Latest news with #ATwo-SpiritJourney
CBC
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
8 books to read if you loved A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby
Social Sharing Podcaster and wellness advocate Shayla Stonechild championed A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, which was written with Mary Louisa Plummer, to victory on Canada Reads 2025! In A Two-Spirit Journey, Ma-Nee Chacaby, an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian who grew up in a remote northern Ontario community, tells the story of how she overcame experiences with abuse and alcohol addiction to become a counsellor and lead Thunder Bay's first gay pride parade. Here are eight other Canadian books to read if you loved A Two-Spirit Journey. Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott Becoming a Matriarch tells the story of Helen Knott's experience losing both her mother and grandmother in just over six months. The book explores themes of mourning, sobriety through loss and generational dreaming and redefines what it means to truly be a matriarch. Knott is a poet, social worker and writer of Dane Zaa, Cree, Métis and mixed European descent from the Prophet River First Nation. She is also the author of the memoir In My Own Moccasins, which won the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Award for Indigenous Peoples' Publishing. Mamaskatch by Darrel J. McLeod Mamaskatch tells the story of Darrel J. McLeod's upbringing on Treaty 8 territory in northern Alberta, raised by his fierce Cree mother, Bertha. In describing memories of moose stew and wild peppermint tea, surrounded by siblings and cousins, he outlines his mother's experiences as a residential school survivor and how she taught him to be proud of his heritage. McLeod was the writer of two memoirs, Mamaskatch and Peyakow, and one novel, . He became a writer after retiring from a career as a chief negotiator of land claims for the federal government and executive director of education and international affairs with the Assembly of First Nations. He died in 2024 at the age of 67. The Power of Story by Harold R. Johnson The Power of Story reflects on the power of storytelling — from personal narratives to historical sagas — as they relate to humanity and even how humans structure societies. Harold R. Johnson makes a case for how stories can shape and change our lives for the better in this posthumous nonfiction work. Johnson was a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation. He was a lawyer and writer whose groundbreaking book Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours) was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction. His other books include Peace and Good Order and Cry Wolf. He died in 2022 at the age of 64. Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot In Heart Berries, Terese Marie Mailhot traces her life story. She recalls her dysfunctional upbringing on Seabird Island in B.C., with an activist mother and abusive father, and achieving an acceptance into the Masters of Fine Art program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico. Heart Berries is a memorial for her mother, a story of reconciliation with her father and a way to write her way out of trauma. Mailhot is a writer who was born and raised on Seabird Island, B.C. and now lives in Indiana. Her work has appeared in Time, Mother Jones, The Guardian and Best American Essays 2019. Alicia Elliott explores the systemic oppression faced by Indigenous peoples across Canada through the lens of her own experiences as a Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River in A Mind Spread Out on the Ground. Elliott examines how colonial violence, including the loss of language, seeps into the present day lives of Indigenous people, often in the form of mental illness. Elliott is based in Brantford, Ont. Her writing has been published most recently in Room, Grain and The New Quarterly. She is also the author of the novel And Then She Fell, which won the 2024 Amazon First Novel Award. Elliott is a columnist for CBC Arts and CBC Books named her a writer to watch in 2019. She was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Our Voice of Fire by Brandi Morin In Our Voice of Fire, journalist and writer Brandi Morin recounts her experience as a foster kid, runaway and survivor of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis. It follows her journey overcoming adversity to pursue justice and find her power though journalism. Morin is a writer of Cree, Iroquois and French origin from Treaty 6 territories in Alberta. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, CBC and The New York Times. Thunder Through My Veins by Gregory Scofield Gregory Scofield is a poet who has helped shape contemporary Indigenous writing. But the path to becoming an accomplished writer wasn't easy. Scofield's father left him when he was five years old and he grew up surrounded by violence and poverty. But he had the love of his mother, the support of a kind neighbour and a desire to figure out who he was and what he wanted. Thunder Through My Veins is a memoir that recounts Scofield's early life and his experiences defining his identity and place in the world. Thunder Through My Veins was originally published in 1999, when Scofield was 33, and was re-released with a new foreword in 2020. Scofield is a Red River Métis of Cree, Scottish and European descent. He was the 2016 recipient of the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize, a $25,000 award given to an accomplished mid-career poet. His poetry collections include The Gathering and Witness, I Am. From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree academic specializing in Indigenous homelessness, addiction and intergenerational trauma. For Thistle, these issues are more than just subjects on the page. After a difficult childhood, Thistle spent much of his early adulthood struggling with addiction while living on the streets of Toronto. Told in short chapters interspersed with poetry, his memoir From the Ashes details how his issues with abandonment and addiction led to homelessness, incarceration and his eventual journey through higher education. From the Ashes was the top-selling Canadian book in 2020, the winner of the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, Indigenous Voices Award and the High Plains Book Award. It was also a finalist for Canada Reads 2020, when it was championed by George Canyon. Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Sask., and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto. Thistle won a Governor General's Academic Medal in 2016. He is a 2016 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2016 Vanier Scholar. He is also the author of the poetry collection Scars and Stars.
