University of Manitoba Press

The Idea of a Human Rights Museum is the first book to examine the formation of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and to situate the museum within the context of the international proliferation of such institutions. Sixteen essays consider the wider political, cultural and architectural contexts within which the museum physically and conceptually evolved drawing comparisons between the CMHR and institutions elsewhere in the world that emphasize human rights and social justice. This collection brings together authors from diverse fields-law, cultural studies, museum studies, sociology, history, political science, and literature-to critically assess the potentials and pitfalls of human rights education through "ideas" museums. Accessible, engaging, and informative, the collection's essays will encourage museum-goers to think more deeply about the content of human rights exhibits. The Idea of a Human Rights Museum is the first title in the University of Manitoba Press's Human Rights and Social Justice Series. This series publishes work that explores the quest for social justice and the basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled, including civil, political, economic, social, collective, and cultural rights.

The Idea of a Human Rights Museum is the first book to examine the formation of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and to situate the museum within the context of the international proliferation of such institutions. Sixteen essays consider the wider political, cultural and architectural contexts within which the museum physically and conceptually evolved drawing comparisons between the CMHR and institutions elsewhere in the world that emphasize human rights and social justice. This collection brings together authors from diverse fields-law, cultural studies, museum studies, sociology, history, political science, and literature-to critically assess the potentials and pitfalls of human rights education through "ideas" museums. Accessible, engaging, and informative, the collection's essays will encourage museum-goers to think more deeply about the content of human rights exhibits. The Idea of a Human Rights Museum is the first title in the University of Manitoba Press's Human Rights and Social Justice Series. This series publishes work that explores the quest for social justice and the basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled, including civil, political, economic, social, collective, and cultural rights.

Between 1973 and 1978, six thousand Chileans leftists took refuge in central Canada after the Pinochet coup d'état. Once resettled at the northern extreme of the Americas, these political exiles had to find ways of coping with an abrupt and violent separation from their homeland that had deep material and emotional repercussions. In Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable, Francis Peddie documents the experiences of twenty-one Chileans as they navigate their newfound identity as exiles. Peddie also considers how the admission of people from the wrong side of the Cold War ideological divide had an effect on Canadian immigration and refugee policy, establishing a precedent for the admission of political exiles over the decades that followed.

When dealing with Indigenous women's history we are conditioned to think about women as private-sphere figures, circumscribed by the home, the reserve, and the community. Moreover, in many ways Indigenous men and women have been cast in static, pre-modern, and one-dimensional identities, and their twentieth century experiences reduced to a singular story of decline and loss. In Indigenous Women, Work, and History, historian Mary Jane Logan McCallum rejects both of these long-standing conventions by presenting case studies of Indigenous domestic servants, hairdressers, community health representatives, and nurses working in "modern Native ways" between 1940 and 1980. Based on a range of sources, including the records of the Departments of Indian Affairs and National Health and Welfare, interviews, and print and audio-visual media, McCallum shows how state-run education and placement programs were part of Canada's larger vision of assimilation and extinguishment of treaty obligations. Conversely, she also shows how Indigenous women link these same programs to their social and cultural responsibilities of community building and state resistance. By placing the history of these modern workers within a broader historical context of Aboriginal education and health, federal labour programs, post-war Aboriginal economic and political developments, and Aboriginal professional organizations, McCallum challenges us to think about Indigenous women's history in entirely new ways.

Place and Replace is a collection of recent interdisciplinary research into Western Canada that calls attention to the multiple political, social, and cultural labours performed by the concept of "place." The book continues a long-standing tradition of situating questions of place at the centre of analyses of Western Canada's cultures, pasts, and politics, while making clear that place is never stable, universal, or static. The essays here confirm the interests and priorities of Western Canadian scholarship that have emerged over the past forty years and remind us of the importance of Indigenous peoples, dispossession, and colonialism; of migration, race and ethnicity; of gender and women's experiences; of the impact of the natural and built environment; and the impact of politics and the state.

