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careinthelibrary's review
4.0
Since August, I have been working on this collection of critical essays on colonial and gendered violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people. I recommend to all those looking for academic Indigenous perspectives on the MMIWG2S crisis. I finished it recently and I keep thinking back to certain essays and their impactful words.
This is a book I read a chapter or two a week and finished it over a couple months. It's full of important voices that need to be heard but not rushed. This way, I could absorb each essay and spend time thinking on the message of it. Different experiences of racism, misogyny, and genocide in Canada. Different strategies to combat the violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people. I will keep my eyes open for a personal copy as this was a library book. It's a good one to have to reference back to.
This is a book I read a chapter or two a week and finished it over a couple months. It's full of important voices that need to be heard but not rushed. This way, I could absorb each essay and spend time thinking on the message of it. Different experiences of racism, misogyny, and genocide in Canada. Different strategies to combat the violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people. I will keep my eyes open for a personal copy as this was a library book. It's a good one to have to reference back to.
angryphoenix's review
5.0
This is an excellent collection of voices, experiences, and thoughts, and it was put together as a companion text to the Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS) commemorative art installation of 1725 moccasin vamps. Much like how the vamps are unfinished parts of a moccasin, they represent the thousands of unfinished lives of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
As a member of the white settler community, I acknowledge my identity, my status, my privileges as a white woman. I am a researcher and have been working with a professor for the last 2.5 years on a database that has compiled many grassroots initiatives for MMIWG, including artwork, searches, vigils, memorials, dances, ceremonies, and awareness projects. I have been amazed at the work that so many people have done. To say that I admire them is a true understatement.
If you have no knowledge, some knowledge, or much knowledge on MMIWG, you will benefit from reading this book. Whether you read it cover to cover, read some parts and leave others, or skip around to read different chapters, this is a tremendous book that will make you realize that no matter how much you think you know - you don't know nearly as much as you thought you did. Everyone can learn from this book.
As a member of the white settler community, I acknowledge my identity, my status, my privileges as a white woman. I am a researcher and have been working with a professor for the last 2.5 years on a database that has compiled many grassroots initiatives for MMIWG, including artwork, searches, vigils, memorials, dances, ceremonies, and awareness projects. I have been amazed at the work that so many people have done. To say that I admire them is a true understatement.
If you have no knowledge, some knowledge, or much knowledge on MMIWG, you will benefit from reading this book. Whether you read it cover to cover, read some parts and leave others, or skip around to read different chapters, this is a tremendous book that will make you realize that no matter how much you think you know - you don't know nearly as much as you thought you did. Everyone can learn from this book.
nini23's review
This is a sobering read and I'm not even sure if I should rate it.
Many of the articles are written by First Nations people from an academic perspective but also peppered with personal accounts. Frankly, the life stories are brutal and heart-breaking. The systemic violence and oppression of First Nations women is astounding for how under-reported it is. As a Canadian, I am ashamed of how scant my knowledge is and wondering how my apathy and my countryman's apathy towards the First Nations people and their plight has contributed to their misery. For example, while we generally know about residential schools, I did not know the nuns physically abused the kids who had already been separated forcefully from their parents. Residential schools, violated land treaties, systemic oppression, racism, sexual violence, police indifference to reported cases of missing women ... the list just goes on and on. As a whole, this body of work makes me understand the antipathy and hostility that First Nations have towards what they call the Canadian state.
Many of the articles are written by First Nations people from an academic perspective but also peppered with personal accounts. Frankly, the life stories are brutal and heart-breaking. The systemic violence and oppression of First Nations women is astounding for how under-reported it is. As a Canadian, I am ashamed of how scant my knowledge is and wondering how my apathy and my countryman's apathy towards the First Nations people and their plight has contributed to their misery. For example, while we generally know about residential schools, I did not know the nuns physically abused the kids who had already been separated forcefully from their parents. Residential schools, violated land treaties, systemic oppression, racism, sexual violence, police indifference to reported cases of missing women ... the list just goes on and on. As a whole, this body of work makes me understand the antipathy and hostility that First Nations have towards what they call the Canadian state.
karenllowe's review
4.0
Very interesting read. I learned a lot about parts of my country's history that had been buried. Some stories/parts/essays were eye-opening, some inspiring, some parts hard to read but all were educational and well worth reading. It has left me with lots to think about, including how I can help move the story forward in a positive way. What reconciliation can look like. Inspiring.
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