Reviews with content warning for Genocide - This Place: 150 Years Retold

I'll be real honest that I know very little about Canadian history beyond the very early days when it intersects with America and I knew even less about indigenous histories in what is currently Canada. But this graphic novel is absolutely lovely. It covers historical figures, stories like wendigo, and imagined hopeful indigenous futures. Some of the text in some of the stories were a little hard to read for me, but otherwise it's gorgeous look at the ways in which contact was the beginning of dystopia, and a look at how indigenous peoples have always resisted and will always resist until healing occurs.

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wrenny03's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A truly wonderful book. Educated me about a variety of indigenous issues I had heard of but didn't truly understand. It shows the reality of the brutality and hardship indigenous people in north america face but intersperses it with moments of hope, joy, and little victories that mean the world. I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone.

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yourstrulytay's review

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emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The illustrations are beautiful, and the authors and illustrators are as diverse as the stories they tell. These are the stories that have been hidden from us in history class. I loved this.

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nannahnannah's review

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4.5

”Indigenous writers have pointed out that, as Indigenous people, we all live in a post-apocalyptic world. The world as we knew it ended the moment colonialism started to creep across these lands. But we have continued to tell our stories; we have continued to adapt. Despite everything, we have survived.”

Maybe I haven’t fully read enough graphic novels, but I haven’t come across any graphic novel anthologies before this one. And what a wonderful idea! Especially in this case because as has been said (I think in the foreword), graphic novels are a very accessible and easy way to learn about things that may be less so in a thick nonfiction book written in difficult academic text (and they're more straightforward than fiction).

This anthology contains eleven graphic novel shorts, each with a summary and timeline of events talking a bit about the events in the graphic novel or what inspired it. All of the stories are about Indigenous peoples living in what’s known as Canada.

As with all anthologies, some stories are hit and miss. In this case, it’s the art styles. Some of them aren’t my thing, but none of them are objectively awful. All of the stories, however, are engaging and serve more as springboards into further research than they do a thorough explanation or overview of things. Which is a great thing, actually! I have more notes saved to look things into from this anthology than from many nonfiction books. By covering lots of ground, this anthology is able to get people interested and outraged by what has happened to many of these different Indigenous peoples.

I really hope this is something that will be done more often, because I think it’s very effective.

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battybookworm's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

This was mainly an informative text about Indigenous history in Canada. It's beautifully illustrated and each other tells a compelling part of their history. Some specific ones that stood out to me were Rosie and the fight and speech against The Mackenzie Pipeline. Much of the book feels like a jumping off point, and I now have a list of other pieces to check out or historical events/figures to look into.

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justsomejerk's review

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emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

4.25

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