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Solitary Raven-Selected Writings
of Bill Reid
Edited by Robert Bringhurst
250 pgs. (hc) $40.00
Douglas & McIntyre
Although renowned for his work in the visual arts, Haida sculptor
Bill Reid worked with words as well as wood, working as a radio
announcer and script writer before he received his first large
carving commission in 1958. Now, two years after Reid's death,
a selection of his writings have been gathered and published
in book form.
The writings have been collected from many sources, including
radio broadcasts, newspapers and magazines, exhibition catalogues,
and speaking notes. Some of the pieces have never been published
until now.
In addition to the writings, the book also includes some of Reid's
drawings and photographs of some of his carvings and other work,
along with photos of the artist at work.
ah-ayitaw isi e-ki-kiskeyihtahkik
maskihkiy = They Knew Both Sides of Medicine: Cree Tales of Curing
and Cursing Told by Alice Ahenakew
Edited and translated by H.C. Wolfart & Freda Ahenakew
314 pgs (sc)
The University of Manitoba Press
The book is made up of stories told by Alice Ahenakew, who
shares her personal reminiscences of her life. Ahenakew was born
in 1912, and was raised in Sturgeon Lake in north-central Saskatchewan
after the death of her mother during the flu epidemic of 1918.
She tells of the epidemic in the book, along with stories of
her childhood, and her courtship and marriage to Andrew Ahenakew,
who later became a well-known Anglican priest and Cree healer.
The stories tell of encounters with a windigo, as well as recollections
of visions and curses.
Ahenakew's stories are presented both in Cree and in English,
and the book includes a Cree-English glossary.
We Were Not The Savages: A Mi'kmaq
Perspective on the Collision Between European and Native American
Civilizations-New Twenty-First-Century Edition
By Daniel N. Paul
359 pgs (sc) $24.95
Fernwood Publishing
Paul has rewritten and updated his original bestseller, expanding
upon the first edition and including new information. The book
presents a history of the Mi'kmaq people's struggle for survival,
from first European contact to the present. The book, Paul indicates
in the foreward, recounts the atrocities suffered by his ancestors
"to persuade people of the majority society to use whatever
power they have to see that Canada makes meaningful amends for
the horrifying wrongs of the past."
"The Mi'kmaq were, and are, a great people. To be a descendent
of this noble race, who displayed an indomitable will to survive
in spite of incredible odds against them, fills me with pride."