LibGuides: COM Reading Bank: Indigenous Topics

Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements by Chelsea Vowel (2016)
Notes: A little long (3000 words); good for argument and rhetorical analysis; comments after the article can also be used
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Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Article
Source: apihtawikosisân (website)
Indigenous People Pay Taxes: Demythologizing the Indian Act tax exemption by Bradley Bryan (2022)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Would be interesting paired with a personal narrative - could be a bit dry on its own but has important information and nuance
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Putting it into Context: Teaching the Canadian North to Learn about Canada by Christensen, Julia (2013)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Teaching and learning about the Canadian North is about more than just life north of the 60th parallel. This region, vast and complex, offers us so much in our understanding of Canada. In teaching the Canadian North, we cannot as educators perpetuate narratives of a North that can be understood as separate from its people. One of the central responsibilities for teachers of the Canadian North, I believe, is to place people in the Canadian North and to dispel the national myth of a vast but empty North. Placing people in the Canadian North requires a nuanced discussion of northern Indigenous peoples, their encounters with the colonial state, and broader Indigenous-Canada relations. Unsettling dominant narratives of the Canadian North in the classroom also means paying attention to the many ways in which northern people have not only influenced the course of northern history, but also Canadian history.

Keywords: Indigenous Issues, History
Format: Journal Article
Source: Canadian Issues
Recognizing the transformational potential of Indigenous-led conservation economies by Ryan Planche (2022)
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues; Environmental Issues; Economic Issues
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Twin-Spirited Woman by Saylesh Wesley (2014)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Intersectionality: Colonialism, Transgender, Indigenous, Sto:lo, Catholic and Traditional Grandmother/Elder accepts and names twin-spirit and academic grandchild;
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Keywords: Canadian Content; Society and Culture; Identity; Health and Wellness; Communication; Indigenous Issues
Format: Article
Source: Transgender Quarterly

I Wanted to Be Beautiful—Or, at Least, Clean: What It’s Like To Grow Up Without Running Water by Alicia Elliott (2019)
Recommended for COM111
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Excerpt / Summary: When Alicia Elliott was a teen on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, she and her family didn't have access to clean, safe water. Eighteen years later, little has changed.

Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Article
Source:Chatelaine
A Memory I Need to Talk About by Naomi Sayers (2017)
Note: Archived version of webpage
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Excerpt:
"Sometimes I get bogged down with other thoughts on my mind. These thoughts take up the majority of my waking hours and I don’t know why I think about them, constantly. I have been thinking about this one memory I have and I have been thinking about it since my dad has passed. There is only so much I can recall from this memory.

When I was younger, I used to dance…strip. I started in my hometown of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. I told my family. In fact, I called them up first to tell them. I had people come up to me to tell me that they heard from their grandmother. “Well, I didn’t see your grandma at work,” I would tell them, and then, I would laugh it off."

Keywords: Indigenous, Family, Women, Human Trafficking
Format: Essay
Source: Author's blog
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott (2016)
Note: Excerpt
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords: Indigenous topics; Mental health
Format: Essay
Source: Malahat Review
Modern Cannibals of the Wilds by Basil Johnston (1991)
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Excerpt / Summary:
"The giant weendigoes that once prowled the forests have returned as corporations, whose appetites are more ferocious than the creatures of the storytellers. 'We want more,' they cry as the mills churn, 'only more will satisfy us'"

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Essay
Source: The Globe and Mail
On Seeing and Being Seen: The Difference Between Writing With Empathy and Writing With Love by Alicia Elliot
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
Diversity is the literary equivalent of “ethnic” restaurants: they please white people because they provide them with “exotic” new flavours.

Keywords: Indigenous Identity, Representation
Format: Essay
Source: Room
A Short History of Indians in Canada by Thomas King (1997)
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Summary:
"Centres around a sleepless white businessman who watches flying Indians crash into Toronto office towers (like the real-life migratory birds who crash into the same buildings, attracted during their overnight flights over the Great Lakes). Although wrapped in a comic image, this story reverberates with incredible sadness over cultural genocide in the Americas, the shiny attraction of Western consumer society, and everything that’s been lost." (Harper Collins)

Keywords: Indigenous, Cultural Genocide, Culture, Consumer Society
Format: Short Story
Source: Canlit.ca
Copyright Notes: Okay to post link. Permission required to reproduce.
Ski Dreams by Richard Wagamese (2012)
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Excerpt / Summary:
It had never seemed like a very Native thing to do. I’d never seen our people represented on national teams or anything. Plus there was the whole outsider’s view of an expensive, trendy, elitist activity meant primarily for cash wealthy white people. So I’d poo-pooed the act of skiing for a long time.

