kôhkominawak ocihcîwâw: Our Grandmothers’ Hands – Repatriating Métis Material Artby Gregory Scofield, Historical Overview by Sherry Farrell RacettePublished by Gabriel Dumont Institute PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$65.00 ISBN 9781988011226 In Gregory Scofield’s introduction to Our Grandmothers’ Hands: Repatriating Métis Material Art, the multi-genre Métis author, academic and bead-worker immediately demonstrates his poetic prowess via a description of the said, titulary hands: “I always imagine them as fine-boned birds, taking musical flight over a pattern traced onto velvet, stroud, or hide.” This fine writing compelled me to sink into this 245-page treasure trove of photographs, descriptions, and necessary stories about the grandmothers’ beaded artifacts—what Scofield refers to as “grandmother-pieces”—and his years-long efforts to repatriate them from “antique stores and ‘Indian art’ galleries, e-Bay and Etsy, and online auctions”. It was the myriad pieces themselves, he explains, that “guide[d] and educate[d] him” to give voice and honour to these Métis women and their creations during “a time of reconciliation” and “colonial reckoning.” Scofield recalls his Aunty Georgina teaching him—a nicâniskôhpicanisak, or “little ancestor”—to bead at her kitchen table, and recounts his ongoing dedication to learning how to “properly care for historic beadwork and silk embroidery.” Scofield’s illuminating introduction is followed by Sherry…

Transforming Pain into Purpose: My Story of Mental Illness, Addiction & Redemptionby Allan KehlerPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch  $19.95 ISBN 9781778690495 Everyone you meet is going through something. Everyone has a story. Those are two facts I try to focus on when I meet people. Transforming Pain into Purpose is a literary reminder of that – you never know what struggles someone is trying to survive.  I couldn’t put Transforming Pain into Purpose down; I devoured it in one sitting. (It’s a medium length book, clocking in at 130 pages including the resources at the back.) Kehler’s story kept me drawn in from the first chapter. What an interesting journey he has been through! His life has been touched by sexual abuse, alcoholism, anxiety, manic episodes, self-harm, depression, loneliness, gambling, suicide, shame, and bipolar disorder, among other things. A romantic at heart, I loved reading about how Kehler met his now-wife, a strong, compelling woman named Tanya. I won’t spoil the story for you but I will say they didn’t meet on a dating app like most couples these days. Kehler’s writing is simple yet powerful. He conveys what he is trying to say with as few words as possible…

Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David GarneauCurated by Arin Fay, Paintings by David Garneau, Edited by Nic WilsonPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$32.95 ISBN 9781779400536 How did I not know about Saskatchewan-based David Garneau? The Governor General award-winning Métis artist, writer and educator initiates integral conversations about Indigenous identity and experience, colonization and the academy through politically-charged art and writing, and now 17 Canadian writers have responded to his large, compelling and highly symbolic still life series, Dark Chapters, in a striking new text. Titled Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau, the collection’s contributor list reads like a who’s who of contemporary Canadian literature, including poetry from Susan Musgrave, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Fred Wah and Rita Bouvier, and essays from Trevor Herriot, Jesse Wente, Paul Seeseequasis and curator Arin Fay. “Dark Chapters” refers to Justice Murray Sinclair’s Reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and many of the book’s contributors are of Indigenous heritage. Editor Nic Wilson shares how across Garneau’s lifelong art-making, “Each foray is soaked in [Garneau’s] incredible attention to the codes of history, meaning, emotion, sociality, and pedagogy.” The book contains numerous colour images of Garneau’s provocative still lives,…

Tunnel Islandby Bill GastonPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Brandon Fick$24.95 ISBN 9781771872683 Tunnel Island is a collection of linked stories set on a fictional island in British Columbia’s Salish Sea, a place both familiar and otherworldly, realistic and mystical. Bill Gaston is a sure and steady practitioner of the short story form, with seven previous collections and a heap of award nominations to his name. All of this comes across in his quirky rendering of Tunnel Island, a place “mostly forest” with “a few thousand people” and “a bit of everything,” including people “who looked like poets, islands unto themselves,” and “wild turkeys and peacocks, descendants of farm stock that had either escaped, been let go, or wandered away from dilapidated circumstances.” There are stories that I like more than others, but all eleven are animated by a creative slant on familiar scenarios: a brief romance, taking care of a dying loved one, spending time with a reclusive uncle, nervously preparing for a date, a group of disparate characters coming together for a unique Christmas dinner. Gaston’s stories work because of a subtle blending of tones that is difficult to achieve. The prose can appear relaxed and breezy, but that…

“Isúh Áníi: Dátł’ìshí Ts’ìká áa Guunijà / As Grandmother Said: The Narratives of Bessie Meguinis”As narrated by Dátł’ìshí Ts’ìká Bessie Meguinis and Ninàghá Tsitł’á Willie Little BearRetold by Dit’óní Didlíshí Bruce StarlightIllustrated by Treasa StarlightPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9780889779853 The University of Regina Press is doing important work with their commitment to honouring the traditional languages, legends and cultures of Canada’s First Peoples, and the list of books in their First Nations Language Readers series recently grew again with the landmark publication of Isúh Áníi: Dátł’ìshí Ts’ìká áa Guunijà / As Grandmother Said: The Narratives of Bessie Meguinis. This is the first book to be published in Tsuut’ina (“a critically endangered language”) in more than one hundred years. It contains nine traditional narratives originally narrated by Elders Dátł’ìshí Ts’ìká Bessie Meguinis (1883-1987) and her son, Ninàghá Tsitł’á Willie Little Bear (1912-1989). Here they’re retold by Dit’óní Didlíshí Bruce Starlight, the grandson of Bessie Meguinis. Dr. Starlight spent much of his early childhood with Meguinis, listening to her stories and teachings as he recovered from tuberculosis, and with the help of colleague Dr. Christopher Cox—and chapter-beginning, black and white illustrations by Treasa Starlight—he shares…

Building Bridges: A Big City Mayor reflects on Leadershipby Donald J. AtchisonPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Michelle Shaw$19.99 ISBN 9781990863745 “So, what’s it like to be the mayor?” This is a question that Don Atchison gets asked a lot. He was Saskatoon’s Mayor for four consecutive terms (2003 to 2016) and, before that, served three terms as a City Councillor. So, he wrote a book. As he says: “If you aspire to be a carpenter, a doctor, or a farmer, it’s not difficult to find information about the role…It’s much more difficult to find out what it would be like to be a city counsellor or mayor. As a result, many people run for public office without fully understanding what they’re getting into.” But this is not just a book about leadership. It’s also a memoir detailing Atchison’s own journey from a young sport-loving boy from the prairies, his life as a businessman (his family owned a menswear store in Saskatoon) and his life in public office. What shines throughout the book is his love for Saskatoon. Although he was at times a somewhat controversial figure, I don’t think anyone ever doubted his commitment to the city. Many people…