June 21st is Indigenous Peoples day, though, of course, we need to be uplifting and supporting Indigenous peoples all year round. Here’s a reading list of some of our favourite Indigenous women, Two Spirit, and Indigiqueer writers. Buy their work (from your favourite local bookstore. Ours is Indigenous-owned Massy Books and Iron Dog Books in Vancouver) and bask in their brilliance!
Memoir and Nonfiction
As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada – Chelsea Vowel
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground – Alicia Elliott
In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience – Helen Knott
Heart Berries – Terese Marie Mailhot
A History of My Brief Body – Billy-Ray Belcourt
Poetry
it was never going to be okay – jaye simpson
Nîtisânak – Lindsay Nixon
Disintegrate/Dissociate – Arielle Twist
Fresh Pack of Smokes – Cassandra Blanchard
On/Me – Francine Cunningham
You Are Enough: Love Poems for the End of the World – Smokii Sumac
Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent – Liz Howard
I Am Still Too Much – Brandi Bird
I Don’t Want to Tell You – Molly Cross-Blanchard
Indian Love Poems – Tenille Campbell
Fiction
The Break – Katherena Vermette
The Trickster Trilogy – Eden Robinson
Kamloopa – Kim Senklip Harvey
The Marrow Thieves – Cherie Dimaline
Jonny Appleseed – Joshua Whitehead
Bad Endings – Carleigh Baker