Keywords: Sports, Indigenous Culture
Format: Blog Post
Source: Author's blog
This Boat is My Boat by Drew Hayden Taylor (2004)
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Excerpt:
"Much has been written over the years about the differences between native people and non-native people, and way they view life. I think there’s no better example of this admittedly broad opinion than in the peculiar world of outdoor recreational water sports and the death wish that inspires them.
As a member of Canada’s Indigenous population, I’ve cast a suspicious glance at all these waterlogged enthusiasts for several reasons. The principal one is the now familiar concept of cultural appropriation—this time of our methods of water transportation. On any given weekend, Canadian rivers are jam-packed with plastic and fibreglass kayaks and canoes, hardly of them filled with authentic Inuit or First Nations people, all looking to taunt death using an aboriginal calling card."

Keywords: Indigenous, Cultural appropriation, Sports
Format: Essay
Source: This (magazine)
Turtle Island by Joseph Boyden (2011)
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords: Indigenous Issues
Format: Short Story
Source:The Globe and Mail
Twin-Spirited Woman by Saylesh Wesley (2014)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Intersectionality: Colonialism, Transgender, Indigenous, Sto:lo, Catholic and Traditional Grandmother/Elder accepts and names twin-spirit and academic grandchild;
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Keywords: Canadian Content; Society and Culture; Identity; Health and Wellness; Communication; Indigenous Issues
Format: Article
Source: Transgender Quarterly
Two Poems by Daniel Mercredi
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Excerpt / Summary:
Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Poem
Source: Asymptote
Notes: Can supplement Indigenous readings
Wisgaak Gokpenagen: A Black Ash Basket by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Traditional harvesters recognize the individuality of each tree, a nonhuman forest person. Trees are not taken but requested.... Sometimes the answer is no.

Keywords: Indigenous Culture
Format: Book Chapter
Source: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Copyright Note: eBook from library database. May have limits on printing/downloading.

'I regret it': Hayden King on writing Ryerson University's territorial acknowledgement by Hayden King (2019)
Recommended for COM111
Podcast
Teaching Note: pairs well with "Beyond Terriorial Acknowledgments" by Chelsea Vowel
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues;Canadian Content;Society and Culture
Format: Podcast & Article
Source: CBC
150 Acts of Reconciliation for the Last 150 Days of Canada's 150 by Crystal Fraser & Sara Komarnisky (2017)
Poster series
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Excerpt / Summary:
On August 4th, there are 150 days left in 2017 – the year of Canada’s 150th birthday. There have been robust discussions this year around reconciliation and we would like to contribute to the conversation. Together, we have written 150 Acts of Reconciliation for the last 150 days of 2017. Many of these are small, everyday acts that average Canadians can undertake, but others are more provocative that encourage people to think about Indigenous-settler relationships in new ways.

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Reconciliation
Format: Poster series
Source: Activehistory.ca blog
Animating Indigenous Stories by Shellie Zhang (2017)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
Creative team at Sheridan discusses creation of "A Short History of Indians in Canada" (see below for original film)

Keywords: Indigenous culture
Format: Video
Source: Sheridan College blog
Dear Mr. Prime Minister: this poet has something to say to you about Indigenous rights by CBC (2018)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
Writer Helen Knott has a call out to Justin Trudeau to protect the rights of Canada's Indigenous population.

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
Copyright Note: CBC Content - linking allowed, reusing/distributing content requires permission
Here’s Why Canada Doesn’t have a Caribbean Province by Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen (2019)
Recommended for COM111
Podcast
Notes: Comes with teaching aids, slide show, transcript, other learning activities.
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Podcast
Source: The Secret Life of Canada, CBC
If These Walls Could Talk by Lana Slezic (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Photograph collection of Indian residential schools such as St. Paul's, Shubenacadie, and Edmonton

Keywords: Indigenous history
Format: Photographs
Source: The Walrus
I Know You're Sorry:' one Anishinaabe MC and poet's response to all of Canada's apologies by CBC (2017)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
"All is not forgotten when someone is forgiven." Anishinaabe artist Leonard Sumner on the limits of Canada's apologies.