CBC
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Shayla Stonechild, championing A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, wins Canada Reads 2025
Social Sharing After a few days of fierce and thoughtful debates, Shayla Stonechild has won Canada Reads 2025. The book she championed, A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer, survived the elimination vote on March 20, 2025. Podcaster and wellness advocate Stonechild successfully argued that A Two-Spirit Journey best fits the theme as "one book to change the narrative." In A Two-Spirit Journey, Ma-Nee Chacaby, an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian who grew up in a remote northern Ontario community, tells the story of how she overcame experiences with abuse and alcohol addiction to become a counsellor and lead Thunder Bay's first gay pride parade. "This story is not only about trauma and suffering, it is about unconditional love," said Stonechild during the Day Three debates. "Whether that's within two-spirit relationships, whether that's being of service to other people or whether that's just the love for telling your own story and speaking your own truth, Ma-Nee inspires you to take action and agency in your own life and to be an advocate for others, but also to be an advocate to love yourself a little bit deeper." Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew was the runner-up. Pastry chef Saïd M'Dahoma championed the moving novel. Dandelion is a novel about family secrets, migration, isolation, motherhood and mental illness. When Lily was a child, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family and was never heard from again. After becoming a new mother herself, Lily is obsessed with discovering what happened to Swee Hua. She recalls growing up in a British Columbia mining town where there were only a handful of Asian families and how Swee Hua longed to return to Brunei. Eventually, a clue leads Lily to southeast Asia to find out the truth about her mother. Ultimately, Dandelion lost to A Two-Spirit Journey in a 3-2 vote on the final day. Canada Reads 2025: Linwood Barclay and Shayla Stonechild discuss memoirs 3 days ago Duration 3:01 Stonechild is a Red River Métis and Nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree woman) from Muscowpetung First Nations. She founded the Matriarch Movement, an online platform, podcast and nonprofit that amplifies Indigenous voices and provides wellness opportunities for Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals. She is also a global yoga ambassador for Lululemon and is the first Indigenous person featured on Yoga Journal's cover. Stonechild has hosted APTN's Red Earth Uncovered, appeared on Season 9 of Amazing Race Canada and co-hosted ET Canada's Artists & Icons: Indigenous Entertainers in Canada for which she won two Canadian Screen Awards. The 2025 Canada Reads winner brought a strong and well-researched perspective to the debates, both making a strong case for the A Two-Spirit Journey and acknowledging the merits of the other books in contention. Chacaby is a two-spirit Ojibwa-Cree writer, artist, storyteller and activist. She lives in Thunder Bay, Ont., and was raised by her grandmother near Lake Nipigon, Ont. Chacaby won the Ontario Historical Society's Alison Prentice Award and the Oral History Association's Book Award for A Two-Spirit Journey. In 2021, Chacaby won the Community Hero Award from the mayor of Thunder Bay. Her co-writer and close friend, Plummer, is a social scientist whose work focuses on public health and children's rights. She collaborated with Chacaby, who only learned English later in life and is visually impaired, to tell Chacaby's story in the most authentic possible way, drawing on academic research about Indigenous storytelling and years of friendship and mutual trust. The other three books were eliminated earlier in the week. Thriller novel Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey, championed by Maggie Mac Neil, was eliminated on Day One. The memoir Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston, defended by Linwood Barclay, was eliminated on Day Two. Novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper, championed by Michelle Morgan, was eliminated on Day Three. This year's show was hosted by Ali Hassan. The contenders and their chosen books were:
CBC
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Shayla Stonechild defends writing style in A Two-Spirit Journey on Day Three of Canada Reads 2025
Shayla Stonechild defends writing style in A Two-Spirit Journey on Day Three of Canada Reads 2025 1 hour ago Duration 2:02
CBC
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How Michelle Morgan's personal story connects to her book — Watch Day Three of Canada Reads