A rare and inspiring guide to the health and well-being of Aboriginal women and their communities. The process of "digging up medicines" - of rediscovering the stories of the past - serves as a powerful healing force in the decolonization and recovery of Aboriginal communities. In Life Stages and Native Women, Kim Anderson shares the teachings of fourteen elders from the Canadian prairies and Ontario to illustrate how different life stages were experienced by Metis, Cree, and Anishinaabe girls and women during the mid-twentieth century. These elders relate stories about their own lives, the experiences of girls and women of their childhood communities, and customs related to pregnancy, birth, post-natal care, infant and child care, puberty rites, gender and age-specific work roles, the distinct roles of post-menopausal women, and women's roles in managing death. Through these teachings, we learn how evolving responsibilities from infancy to adulthood shaped women's identities and place within Indigenous society, and were integral to the health and well-being of their communities. By understanding how healthy communities were created in the past, Anderson explains how this traditional knowledge can be applied toward rebuilding healthy Indigenous communities today.

Jim Ka-Nipitehtew was a respected Cree Elder from Onion Lake, Saskatchewan, who spoke only Cree and provided these original counselling discourses. This book offers the speeches in Cree syllabics and in Roman Orthography as well as an English translation and commentary. The Elder offers guidance for First Nations people in these eight speeches that cover the proper performance of ceremonies, words of encouragement for youth, information about collecting medicinal plants, directions for proper behaviour of men toward women, proper preparations for the Pipe ceremony, the role of the Pipestem in the Making of Treaty 6, the importance of tobacco, and examples of improper ritual behaviour in ceremonies. One of the most important speeches is the narrative of the Cree record for the treaty negotiations that took place in the summer of 1876. It was originally transmitted by Jim Ka-Nipitehtew's father directly to him and the authors comment on this remarkable chain of transmission. This book contains a Cree-English and an English-Cree Glossary. The Counselling Speeches of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew is an important resource for Cree linguistics as well as those interested in understanding the Cree perspective of Treaty 6.

In this volume, Nelson Wiseman skilfully describes the history of the New Democratic Party in Manitoba, tracing the roots of the social democratic movement to the years of mass immigration and social unrest that preceded the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919. Drawing extensively on personal interviews, on the private papers and correspondence of party leaders and activists, and on archival materials, Wiseman portrays clearly the party's philosophy and leadership, its organization and inner workings, its electoral support, and its relations with other parties, with labour, and with farmers.

Through insightful essays, Revisiting Human Rights in Canadian History challenges the national myths that celebrate Canada's inclusivity, frame this country as a global human rights leader, and minimize persistent inequalities at home. Contributors to this volume critically examine how Canadian citizens and governments have historically understood and mobilized human rights, as well as who has fought for, benefitted from, and been excluded from them. Spanning topics such as incarceration and criminalization, women's rights, labour movements, Indigenous sovereignty, grassroots activism, immigration, and foreign policy, this collection reflects the diversity of research driving the rapidly developing field of human rights. Both a timely intervention and call to mobilize for social justice, Revisiting Human Rights in Canadian History offers a nuanced reassessment of Canada's history and historiography of human rights.

Re-envisioning multiculturalism in Canada In 1971, Canada became the first nation in the world to officially declare its bilingual and multicultural policies. Reconstructions of Canadian Identity examines what has changed over the past fifty years, highlighting the lived experiences of marginalized Canadians and offering insights into the critical work that lies ahead.  Editors Vander Tavares and Maria João Maciel Jorge bring together a wide range of disciplines and perspectives to investigate inclusion and exclusion within the processes, discourses, and practices that forge and frame Canadian identity. Chapters analyze ways current multicultural policies continue to benefit the dominant groups and (further) harm minoritized ones.  Exposing the pitfalls of established notions of Canadian identity, this volume moves traditionally othered identities-immigrant, racialized, hybridized, Indigenous, and women-to the forefront. In doing so, it reveals how these identities negotiate and claim legitimacy, arguing for a reconceptualization from the margins that truly fosters diversity and inclusion. Illustrating both the shortcomings of and possibilities for a more inclusive multiculturalism in Canada, Reconstructions of Canadian Identity invites readers to reflect on what it means to be Canadian in the twenty-first century. 

