Indigenous-authored novels: 5 great contemporary reads for young adults
First Voices is a Grade 11 English course that replaces works by authors like Shakespeare and Fitzgerald with texts authored by Indigenous writers like Cherie Dimaline and Richard Wagamese.
- First Voices is a Grade 11 English course that replaces works by authors like Shakespeare and Fitzgerald with texts authored by Indigenous writers like Cherie Dimaline and Richard Wagamese.
- Over the summer, our Indigenous literatures lab, led by Haudenosaunee scholar Jennifer Brant at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, examined contemporary Indigenous-authored young adult texts that are well-suited for the First Voices course.
Importance of Indigenous perspectives
- With the replacement of long-read literature comes the task of selecting texts that centre Indigenous resurgence and what Indigenous literary scholar Gerald Vizenor refers to as survivance.
- We hope to see the stories in classrooms across the country that centre Indigenous community narratives from the voices of Indigenous Peoples.
Upholding responsibilities
- As Cherokee author and scholar Daniel Heath Justice writes, good stories are needed that give “shape, substance and purpose” to Indigenous Peoples’ existences and shed light on how to uphold responsibilities to one another and to creation.
- These stand in contrast to stories Justice discusses as “bad medicine,” stories often imposed from the outside, from the perspective of the colonizer.
Engaging with books
- We encourage educators to take a strength-based perspective when discussing Indigenous literature, and also to take an anti-racist approach.
- Anti-racist approaches acknowledge varied experiences of racism, and would help students think critically about their own lives in relationship to these books.
- Read more:
Why you shouldn't be afraid of critical race theory — PodcastBooks featured here are highly acclaimed, and show narratives of Indigenous resurgence.
- It is a story about a Métis-Anishinaabe teen and her family who are drastically impacted by a violent crime in Winnipeg.
- As investigations uncover many unknowns, readers get meaningful insights into the realities of various characters whose lives are intricately woven together.
- Maracle followed Ravensong with Celia’s Song, a finalist in the 2020 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.