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
Copyright Note: CBC Content - linking allowed, reusing/distributing content requires permission
Incoming Poet Laureate Rebecca Thomas at Halifax Hall by Rebecca Thomas (2016)
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Excerpt / Summary:
New Poet Laureate Rebecca Thomas presents "Just Another Native Poet and "Reconcile Your Sate of Mind" in Halifax Hall on April 26, 2016.

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
Indigenous stories lead scientist to discover plants can hear by CBC Radio (2017)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
Do you talk to your plants? Well, science suggests they might be able to hear you. An Australian scientist was inspired by stories from Indigenous people around the world about how they communicate with plants.

Keywords: Indigenous science
Format: Audio
Source: CBC Radio
Kiskisiwin - remembering by Stiegman, Martha & Jesse Thisle (2016)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
A jingle dress dancer, an 1850s blacksmith and a troop of defiant urban Indians assert Toronto as Indigenous territory and challenge Canadians to re-write their nation’s history.

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Indigenous history
Format: Video
Source: National Screen Institute
Meditations by Waubgeshig Rice (2020)
Recommended for COM111
Video
Teaching note: Video comes with a full transcript and pairs well with any Indigenous content article as it can give a personal context to historical facts.
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues ;Identity; Canadian Content
Format: Website
Source: Wildwriters.ca
Poet Laureate Rebbeca Thomas Illustrates the Power of Words by Rebecca Thomas (2017)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
Halifax's Mi'kmaw Poet Laureate Rebecca Thomas illustrates the power of words. Her poem "Not Perfect" inspired Halifax Regional Council on the controversial Cornwallis debate. The Mi'kmaq have long argued that Cornwallis is a brutal historical figure who shouldn't be commemorated in statue and street names. City council nixed a motion to talk about the issue last year.

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Video
Source: YouTube
Reclaiming History: The Residential School System in Canada by Legacy of Hope Foundation (2013)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Overview and interactive timeline of residential school system in Canada

Keywords: Indigenous History
Format: Website
Source: Where Are the Children? website
A Short History of Indians in Canada by Nancy Beiman (2017)
Video
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Excerpt / Summary:
A shapeshifting Coyote takes a clueless businessman on a dark tour of Canada's relations with its native peoples. Film by Nancy Beiman, story and screenplay by Thomas King. Coyote/Doorman voice by Thomas King.

Keywords: Indigenous history
Format: Video
Source: Vimeo
Why Water is Worthy of the History Books by Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen (2019)
Recommended for COM111
Podcast
Notes: Comes with teaching aids, slide show, transcript, other learning activities.
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Podcast
Source: The Secret Life of Canada, CBC

Aboriginal Boy Sent Home From School For His Mohawk by Isabelle Khoo (2015)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
"A seven-year-old boy is causing quite the controversy with his new school haircut.

Grade 2 student Jakobe Sanden showed up to Arrowhead Elementary School in Santa Clara, Utah, last Monday sporting a Mohawk — a hairstyle that represents his family’s Native American heritage. However, since the new ‘do is in violation of the school’s dress code, Jakobe was sent to the principal’s office. "

Keywords: Education, Indigenous identity
Format: Article
Source: Huffington Post
Author Joseph Boyden’s shape-shifting Indigenous identity by Jorge Barrera (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
"Boyden has never publicly revealed exactly from which earth his Indigenous heritage grows. It has been an ever shifting, evolving thing. Over the years, Boyden has variously claimed his family’s roots extended to the Metis, Mi’kmaq, Ojibway and Nipmuc peoples.

The nature of Boyden’s ancestry claims caused an undercurrent of concern within some segments of the Indigenous community as the author’s prominence as a spokesperson on Indigenous issues grew."

Keywords: Indigenous Issues, Identity
Format: Article
Source: APTN News
Broken promises, unceded land: The history behind the Land Back Lane protest by Justin Chandler (2021)
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues;Canadian Content;Society and Culture
Format: Article
Source: TVO
Grassy Narrows: New report strongest evidence yet of mercury poisoning by Amnesty International (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
A new health report by a renowned Canadian mercury expert provides the strongest evidence yet of mercury poisoning in this northern Ontario Indigenous community. The community health survey finds that health and wellbeing in Grassy Narrows is significantly worse than in other First Nations and links fish eating to a wide range of grave impacts. The government has yet to acknowledge even one case of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows, which is located downstream from the Dryden mill, one of Canada’s most notorious toxic dumping sites.