Honouring the scholarship of Métis matriarchs While surveying the field of Indigenous studies, Laura Forsythe and Jennifer Markides recognized a critical need for not only a Métis-focused volume, but one dedicated to the contributions of Métis women. To address this need, they brought together work by new and established scholars, artists, storytellers, and community leaders that reflects the diversity of research created by Métis women as it is lived, considered, conceptualized, and re-imagined. With writing by Emma LaRocque and other forerunners of Métis studies, Around the Kitchen Table looks beyond the patriarchy to document and celebrate the scholarship of Métis women. Focusing on experiences in post-secondary environments, this collection necessarily traverses a range of methodologies. Spanning disciplines of social work, education, history, health care, urban studies, sociology, archaeology, and governance, contributors bring their own stories to explorations of spirituality, material culture, colonialism, land-based education, sexuality, language, and representation. The result is an expansive, heartfelt, and accessible community of Métis thought. Reverent and revelatory, this collection centres the strong aunties and grandmothers who have shaped Métis communities, culture, and identities with teachings shared in classrooms, auditoriums, and around the kitchen table. 

A testimony to Indigenous resilience in business Despite investments in nation building, self-autonomy, and cultural resurgence, Indigenous economic development has remained an underexplored and underestimated area of research. Engraved on Our Nations overturns the discouraging deficit perspective too common in policy and academia and amplifies the largely undocumented history of successful Indigenous economic activity in Canada.  Following David Newhouse's overview of Indigenous economic history, the authors of this collection illustrate how First Nation and Métis individuals and communities have met and overcome an array of challenges. Case studies focus on First Nations from Membertou (Nova Scotia) to Tahltan (British Columbia) and Indigenous-led enterprises like McDonald Brothers Electric (Northwest Territories) and Neechi Commons (Manitoba). Simultaneously celebrating Indigenous entrepreneurs and exploring concerns around sustainable development, the book also asks: can capitalism be Indigenized?  This first-of-its-kind collection shares stories not only of entrepreneurial excellence and persistence but savvy leadership, innovation, and reciprocity. In doing so, Engraved on Our Nations provides hope to Indigenous business leaders, youth, and elected officials working on the front lines to improve economic conditions and achieve "a good life" for their communities.

Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its Calls to Action in June 2015, governments, churches, non-profit, professional and community organizations, corporations, schools and universities, clubs and individuals have asked: "How can I/we participate in reconciliation?" Recognizing that reconciliation is not only an ultimate goal, but a decolonizing process of journeying in ways that embody everyday acts of resistance, resurgence, and solidarity, coupled with renewed commitments to justice, dialogue, and relationship-building, Pathways of Reconciliation helps readers find their way forward. The essays in Pathways of Reconciliation address the themes of reframing, learning and healing, researching, and living. They engage with different approaches to reconciliation (within a variety of reconciliation frameworks, either explicit or implicit) and illustrate the complexities of the reconciliation process itself. They canvass multiple and varied pathways of reconciliation, from Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, reflecting a diversity of approaches to the mandate given to all Canadians by the TRC with its Calls to Action. Together the authors-academics, practitioners, students and ordinary citizens-demonstrate the importance of trying and learning from new and creative approaches to thinking about and practicing reconciliation and reflect on what they have learned from their attempts (both successful and less successful) in the process.

