INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

Title: mâmitonêhta kisêwâtisiwin

Language: Gree

Author: David Groulx

Translator: Randy Morin

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 106 pp.

ISBN: 9781772310924

Price: $16.95

mâmitonêhta kisêwâtisiwin – the Cree translation of Imagine Mercy – is a vibrant poetry collection portraying the daily realities of living as an Indigenous person in Canada. David Groulx and Randy Morin seamlessly weave the spiritual with the ordinary and the present with the past. The author speaks for  the spirit, determination, and courage of Indigenous people, compelling readers to confront cruel reality with his honest and inspiring vision. The poems in mâmitonêhta kisêwâtisiwin portray mixed bloods, resistance, determination, sovereignty, and cultural issues that generate sharply divided opinions and deep emotional struggles. Author’s poetic power renders an honest and painful perception of modern-day Indigenous life with strong voice against prejudice and injustice. 

Title: Tsi Niió:re Enkarakhoténhseke

Language: Mohawk

Author: Janet Rogers

Translator: Jeremy Green

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 120 pp.

ISBN: 9781772310986

Price: $16.95

Tsi Niió:re Enkarakhoténhseke, a Mohawk translation of As Long as the Sun Shines, creatively reveals the beautiful and bitter essences of the world from a distinctive Indigenous female voice. Inspired by her recent global travels, experiences, relationships and Haudenosaunee perspective, the poet unapologetically sings words of midlife wisdom and cultural confidence. By using this creative foundation to unite distinctive communities, the author expresses raw emotion throughout her journey toward inner peace from a uniquely Indigenous point of view. It is this strong expression that the poet hopes will become a global guide for her communities to follow and interpret while encountering their truths and identity.

Title: waniskātota kā pē wāpahk

Language: Cree

Author: David Groulx

Translator: Randy Morin

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 80 pp.

ISBN: 9781772310801

Price: $16.95

waniskātota kā pē wāpahk, a Cree translation of Rising with a Distant Dawn, is a powerful poetry collection which stretches across the boundaries to give a voice to the lives and experiences of ordinary Indigenous people. The poems embrace anguish, pride, and hope. They come from the woodlands and the plains, they speak of love, of war, and of the known and the mysterious, they strike with wisdom, joy, and sadness, bringing us closer than ever before to the heart of urban Indigenous life. The book captures timely personal and cultural challenges, and ultimately shares subtle insight and compassion.

Title: î-nitotamahk kîsik

Language: Cree

Author: Rosanna Deerchild

Translator: Solomon Ratt

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 80 pp.

ISBN: 9781772310504

Price: $16.95

î-nitotamahk kîsik is a poetry collection in Cree that describes deep personal experiences and post-generational effects of the Canadian Aboriginal residential school confinements in the 1960’s when thousands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were placed in these schools against their parents’ wishes. Many were forbidden to speak their language and practice their own culture. Rosanna Deerchild exposes how the residential schools systematically undermined Aboriginal culture across Canada and disrupted families for generations, severing the ties through which Aboriginal culture is taught and sustained, and contributing to a general loss of language and culture. The devastating effects of the residential schools are far-reaching and continue to have significant impact on Aboriginal communities.

Title: A Tea in the Tundra / Nipishapui Nete Mushuat

Language: Innu-English

Author: Joséphine Bacon

Translator: Donald Winkler

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 96 pp.

ISBN: 9781772310351

Price: $16.95

With this bilingual English-Innu poetry collection, Joséphine Bacon, in her tribute to the Tundra, challenges our traditional notions of Aboriginal culture and perception, northern landscape and the wilderness, the limits of experience, and the riddle of human existence. With a dreamlike blend of feeling and memory, A Tea in the Tundra / Nipishapui Nete Mushuat presents a complex and elusive constellation of possibilities. The author displays a finely wrought sensibility, which does honour to the subtle intricacies of daily life. The French-language edition of this book, Un thé dans la toundra, was a finalist for the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry.

Title: pihta ēkwa wihta

Language: Cree

Author: Joseph A. Dandurand

Translator: Randy Morin

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 96 pp.

ISBN: 9781772310474

Price: $16.95

The poems in pihta ēkwa wihta portray deep spiritual transformations and understandings of the ever-present feeling of being haunted by a not so distant past. Revealing important issues of Aboriginal discrimination, poverty, and violence, the author undeniably illustrates the reality of the experiences many Aboriginal people encounter while living on and off-reserve. This poetry collection reveals strong links to land, to family, and to the wisdom of elders. The book exposes struggles many Aboriginal people encounter in getting an education, dealing with family issues and abuse, learning to respect themselves and demanding respect from others, finding their place in the world, and recovering their rich history and culture. Pihta ēkwa wihta illustrates the resilience and strength of the Aboriginal people and the determination that they bring to their communities.

Title: Bi-gishkoziitwin Biidaanzhed Biidaabang

Language: Ojibwa

Author: David Groulx

Translator: Srirley Ida Williams

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 96 pp.

ISBN: 9781926956992

Price: $16.95

Bi-gishkoziitwin Biidaanzhed Biidaabang, an Ojibwa translation of Rising with a Distant Dawn, is a powerful and moving poetry collection which stretches across the boundaries of skin colour, language, and religion to give a voice to the lives and experiences of ordinary Aboriginal Canadians. The poems embrace anguish, pride, and hope. They come from the woodlands and the plains, they speak of love, of war, and of the known and the mysterious, they strike the reader with wisdom, joy, and sadness, bringing us closer than ever before to the heart of urban Aboriginal life. This book captures timely personal and cultural challenges, and ultimately shares subtle insight and compassion. David Groulx and Shirley Ida Williand prove, once again, that the distinctive voice of Aboriginal Canadians must be heard.

Title: mâmitoneyihtamowina ekwa kotakak ayisiniwak ot’swepinikewiniwâwa

Language: Cree

Author: Reneltta Arluk

Translator: Susan Sinclair

Genre: Poetry

Format: Trade Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 104 pp.

ISBN: 9781926956770

Price: $16.95

In this Cree translation of Reneltta Arluk’s poetry collection Thoughts and Other Human Tendencies, the author and the translator draw from the Aboriginal traditions of praising the land and the spirit, the realities of Aboriginal culture, and the concept of feminine individuality. These poems, both sacred and secular, are written with the passions of anger, grief, and love, at once tender and furious. Here are the tales of courage, loss, betrayal, passion, defeat, delight, courting, coming of age, birth and death, youth and old age, hunting and surviving. The poems are united by the ongoing struggle to define what it means to be a tribal member, an Aboriginal, and a woman in the 21st century.