Keywords: Indigenous Issues, Environment
Format: Article
Source: Amnesty International
How Indigenous Knowledge Is Transforming the March for Science by Terri Hansen (2018)
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Excerpt / Summary:
"The March for Science this year is set for April 14. Last year’s march drew tens of thousands who marched to protest the Trump administration’s war on science.

Since then, a corresponding March for Indigenous Science has grown into a burgeoning movement of its own, one aimed at increasing the visibility of indigenous science and traditional ecological knowledge as valid and valuable forms of scientific knowledge."

Keywords: Indigenous science
Format: Article
Source: Yes magazine
Indigenous science is at the core of social, economic and political change by Luke Briscoe (2016)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Indigenous science has long been an untapped resource in the scope of mainstream national science, but at this year's National Science Week event, prominent Indigenous science educators will take the stage.

Keywords: Indigenous science
Format: Article
Source: SBS
The Inuk woman using TikTok to expose high food prices in the North by Nathan Sing (2021)
Recommended for COM111
Recommended for summary
Teaching Note: Q & A piece. Could pair with Christensen's academic article, "Putting it into context"
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues; Canadian Content
Format: Article
Source: Maclean's
New circle looks at autism through Indigenous lens by Kashmala Fida Mohatarem (2022)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
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Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Article
Source: CBC News
On her last day, my mother wore a shirt with the words she so believed. Every child matters by Robert Jago (2021)
Recommended for COM111
Recommended for summary
Teaching Note: Emotionally powerful, first-person account of the many harms inflicted upon Indigenous peoples.
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Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Article
Source: Canada's National Observer
Ontario knew about Grassy Narrows mercury for decades, but kept it secret by David Brusser & Jayme Poisson (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Government officials knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under the paper mill upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation, but the people there did not find out until this week, the Star has learned.

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Environment
Format: Article
Source: Toronto Star
Recognizing the transformational potential of Indigenous-led conservation economies by Ryan Planche (2022)
Recommended for summary
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues; Environmental Issues; Economic Issues
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
To accurately portray histories, museums need to do more than ‘reimagine’ galleries by Umbrin Bukan (2022)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Pairs well with any Indigenous reading. Good to contextualize an example of effecting change in a realistic manner re: colonization. Good for discussions surrounding colonial legacies etc.
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues; Society and Culture; Canadian Content
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
To Fight Climate Change, Canada Turns to Indigenous People to Save Its Forests by Norimitsu Onishi (2022)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues;Environmental Issues;Canadian Content
Format: Article
Source: The New York Times
UN human rights report shows that Canada is failing Indigenous peoples by Amnesty International (2015)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Indigenous peoples and human rights groups say that a new United Nations report on Canada’s human rights record should be a wake-up call for all Canadians.

Keywords: Indigenous rights
Format: Article
Source: Amnesty International
What's in a name? How a government project forced surnames on Inuit Social Sharing by Katherine Barton (2021)
Recommended for COM111
Teaching notes: Pairs with the reading "After Being Peter, James and William, I Decided to Stick with My Chinese Name"
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Keyword: Indigenous Issues
Format: Article
Source: CBC.ca

Beyond Batman: how Indigenous superheroes are turning comics inside out by Tyson Yunkaporta (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Mainstream comics have kept Indigenous characters on the fringe, but a new exhibition is focused on unlocking their superpowers

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Article
Source: The Guardian
Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements by Chelsea Vowel (2016)
Notes: A little long (3000 words); good for argument and rhetorical analysis; comments after the article can also be used
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Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Article
Source: apihtawikosisân (website)
A Copy Editor’s Education in Indigenous Style by Tara Campbell (2020)
Recommended for COM111
Note: List of “to dos” at end can help students take some positive action in terms of TRC
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords: Indigenous topics; Communication
Format: Article
Source: The Tyee
Dead Indians: Too Heavy to Lift by Thomas King (2012)
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Excerpt / Summary:
You don’t have to look far in North American culture to find Dead Indians. ‘Dead’ as in the idea of something that never really existed. From film characters to rodeos and sports teams’ mascots—even in how Native leaders represent themselves to the white world—buckskin and a feathered headdress are ever handy signifiers of Indian authenticity. In this excerpt from his new book, The Inconvenient Indian, King surveys the history of the Dead Indian in white culture.