The great Canadian book debate is back for its 24th season! The third round of Canada Reads kicked off March 19, 2025 at 10:05 a.m ET. Watch Day Three above or find other ways and times to tune in here. WATCH | Michelle Morgan talks about her personal connection to Etta and Otto and Russell and James on Day Three of Canada Reads 2025: Michelle Morgan talks about her personal connection to Etta and Otto and Russell and James on Day Three of Canada Reads 2025 42 minutes ago Duration 0:56 In Etta and Otto and Russell and James, alternating timelines depict the past and present lives of couple Etta and Otto, using magic realism to help show Etta's progressing dementia. When 82-year-old Etta decides to take a journey to the ocean, her husband, Otto, stays behind in Saskatchewan. Their friend Russell tries to bring Etta home, but she has no desire to give up on her goal. As Etta gets closer to the water, she begins to forget more and more — and the stories of her past are revealed through letters and flashbacks. All the while, a talking coyote, James, watches over her. On Day Three of Canada Reads 2025, thriller writer Linwood Barclay noted that the sense of confusion and wonder throughout the novel is powerful at illustrating dementia, but worried that the use of magic realism detracted from this portrayal. We have to fill in the gaps of the conversations. - Michelle Morgan Actor Michelle Morgan, who is championing Etta and Otto and Russell and James, explained that to her, the magical realism added to the way Etta experiences dementia in the novel. Morgan made the connection to her own mother, who is dealing with dementia, and sometimes has trouble grasping at the current reality. "I just have to meet her where she is," Morgan said. "She'll talk about us as if we're still children. Her timelines jump." Responding to critiques about the snippets of a lifetime provided in Etta and Otto and Russell and James, Morgan was glad that writer Emma Hooper allowed readers to imagine the rest. "We meet them when they're young and then we meet them at the end of their lives," she said. "We have to fill in the gaps of the conversations." WATCH | Shayla Stonechild defends writing style in A Two-Spirit Journey on Day Three of Canada Reads 2025: Shayla Stonechild defends writing style in A Two-Spirit Journey on Day Three of Canada Reads 2025 31 minutes ago Duration 2:02 Of all the books on this year's panel, A Two-Spirit Journey, which tells the life story of Ojibwa-Cree elder Ma-Nee Chacaby, has a writing style that's more academic than literary. For Shayla Stonechild, who's championing the memoir, this is a strength, since she prefers nonfiction to fiction. However, both Barclay and Morgan noted that the academic style could be a barrier for readers hoping to get into the book. "I think many people will struggle to get through it because it's so dense and so dry and there's so much information," said Morgan. "In a country teeming with talented writers, including from the Indigenous community, it kind of seems a shame that Canada Reads would be given to a dense academic text, even though the story is so important." Stonechild, who praised A Two-Spirit Journey for its combination of Indigenous and Western storytelling, invited readers who found it hard to get into to try listening to the audiobook instead. "It's like [Ma-Nee] is in the room with you and it's almost like you're in a conversational relationship with the Kokum, with the grandmother," she said. The Canada Reads books are available in print, e-book and audiobook format at your local bookstore or library of choice. "That's what I love about reading — there's so many forms to gather knowledge nowadays," said Stonechild. If you'd like the Canada Reads books in an accessible format, both CELA and NNELS provide books in audio, braille, print braille and text formats. You can find out which formats are available for each of the books here for CELA and here for NNELS. Here's how to tune into Canada Reads 2025: The debates will be available to replay online each day. The livestream on YouTube will be available to watch outside Canada. If you'd rather listen to the debates online, they will air live on CBC Listen. A replay will be available later each day. ON RADIO: Canada Reads will air on CBC Radio at 10:05 a.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 11:05 a.m. in Nunavut, the Maritimes, 1:05 p.m. in Labrador and at 1:35 p.m. in Newfoundland. The debates will replay at 9 p.m. local time in all time zones, except in Newfoundland, where it will replay at 9:30 p.m. ON TV: CBC TV will broadcast Canada Reads at 1 p.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 2 p.m. in the Atlantic time zone and at 2:30 p.m in the Newfoundland time zone. PODCAST: The episode will be posted each day after the live airing. You can download the episodes on the podcast app of your choice.
