who discovers construction has begun on his ancestral lands. In a fit of rage, he attacks an engineer, gets arrested, thrown in jail, and assigned a court-appointed lawyer, Larry. Much to the dismay of his wife, Larry invites a displaced Little Red Warrior to stay with them. But when you invite a coyote into your coop, he might just walk away with your chickens. Joining Kevin for this conversation is Deneh’Cho Thompson, who is a Dene director, actor, playwright and professor focusing on Indigenous acting pedagogy and Indigenous dramaturgies. Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club and the Children’s Indigenous Book Club are in partnership with Goodminds.com, a First Nations-owned family business. Looking to read along with us? Purchase your books from GoodMinds.com and use code NAC-CNA2022 to get free shipping! Thank you to our Major Partners, Indigenous Programming: Slaight Family Foundation and TD Ready Commitment.

Drew Hayden Taylor is an award-winning playwright, novelist, scriptwriter and journalist. He was born and still lives on the Curve Lake First Nation in Central Ontario. Taylor has authored nearly thirty books, including Take Us to Your Chief (Douglas & McIntyre, 2016). He also edited Me Funny, Me Sexy and Me Artsy (Douglas & McIntyre, 2005, 2008 and 2015), and has been nominated for two Governor General’s Awards.In this month’s episode, we look at his new book Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future. Discussing everything from language renewal to sci-fi, this collection is a powerful and important expression of imagination rooted in social critique, cultural experience, traditional knowledge, activism and the multifaceted experiences of Indigenous people on Turtle Island.He is joined in conversation Kyle St Amour Brennan (Algonquin-Anishinabe) from Kitigàn-Zìbì Anishinàbeg First Nation. He is an Indigenous technologist, First Nations Storyteller, advocate for tribal collective self-determination and coaches on Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Equity. Currently he is working on the Build Native initiative as Indigenous Entrepreneurship Program Manager at one of North America’s leading technology companies Shopify. Working to build awareness, foster community, and support sustained economic development and opportunity for all Indigenous peoples globally through Commerce and Entrepreneurship.Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club and the Children’s Indigenous Book Club are in partnership with Goodminds.com, a First Nations-owned family business.Looking to read along with us? Purchase your books from GoodMinds.com and use code NAC-CNA2022 to get free shipping!Thank you to our Major Partners, Indigenous Programming: Slaight Family Foundation and TD Ready Commitment

Voices of a Generation gathers three Canadian plays that crack open millennial stereotypes to reveal a generation’s complex and varied experiences. Zahgidiwin/love by Frances Koncan, of mixed Anishinaabe and Slovene descent, follows Namid through multiple generations: as a survivor of abuse in a residential school in the 1960s, as a missing woman held in a suburban basement in the 1990s, and as the rebellious daughter of a tyrannical queen in a post-apocalyptic, matriarchal society. A comedy about loss in the era of truth and reconciliation, zahgidiwin/love uses a mash-up of theatrical styles to embody the millennial creative impulse to remix and remake while presenting a vital perspective on what decolonization might look like both on and off stage. In this month's episode we have playwright and director Frances Koncan (Anishinaabe and Slovene) who is joined by theatre artist and arts supporter Brit Johnston in a conversation about Koncan’s play zahgidiwin/love, “a decolonial comedy about loss - of language, of love, of culture, of land, of knowledge - in the era of truth and reconciliation”. Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club and the Children’s Indigenous Book Club are in partnership with Goodminds.com, a First Nations-owned family business. Looking to read along with us? Purchase your books from GoodMinds.com and use code NAC-CNA2022 to get free shipping! Thank you to our Major Partners, Indigenous Programming: Slaight Family Foundation and TD Ready Commitment

What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile is written by Larry Audlaluk who was born in Uugaqsiuvik, a small camp west of Inukjuak in northern Quebec. Larry Audlaluk has seen incredible changes in his lifetime. He was relocated to the High Arctic in the early 1950s with his family when he was almost three years old. They were promised a land of plenty. They discovered an inhospitable polar desert. Sharing memories both painful and joyous, Larry tells of loss, illness, and his family’s fight to return home, juxtaposed with excerpts from official government reports. With refreshing candour and an unbreakable sense of humour, Larry leads the reader through their struggle to survive and through a life between two worlds as southern culture begins to encroach on Inuit traditions. In this episode Larry is joined in conversation with Charlotte Qamaniq a North Baffin Inuk performance artist, actor, and contemporary and traditional throat singer hailing from Iglulik, Nunavut. Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club and the Children’s Indigenous Book Club are in partnership with Goodminds.com, a First Nations-owned family business. Looking to read along with us? Purchase your books from GoodMinds.com and use code NAC-CNA2022 to get free shipping!Thank you to our Major Partners, Indigenous Programming: Slaight Family Foundation and TD Ready Commitment