Civilian Internment in Canada initiates a conversation about not only internment, but also about the laws and procedures-past and present-which allow the state to disregard the basic civil liberties of some of its most vulnerable citizens. Exploring the connections, contrasts, and continuities across the broad range of civilian internments in Canada, this collection seeks to begin a conversation about the laws and procedures that allow the state to criminalize and deny the basic civil liberties of some of its most vulnerable citizens. It brings together multiple perspectives on the varied internment experiences of Canadians and others from the days of World War One to the present. This volume offers a unique blend of personal memoirs of "survivors" and their descendants, alongside the work of community activists, public historians, and scholars, all of whom raise questions about how and why in Canada basic civil liberties have been (and, in some cases, continue to be) denied to certain groups in times of perceived national crises.

Distorted Descent examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined "Indigenous" identity. This study is not about individuals who have been dispossessed by colonial policies, or the multi-generational efforts to reconnect that occur in response. Rather, it is about white, French-descendant people discovering an Indigenous ancestor born 300 to 375 years ago through genealogy and using that ancestor as the sole basis for an eventual shift into an "Indigenous" identity today. After setting out the most common genealogical practices that facilitate race shifting, Leroux examines two of the most prominent self-identified "Indigenous" organizations currently operating in Quebec. Both organizations have their origins in committed opposition to Indigenous land and territorial negotiations, and both encourage the use of suspect genealogical practices. Distorted Descent brings to light to how these claims to an "Indigenous" identity are then used politically to oppose actual, living Indigenous peoples, exposing along the way the shifting politics of whiteness, white settler colonialism, and white supremacy.

Canada's recent sesquicentennial celebrations were the latest in a long, steady progression of Canadian cultural memory projects. Unbecoming Nationalism investigates the power of commemorative performances in the production of nationalist narratives. Using "unbecoming" as a theoretical framework to unsettle or decolonize nationalist narratives, Helene Vosters examines an eclectic range of both state-sponsored social memory projects and counter-memorial projects to reveal and unravel the threads connecting reverential military commemoration, celebratory cultural nationalism, and white settler-colonial nationalism. Vosters brings readings of institutional, aesthetic, and activist performances of Canadian military commemoration, settler-colonial nationalism, and redress into conversation with literature that examines the relationship between memory, violence, and nationalism from the disciplinary arenas of performance studies, Canadian studies, critical race and Indigenous studies, memory studies, and queer and gender studies. In addition to using performance as a theoretical framework, Vosters uses performance to enact a philosophy of praxis and embodied theory.

The first comprehensive history of the Aboriginal First World War experience on the battlefield and the home front. When the call to arms was heard at the outbreak of the First World War, Canada's First Nations pledged their men and money to the Crown to honour their long-standing tradition of forming military alliances with Europeans during times of war, and as a means of resisting cultural assimilation and attaining equality through shared service and sacrifice. Initially, the Canadian government rejected these offers based on the belief that status Indians were unsuited to modern, civilized warfare. But in 1915, Britain intervened and demanded Canada actively recruit Indian soldiers to meet the incessant need for manpower. Thus began the complicated relationships between the Imperial Colonial and War Offices, the Department of Indian Affairs, and the Ministry of Militia that would affect every aspect of the war experience for Canada's Aboriginal soldiers. In his groundbreaking new book, For King and Kanata,Timothy C. Winegard reveals how national and international forces directly influenced the more than 4,000 status Indians who voluntarily served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force between 1914 and 1919-a per capita percentage equal to that of Euro-Canadians-and how subsequent administrative policies profoundly affected their experiences at home, on the battlefield, and as returning veterans.

