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A review by justabean_reads
Halfbreed by Maria Campbell
5.0
Classic memoir of growing up in a Métis community in rural Saskatchewan in the 1940s and 1950s. This came out during the wave of activism around Indigenous rights in the 1970s, and gets cited a lot as the first Indigenous book that someone read (I think I found it on a list of groundbreaking works curated by the author Michelle Good, for example).
Even setting aside its status as a "first," the book is extraordinary. Campbell has a clear-eyed look at the dysfunction and substance abuse in the Métis communities she grew up in, explaining but never excusing it or minimising the harm it did, but the strongest impression of her childhood are memories of joy, family, humour and love of nature. It never feels bleak (save perhaps for the Vancouver section in the middle, which had a lot of substance abuse and mental health challenges), and she always tries to come back to those connections. Campbell spends a lot of time sorting through her feelings about her own identity, and a good deal of internalised racism, and how she grew in understanding and changed her mind about her people. I loved how much she talked about previous generations of community organising and activism in Cree and Métis communities.
It's such a compelling look at life and activism the middle of the 20th-century, and I'm hoping to read more Indigenous books from this era.
Even setting aside its status as a "first," the book is extraordinary. Campbell has a clear-eyed look at the dysfunction and substance abuse in the Métis communities she grew up in, explaining but never excusing it or minimising the harm it did, but the strongest impression of her childhood are memories of joy, family, humour and love of nature. It never feels bleak (save perhaps for the Vancouver section in the middle, which had a lot of substance abuse and mental health challenges), and she always tries to come back to those connections. Campbell spends a lot of time sorting through her feelings about her own identity, and a good deal of internalised racism, and how she grew in understanding and changed her mind about her people. I loved how much she talked about previous generations of community organising and activism in Cree and Métis communities.
It's such a compelling look at life and activism the middle of the 20th-century, and I'm hoping to read more Indigenous books from this era.