CBC
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Why thrillers brought Maggie Mac Neil back to reading — Watch Day One of Canada Reads here
The great Canadian book debate is back for its 24th season! The opening round of Canada Reads kicked off March 17, 2025 at 10:05 a.m ET. Watch Day One above or find other ways and times to tune in here. WATCH | Canada Reads 2025 Day One Highlight: Olympian Maggic Mac Neil on Day One of Canada Reads 2025 23 minutes ago Duration 1:10 Championed by Olympic swimmer Maggie Mac Neil, Watch Out for Her is the first thriller on Canada Reads. Watch Out for Her is a gripping story about privacy, surveillance and the anxieties of parenthood. In it, a mother named Sarah thinks her problems are solved when she hires a babysitter, Holly, for her six-year-old son. When Sarah sees something that she can't unsee, she uproots her family to start over. Her past follows her to this new life, raising paranoid questions of who is watching her now? And what do they want? On the first day of Canada Reads 2025, Mac Neil argued that because a tense atmosphere can be present in any genre, thrillers are actually "really applicable and accessible to the reader." Heartland actor Michelle Morgan, championing Emma Hooper's Etta and Otto and Russell and James, agreed that Watch Out for Her 's writing is accessible. However, she wished the novel had pushed more boundaries in the genre. "It was a little too accessible, a little too safe," said Morgan. To that, Mac Neil defended Watch Out for Her by explaining that it has great potential to bring people into reading. When Mac Neil retired from swimming last year, she hadn't read for pleasure in years. Thrillers like Watch Out for Her reinvigorated that passion. "Hopefully, by being an easier read than some of the other books, it draws in more viewers and people to read it, who aren't necessarily strong readers or haven't enjoyed doing it in the past," she said. "That's why it resonated with me, because that's the situation I was in when I came upon it." The genre-talk didn't end there on Day One — thriller writer Linwood Barclay and podcaster and wellness advocate Shayla Stonechild discussed the differences between the two memoirs they decided to champion. WATCH | Canada Reads 2025 Day One Highlight: Linwood Barclay and Shayla Stonechild discuss memoirs 13 minutes ago Duration 3:01 Stonechild is defending A Two-Spirit Journey by Ojibwa-Cree elder Ma-Nee Chacaby, which tells Chacaby's story growing up in a remote northern Ontario community, overcoming experiences with abuse and alcohol addiction to becoming a counselor and leading Thunder Bay's first gay pride parade. A Two-Spirit Journey is written by Chacaby in collaboration with close friend and social scientist, Mary Louisa Plummer. She worked with Chacaby, who learned English later in life and is visually impaired, to tell Chacaby's story in the most authentic possible way, drawing on academic research about Indigenous storytelling and years of friendship and mutual trust. "It's a really good example of what reconciliation looks like and how we can collaborate with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people," said Stonechild. While Barclay's choice, Jennie's Boy, is also a memoir, Stonechild said that she found it hard to get into. "I just felt like after a few chapters, it felt really repetitive and I felt like I knew the story," she said. Still, she recognized that Jennie's Boy covers a six-month period of author Wayne Johnston's life, while A Two-Spirit Journey is a story that spans 64 years of life. For Barclay, however, the fact that Jennie's Boy only dives into a small slice of life was a major feat. "Wayne [Johnston] has taken time, over this period in his life, to narrow that focus and to really dig into it," Barclay said. "Sometimes the best memoirs try to do a narrow focus so that you can really get a sense of that time." The 2025 contenders are: Here's how to tune into Canada Reads 2025: ONLINE: CBC Books will livestream the debates at 10:05 a.m. ET on YouTube and CBC Gem. The debates will be available to replay online each day. The livestream on YouTube will be available to watch outside Canada. If you'd rather listen to the debates online, they will air live on CBC Listen. A replay will be available later each day. ON RADIO: Canada Reads will air on CBC Radio at 10:05 a.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 11:05 a.m. in Nunavut, the Maritimes, 1:05 p.m. in Labrador and at 1:35 p.m. in Newfoundland. The debates will replay at 9 p.m. local time in all time zones, except in Newfoundland, where it will replay at 9:30 p.m. ON TV: CBC TV will broadcast Canada Reads at 1 p.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 2 p.m. in the Atlantic time zone and at 2:30 p.m in the Newfoundland time zone. PODCAST: The episode will be posted each day after the live airing. You can download the episodes on the podcast app of your choice.
