The Best Biographies to Read this National Indigenous History MonthLike this list

18 items

• Becoming a Matriarch

  a Memoir

  Knott, Helen, 1987-

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  Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was. Woven into the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Life in Two Worlds

  a Coach's Journey From the Reserve to the NHL and Back

  Nolan, Ted, 1958-

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  Growing up on a First Nation reserve, young Ted Nolan built his own backyard hockey rink and wore skates many sizes too big. But poverty wasn’t his biggest challenge. Playing the game meant spending his life in two worlds: one in which he was loved…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Unbroken

  My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls

  Sterritt, Angela,

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  Unbroken is an extraordinary work of memoir and investigative journalism focusing on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, written by an award-winning Gitxsan journalist who survived life on the streets against all odds.

• A Beautiful Rebellion

  Bouvier, Rita

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  These poems speak with a fierce tenderness of many aspects of the poet’s life: a childhood spent on the banks of the Churchill River, the death of a beloved one, the struggle to try to find forgiveness for wrongs done to her people and the weariness…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• It Stops Here

  Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People

  George, Rueben,

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  A personal account of one man’s confrontation with colonization that illuminates the philosophy and values of a First Nation on the front lines of the fight against an extractive industry, colonial government, and threats to the life-giving Salish…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mind Over Matter

  Hard-won Battles on the Road to Hope

  Tootoo, Jordin, 1983-

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  Following on the bestselling success of the inspiring All the Way, pioneering Inuit NHLer Jordin Tootoo, the first Inuk hockey player to play in the NHL, begins the process of healing in the wake of the suicide and violence that marked his family,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Half-bads in White Regalia

  a Memoir

  Caetano, Cody,

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  Half-Bads in White Regalia is an unforgettable debut that unspools a tangled family history with warmth, humour, and deep generosity.

• Silence to Strength

  Writings and Reflections on the Sixties Scoop

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  Editor Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith gathers together contributions from twenty Sixties Scoop survivors from across the territories of Canada. This anthology includes poems, stories and personal essays from contributors such as Alice McKay, D.B.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Lose Everything

  a Memoir

  Couture, Christa, 1978-

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  Couture explores the emotional and psychological experiences of motherhood, partnership and change. Deftly connecting the dots of sorrow, reprieve and hard-won hope, How to Lose Everything contains the advice Couture is often asked for, as well as…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Black Water

  Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory

  Robertson, David, 1977-

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  A son who grew up away from his Indigenous culture takes his Cree father on a trip to their family's trapline, and finds that revisiting the past not only heals old wounds but creates a new future.

• Thunder Through My Veins

  a Memoir

  Scofield, Gregory, 1966-

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  Gregory Scofield's Thunder Through My Veins is the heartbreakingly beautiful memoir of one man's journey toward self-discovery, acceptance, and the healing power of art.

• Clifford

  A Memoir, A Fiction, A Fantasy, A Thought Experiment

  Johnson, Harold R.

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  When Harold Johnson returns to his childhood home in a northern Saskatchewan Indigenous community for his brother Clifford’s funeral, the first thing his eyes fall on is a chair. It stands on three legs, the fourth broken off and missing. So begins…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Beautiful Scars

  Steeltown Secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers and the Road Home

  Wilson, Thomas F., 1959-

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  In his 50s, Wilson learned that the parents who raised him were not his birth parents; that he was adopted and that his biological mother and father were Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve, just outside of Montreal. Grappling with this newfound sense…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Testimony

  Robertson, Robbie,

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  In this captivating memoir, Robertson weaves together his half-Jewish, half-Mohawk upbringing on the Brantford Six Nations Reserve and in Toronto; his odyssey south at sixteen and rollicking early years on the road with rockabilly legend Ronnie…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Shoe Boy

  a Trapline Memoir

  McCue, Duncan,

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  At the age of seventeen, an Anishinabe boy who was raised in the south joined a James Bay Cree family in a one-room hunting cabin in the isolated wilderness of northern Quebec. In the five months that followed, he learned a way of life on the land…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell

  Bear Chief, Arthur

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  In a series of chronological vignettes, Arthur Bear Chief depicts the punishment, cruelty, abuse, and injustice that he endured at Old Sun Residential School and then later relived in the traumatic process of retelling his story at an examination…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Reason You Walk

  Kinew, Wab, 1981-

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  Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Right to Be Cold

  One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet

  Watt-Cloutier, Sheila,

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  One of Canada's most passionate environmental and human rights activists addresses the global threat of climate change from the intimate perspective of her own Arctic childhood.