#they are a resilient people and many of them live in Canada 🇨🇦

[chloeworships]

She told us indeed and so did the LORD

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Thanks for sharing.

I loved how so many European leaders also came to Zelenskyy’s defence

Unfortunately this is just the beginning

Trump is, without a doubt, the Manchurian candidate turned President 😅

[lizard-reads-the-world]

Book Review - This House is Not a Home by Katłıà ( 🇨🇦 Canada)

(image: Dene family, source: Archives of Manitoba)

YA World Challenge book review for  🇨🇦 Canada

This House Is Not a Home

Author: Katłıà

Review

 Canada’s residential schools, which forcibly stole native children and attempted to erase their culture, have been brought to greater awareness lately. And while the schools feature in Katłıà’s work here, she focuses on an often overlooked injustice toward First Nations, that of housing. 

This House is Not a Home tells the story of Kǫ̀, a Dene man who grew up on the land, was torn away from it to a residential school, and came back to reclaim his heritage only to be constantly betrayed by the Canadian government who destroys his family’s home only to give him a “free” (not free), poorly built, white man’s house that his family struggles to live in. Throughout the book we see the various consequences of the white man’s encroachment on native land: Kǫ̀‘s brother who forgot his own name at the school and never truly reconnects with his family; the proliferation of alcohol, drugs, and gambling among the indigenous people; the racism that prevents his son from following his hockey dreams; the mining pollution making the town sick; the white government’s attempts to disconnect people from the land and make them dependent.

This is an incredible indictment of everything white people have done to natives on this continent. It is not preachy, nor does it raise its voice - it doesn’t need to, it simply tells pure facts. The writing is simple, like an elder telling a story passed down, and the characters and world come alive. We see Kǫ̀’s life from a young boy hunting with his father, to a man with children of his own. Aside from some concepts mentioned like mortgages, I think this would be suitable for many younger readers as well as adults (sensitive people might want to be careful of the descriptions of hunting/skinning animals, though it is done very respectfully to the animal).

I was happy that despite the astoundingly terrible things that the family went through, the book ends on a hopeful note reflecting the resilience of the Dene people and determination to hold on to their culture. I would very much recommend this book for an awareness of the history and current situation of native peoples, as sadly I imagine this story mirrors many tribe’s stories throughout North America.

Other reps: #indigenous

Genre: #family #historical 20th century

★  ★  ★  ★  ★  5 stars

Read it at  Bookshop.org  |  Strong Nations (indigenous owned)  |  Amazon