Indigenous alum reading list

• Release date: May 1985

Slash poignantly traces the struggles, pain and alienation of a young Okanagan man who searches for truth and meaning in his life. Recognized as an important work of literature, Slash is used in high schools, colleges and universities.

Jeanette Armstrong is Syilx Okanagan, a fluent speaker and teacher of the Nsyilxcn Okanagan language and a traditional knowledge keeper of the Okanagan Nation. She currently is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Okanagan Philosophy at UBC Okanagan.

• Release date: January 2020

Come along for the ride to Kamloopa, the largest Powwow on the West Coast. This high-energy Indigenous matriarchal story, which won the Governor General's Award for English-language drama, follows two urban Indigenous sisters and a lawless Trickster who face our world head-on as they come to terms with what it means to honour who they are and where they come from. But how to go about discovering yourself when Christopher Columbus allegedly already did that? Bear witness to the courage of these women as they turn to their Ancestors for help in reclaiming their power in this ultimate transformation story.

Kim Senklip Harvey is a proud Indigenous woman from the Syilx, Tsilhqot’in, Ktunaxa, and Dakelh First Nations, a UVic Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, is listed for the Gina Wilkinson Prize for her work as an emerging director and is widely considered to be one of this land’s most original voices among the next generation of Indigenous artists. 

• Release date: October 2023

Crushed Wild Mint is a collection of poems embodying land love and ancestral wisdom, deeply rooted to the poet’s motherland and their experience as a parent, herbalist and careful observer of the patterns and power of their territory. Jess Housty grapples with the natural and the supernatural, transformation and the hard work of living that our bodies are doing—held by mountains, by oceans, by ancestors and by the grief and love that come with communing.

Jess Housty (Cúagilákv) is a parent, writer, UVic Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and grassroots activist of Heiltsuk and mixed settler ancestry. They serve their community as an herbalist and land-based educator, alongside broader work in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors. Crushed Wild Mint is their debut poetry collection.

• Release date: March 2023

Plants can be a great source of healing as well as nourishment, and the practice of growing and harvesting from trees, flowering herbs, and other plants is a powerful way to become more connected to the land. Indigenous Peoples have long traditions of using native plants as medicine as well as for food. Held by the Land honours and shares some of these traditions.

Leigh Joseph, PhD, whose ancestral name is Styawat, is an ethnobotanist, researcher, activist, UVic Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and Indigenous founder of Sḵwálwen skincare. Leigh is a mother and wife, a daughter and community leader whose aim is to help heal the intergenerational effects of cultural trauma within the Squamish Nation by learning, working with and preserving Indigenous plants, and carrying them forward into the modern world.

• Release date: April 2024

Nyla has an affinity to fire. A neglected teen in a small northern town—trying to escape a mother battling her own terrors—she is kicked out and struggles through life on the streets. Desperate for love, Nyla accidentally sets fire to her ex’s building and is then incarcerated for arson. Through community-led diversion, Nyla finds herself on a reserve as their firekeeper. But when climate change-induced wildfires threaten her new home, she knows intimately how to fight back.

Katłı̨̀ą is a northern Dene woman who spends her time between her ancestral homelands in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Lekwungen Speaking Peoples Coast Salish Territory. She is the author of multiple books, a mother, grandmother, articling lawyer and a UVic Distinguished Alumni award recipient.

• Release date: October 2023

Motherhood, trauma and familial history are woven together into this powerful poetry collection. Beginning with a revelation of familial sexual abuse, Building a Nest from the Bones of My People charts the impact of this revelation on the speaker. From the pain of estrangement to navigating first-time motherhood in the midst of a family crisis, Morgan explores the complexities of generational and secondary abuse, intertwined as they are with the impacts of colonization.

Cara-Lyn Morgan comes from both Indigenous (Métis) and Immigrant (Trinidadian) roots in the place known as Turtle Island and Canada. Her debut collection of poetry, What Became My Grieving Ceremony, won the 2015 Fred Cogswell Award for Poetic Excellence. Her second collection, Cartograph, explores healing, cultural duality, and colonization.

• Release date: November 2008

From the eye of a whale rising from the deep, to an albino pigeon being nursed back to health, Paul's poetry addresses nature, family and traditions that get passed on from generation to generation. A raccoon's eyes become "holy doors of lost keys" and sockeye swim upstream. With elegance and wisdom, Paul speaks of "the stories gone sad, / singing to the hunger that made them,/running past the voices no longer speaking."

Philip Kevin Paul's first book, Taking the Names Down from the Hill won the 2004 Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry. In Little Hunger, his second book for the WSÁ,NEC (Saanich) Nation of Vancouver Island, Paul continues to draw upon the rich oral culture and traditions of his people.

• Release date: November 2021

This is a story of two young Kaska Dena girls’ journey from their homeland on the BC-Yukon border to the steps of Lejac Residential School in the late 1920s. When Maddy discovers an old photograph of two little girls in her grandmother’s belongings, she wants to know who they are. Nan reluctantly agrees to tell her the story, though she is unsure if Maddy is ready to hear it. This middle-grade novel captures the breakdown of family by the forces of colonialism, but also celebrates the perseverance of the descendants of residential school survivors to reestablish the bonds of family.

Wendy Proverbs is an emerging Indigenous author of Kaska Dena descent. She holds a BA and MA in anthropology from UVic. She has acted as a community liaison with Indigenous communities and strives to help younger generations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, learn more about their past.

• Release date: March 2017

• Release date: August 2016

Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival untangles truth from some of the myths about First Nations at the same time that it addresses misconceptions still widely believed today. The second book by award-winning author and UVic Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Bev Sellars, Price Paid is based on a popular presentation Sellars created for treaty-makers, politicians, policymakers and educators when she discovered they did not know the historic reasons they were at the table negotiating First Nations rights.

Bev Sellars is a Xat'sull author, activist, community leader and former chief of the Xat’sull First Nation. Sellars is a speaker on subjects including Indigenous rights and the impacts of residential schools. Her award-winning book They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School, described her experiences within the Canadian Indian residential school system.

• Release date: April 2023

Curtis has returned to Fort Smith, six weeks sober. He doesn’t have any sober friends, his mom’s still drinking and his best friend (and secret crush) Lacey probably is too. Still, he’s determined to abstain from alcohol and help his people. Along the way, he might just be able to help himself. A stunning, fast-paced graphic novel, As I Enfold You in Petals will keep readers riveted until the last page.

Richard Van Camp (he/him/his) is a proud member of the Tłı̨chǫ Nation from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. He is a UVic Distinguished Award recipient and author of more than 25 books and a contributor to the groundbreaking graphic novel anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold.

• Release date: November 2022

There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? It is clear that people from all over the country want to take concrete and tan­gible action that will make real change. We just need to know how to get started. The ultimate and attainable goal of True Reconciliation is to break down the silos we’ve created that prevent meaning­ful change, to be empowered to increasingly act as “inbetweeners” and to take full advantage of this moment in our history to positively transform the country into a place we can all be proud of.

Jody Wilson-Raybould is a Canadian lawyer, best-selling author, UVic Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and former Member of Parliament, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. She is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation and a descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples who are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw and Kwak’wala speaking peoples.