Delgamuukw. Sixties Scoop. Bill C-31. Blood quantum. Appropriation. Two-Spirit. Tsilhqot’in. Status. TRC. RCAP. FNPOA. Pass and permit. Numbered Treaties. Terra nullius. The Great Peace…

Are you familiar with the terms listed above? In Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel, legal scholar, teacher, and intellectual, opens an important dialogue about these (and more) concepts and the wider social beliefs associated with the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada. In 31 essays, Chelsea explores the Indigenous experience from the time of contact to the present, through five categories—Terminology of Relationships; Culture and Identity; Myth-Busting; State Violence; and Land, Learning, Law, and Treaties. She answers the questions that many people have on these topics to spark further conversations at home, in the classroom, and in the larger community.

Indigenous Writes is one title in The Debwe Series.

Through 31 essays, Chelsea Vowel, legal scholar, teacher, and intellectual, answers the questions that many people have about the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada. Use this book to spark further conversations at home, in the classroom, and in the larger community.

Contents

kinanâskomitinâwâw/Acknowledgments

Introduction: How to Read This Book 

Part 1. The Terminology of Relationships 

Just Don’t Call Us Late for Supper Names for Indigenous PeoplesSettling on a Name Names for Non-Indigenous Canadians

Part 2. Culture and Identity

Got Status? Indian Status in CanadaYou’re Métis? Which of Your Parents Is an Indian? Métis IdentityFeel the Inukness Inuit IdentityHunter-Gatherers or Trapper-Harvesters? Why Some Terms MatterAllowably Indigenous: To Ptarmigan or Not to Ptarmigan When Indigeneity Is TransgressiveCaught in the Crossfire of Blood-Quantum Reasoning Popular Notions of Indigenous PurityWhat Is Cultural Appropriation? Respecting Cultural BoundariesCheck the Tag on That “Indian” Story How to Find Authentic Indigenous StoriesIcewine, Roquefort Cheese, and the Navajo Nation Indigenous Use of Intellectual Property LawsAll My Queer Relations Language, Culture, and Two-Spirit IdentityPart 3. Myth-BustingThe Myth of ProgressThe Myth of the Level Playing FieldThe Myth of TaxationThe Myth of Free Housing The Myth of the Drunken Indian The Myth of the Wandering NomadThe Myth of Authenticity Part 4. State ViolenceMonster The Residential-School LegacyOur Stolen Generations The Sixties and Millennial ScoopsHuman Flagpoles Inuit RelocationFrom Hunters to Farmers Indigenous Farming on the PrairiesDirty Water, Dirty Secrets Drinking Water in First Nations CommunitiesNo Justice, No Peace The Royal Commission on Aboriginal PeoplesPart 5. Land, Learning, Law, and TreatiesRights? What Rights? Doctrines of ColonialismTreaty Talk The Evolution of Treaty-Making in CanadaThe More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same Numbered Treaties and Modern Treaty-MakingWhy Don’t First Nations Just Leave the Reserve? Reserves Are Not the ProblemWhite Paper, What Paper? More Attempts to Assimilate Indigenous PeoplesOur Children, Our Schools Fighting for Control Over Indigenous Education

A convincing case for rejecting the prevailing policies of “assimilation, control, intrusion and coercion” regarding aboriginal people.

Chelsea attacks issues head on, with humour and wit, sarcasm and cynicism and clear, concise and well-organized information. She makes further research easy, as every chapter includes copious endnotes with links to her curated resources. She explains the terminology of identity—status, non-status, registered, membership, Métis, Inuit, cultural appropriation and two-spiritedness.

Indigenous Writes is a timely book…and contains enough critical information to challenge harmful assumptions and facilitate understanding. This is a book for everyone—but particularly for non-Indigenous people wishing to better understand their own place in the history of violence against Indigenous peoples, and to find ways to move toward true solutions and right relationships.

While subtitled A Guide to First Nations, Métis and Inuit Issues in Canada, it would be a mistake to see Indigenous Writes as a book primarily about Indigenous people. Instead, it is much more about all of us—our relationship as non-Indigenous and Indigenous Canadians, and how it has been shaped (and misshaped) by the historic and contemporary governance of these issues.

For any Canadian who wishes to have an informed opinion about the country that we share—or, more to the point, publicly share that opinion—Indigenous Writes is essential reading.

Vowel’s voice and personality remain present throughout each essay. Her use of vernacular, humour, and at times, sarcasm add layers of meaning, underscore arguments and carry her and her readers through discussions of infuriating facts and difficult, often painful issues.

[Chelsea Vowel] punctures the bloated tropes that have frozen Indigenous peoples in time, often to the vanishing point. Reading Indigenous Writes, you feel that you are having a conversation over coffee with a super-smart friend, someone who refuses to simplify, who chooses to amplify, who is unafraid to kick against the darkness... What this book really is, is medicine.