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Representation
Format: Article
Source: Hazlitt
The Genetics of Genocide: I’m healing so my daughter doesn’t have to by Sarain Fox (2019)
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Keywords: Indigenous Topics
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail
Gord Downie Was Celebrated For Championing Indigenous Rights. Now That He's Gone, Do People Still Care? by Candy Palmater (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Activism is not about embracing a famous person who makes an album about a situation. It’s about facing hard truths that may make you feel uncomfortable.

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Activism, Representation
Format: Article
Source: Chatelaine
I Wanted to Be Beautiful—Or, at Least, Clean: What It’s Like To Grow Up Without Running Water by Alicia Elliott (2019)
Recommended for COM111
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Excerpt / Summary: When Alicia Elliott was a teen on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, she and her family didn't have access to clean, safe water. Eighteen years later, little has changed.

Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Article
Source:Chatelaine
Letter to a Young Indigenous Journalist by Waubgeshig Rice (2020)
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Keywords: Indigenous Topics; Canadian Content; Media
Format: Article
Source: The Walrus
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott (2016)
Note: Excerpt
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Excerpt / Summary:

Keywords: Indigenous topics; Mental health
Format: Essay
Source: Malahat Review
Summer of Our Discontent Revisited by Drew Taylor Hayden (1995)
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Excerpt / Summary:
"With the incidents at Ipperwash and Gustafsen Lake fresh in the minds of everyone, it seems that particular opinions about the treatment of these, all to frequent, Native crises are being voiced more openly; or perhaps more accurately, there is a belief that there is a double standard in relation to these blockades in that Natives get preferential treatment or handled with kid gloves.

Tell that to Dudley George, the Ojibway man killed at Ipperwash.

Many critics outside and within the government have commented that there seems to be two sets of law in Canada; one for the Native people and one for the whites."

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Law
Format: Article
Source: Windspeaker
Taika Waititi peppered Thor: Ragnarok with Indigenous Australian and New Zealand references by Shannon Connellan (2017)
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Excerpt / Summary:
Talking to the Australian government's film and television development agency, Screen Australia, the New Zealand director revealed that he's dropped a bunch of easter eggs in the film for people from Australia and New Zealand — with a particularly Indigenous focus.

Keywords: Indigenous issues, Representation
Format: Article
Source: Mashable
To accurately portray histories, museums need to do more than ‘reimagine’ galleries by Umbrin Bukan (2022)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
Teaching Note: Pairs well with any Indigenous reading. Good to contextualize an example of effecting change in a realistic manner re: colonization. Good for discussions surrounding colonial legacies etc.
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues; Society and Culture; Canadian Content
Format: Article
Source: The Conversation
Toronto aka TKARONTO Passes New City Council Protocol by Jamaias DaCosta (2014)
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Excerpt / Summary:
A new historic protocol has been put in place to open the monthly Toronto City Council meetings. As of last week, the Speaker (Frances Nunziata) announced that following the singing of the national anthem, the Speaker will acknowledge that Toronto is traditional Indigenous territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit.

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Article
Source: Muskrat
Two missing teens and two vastly different responses by Gary Mason (2014)
Recommended for summary
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Excerpt / Summary:
How could two countries - England and Canada - seemingly value a single human life so differently? Would Winnipeg police had put more effort into finding Ms. [Tina Fontaine] if she had been a well-adjusted white teenager from a middle-class family raised on the "right" side of town, like Ms. [Alice Gross], and not a troubled native youth with a history of running away from home and living on the street?

Keywords: Indigenous issues, racism
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail
Why it's important not to lose oral storytelling by Waubgeshig Rice (2020)
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Keywords: Indigenous, Society & culture
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail
Your Halloween Headdress Isn’t Interesting and Neither Are You by Dallas Hunt (2019)
Recommended for summary
Recommended for COM111
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Keywords: Indigenous Issues
Format: Article
Source: The Walrus