Uncertain Harvest: The Future of Food on a Warming Planetby Ian Mosby, Sarah Rotz, and Evan D.G. FraserPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Elena Bentley$27.95      ISBN 9780889777200 Does a diet of algae, caribou, kale, millet, tuna, crickets, milk, and rice sound like the food future you imagined for yourself? Don’t worry, authors Ian Mosby, Sarah Rotz, and Evan D.G. Fraser are not predicting that the solution to our “collective food future” relies on these eight staples (despite what a quick glance down the contents page might imply). Rather than predict how we can create “a sustainable, resilient, and equitable food system,” Mosby, Rotz, and Fraser “critically assess the food futures being imagined and implemented this minute” in their new book Uncertain Harvest: The Future of Food on a Warming Planet.  Part of what makes this book a success is its non-prescriptive approach. Right from the preface, the authors acknowledge that predicting the future is, and has been, futile. Algae pipelines, radiation-grown potatoes, self-replicating steaks – none of these previously put-forward solutions ever came to pass, nor were they even viable.  It’s unsurprising to learn, then, that the authors’ conclusions don’t involve glowing tubers or magical hybrid seeds;…

Reclaiming Tom Longboat: Indigenous Self-Determination in Canadian Sportby Janice ForsythPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Elena Bentley$27.95 ISBN 9780889777286 Although the famed Onondaga athlete features in the title, Tom Longboat (Cogwagee) is not the focus of Janice Forsyth’s new book, Reclaiming Tom Longboat: Indigenous Self-Determination in Canadian Sport; rather, it is the Tom Longboat Awards that serve as the focal point for which Forsyth’s expert examination of Indigenous sport in Canada revolves. For over five decades, the Tom Longboat Awards have been subject to the various political agendas of the organizations between which it has passed hands. Conceived of by Jan Eisenhardt and Indian Affairs in 1951, Forsyth explains that the Awards were “no mere accident of history. Nor were they the consequence of serendipity, [or] of the right people coming together at the right time without political intent.” The Awards were a purposeful attempt made by the Federal Government to quantify and regulate Indigenous bodies through encouraging participation in mainstream sport. Throughout the 70s and 80s as Indigenous leaders became more politically active, they, too, realized the “symbolic value of sport” and used the Awards as “an opportunity to broadcast messages about the significance of self-determination” and “cultural…

In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilienceby Helen KnottPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Elena Bentley$21.95 ISBN 9780889777316 (Softcover) Is there any other act more revolutionary than healing? No, not for Helen Knott, debut author of In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience. “Healing yourself is the ultimate act of resistance… of remembering who we are as Indigenous peoples.” This book is a coming home story. A return to family, culture, tradition, and language. A reclamation of an Indigenous identity that had, for too long, been suppressed by shame, sexual violence, and intergenerational trauma. Within the covers of this newly released paperback edition published by the University of Regina Press, Knott seamlessly weaves together memories from her past with the events, both personal and familial, that led to her addiction and eventual sobriety. But sobriety did not come easy for Knott. She writes that she had “always been aware of a darkness that lurks within addiction… [a] dark thing” that wanted to consume her. Despite her own struggles, however, she has dedicated herself to helping those in need. Knott, who holds a bachelor’s degree in social work, feels that “life is about living for others.” In 2009,…