Indigenous book publishing has exploded in the past 50 years, and the market is flooded with quality reading material from and about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. I remember when it used to be months between releases of Native books. And I’m afraid there are some droughts that Danielle Steel and John Grisham just couldn’t solve.
The spectrum of genres being explored by Indigenous authors today goes well beyond the impacts of colonialism: science fiction, adventure, romance, fantasy, thriller, and horror to name just a few. I myself am thinking of adapting The Da Vinci Code into The Norval Morrisseau Code. Perhaps Jurassic Park could be Algonquin Park.
To try to make sense of this growing canon, I set out to ask three experts within the Indigenous community a familiar question: What five books would you bring with you to a desert island? However, I realized I had to amend the premise. We do not have many desert islands in the First Nations community in Canada. So, at first, I was going to suggest a deserted island instead, somewhere off the Haida Gwaii coast or maybe deep in the Georgian Bay interior.
Then I came up with a more pleasant option: a dessert island where you could read your book with a nice slice of apple pie with ice cream — or maybe a date square or cannoli.
Regardless, here are the suggestions.
Rosanna Deerchild, host of the CBC Radio’s Unreserved
Rosanna Deerchild. (X/Rosanna Deerchild)
- Thomas King,
- Richard Van Camp,
- Katherena Vermette,
- Gregory Scofield,
- Chrystos,
Kai Recollet, an associate professor in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto
Kai Recollet. (Facebook/Kai Recollet)
- Cherie Dimaline,
- Wilfred Buck,
- Monique Mojica and Brenda Farnell,
- Robin Wall Kimmerer,
- Multiple Authors,
Nancy Cooper, a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation and the author of the children’s book Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome
- Joseph Kakwinokanasum,
- Patricia Ningewance,
- Adam Garnet Jones,
- Louise Erdrich,
- Maria Campbell,
For those not overly familiar with the Indigenous community, any or all of these books will help you understand, if in a small way, who we are and what’s important to us. If you are part of our community, they’ll give you a chance to see (in a literary sense) some friends who will remind you of home and to go to their place for some tea.
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