Manitoba's ninety-three species of fish give the province the third most diverse fish population in Canada. The province's variety of geological features, with its major lakes, rivers, tributaries, and watersheds, is due in large part to its history as the basin for Glacial Lake Agassiz. This, combined with its access to the waters of Hudson Bay and large American river systems, has provided habitat for a wide diversity of freshwater fish. Species from lampreys to goldeye, catfish to perch, bigmouth bass to slimy sculpin swim in waters from arctic rivers in the north to Red River tributaries and down to the Mississippi in the south. Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide. Each species is accurately depicted in detailed colour photographs and accompanying map, with descriptions of physical characteristics, spawning and feeding habits, distribution, habitat, ecological role, and economic importance. The guide also includes an extensive glossary, keys to identifying the families, species, and subspecies, and information on documentation and preservation of specimens. Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba is not only the definitive guide to these fishes of Manitoba, it is also accessible and reliable for a range of users from general fishers to professional fish biologists.

Exposing the deep roots and new threats of Canada's regressive right Over the past decade, we have witnessed the global mainstreaming of hate as false narratives and conspiracy theories about equity and inclusion, immigration, COVID-19 and vaccinations, and the "gay agenda" have become permissible talking points among right-wing politicians, pundits, and influencers. In Confronting the Resurgent Right, scholars and activists take Canada's 2022 "Freedom Convoy" as a recent manifestation of deep-rooted extremism. Providing intersectional commentary on the resurgence of the right, they demonstrate how its ideology permeates and shapes the structures of our society. Balancing evidence-based research with careful analysis of the genesis and methods of the right, this volume models pathways of resistance and charges us to work together to expose and counter the regressive forces that spew hate.

A scathing indictment of austerity policy In 2016, Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba successfully campaigned on a platform to reduce taxes and restore the balance between revenue and spending. The years that followed their victory saw wages frozen, emergency rooms closed, intensive care unit beds reduced, healthcare jobs eliminated, Manitoba Housing funding slashed, and payments to foster parents decreased, as the civil service was diminished by 27 percent. Public Service in Tough Times gives voice to the people behind the balance sheets, shedding light on the vicious cycle of understaffing, burnout, attrition, and despair created by austerity policy. Using survey data from thousands of public sector workers and carefully compiled statistics on spending and staffing, editors Jesse Hajer, Ian Hudson, and Jennifer Keith, demonstrate how cuts to government expenditures disproportionately benefit the wealthy and exacerbate poverty and inequality. As the virtues of small government, tax cuts, and private sector investment continue to be the rallying cry of right-leaning politicians worldwide, this impeccably researched case study delivers a crushing critique of austerity and its consequences.

The definitive study of Manitoba politics for our time. The Keystone Province: Politics and Governance in Manitoba brings together leading experts to examine Manitoba's diverse political institutions, processes, sectors, and actors. This comprehensive collection presents an engaging analysis of Manitoba's governments from Louis Riel to Wab Kinew. Examining Manitoba's unique political culture, from its first breaths on the battlefields to the steady pulse of the structures, communities, parties, and elections that make up its modern body politic, editors Kelly Saunders and Christopher Adams demonstrate that, throughout its history of continuity and change, the "middle province" remains politically exciting and worthy of study and debate.

Revisiting the political activism of WIC Wuttunee William (Bill) Wuttunee was a trailblazing lawyer, a courageous native rights activist; and one of the architects of the process for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His 1971 book, Ruffled Feathers: Indians in Canadian Society, decried conditions on reserves and pressed for integration-on Indigenous peoples' own terms-supporting many of the aims of the Trudeau government's 1969 "White Paper." Though controversial at the time, Wuttunee's arguments were rooted in a foundational belief in the strengths of his people and a steadfast rejection of victimhood. In the fifty years that have followed its publication, Ruffled Feathers has been largely forgotten, though ideas that Wuttunee put forth-ending the Indian Act and the reserve system-continue to find space within contemporary Canadian political discourse. In this volume, editor Wanda Wuttunee gathers a diverse cohort of scholars to engage with her father's ideas and offer their own perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous peoples in Canada, then and now. Favouring discourse over conclusions, Still Ruffling Feathers leads the reader to a nuanced understanding of the ongoing conversations and unresolved issues stemming from the Indian Act and invites us to envision miyo-pimâtisiwin, "the good life."

The story of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, from the folks who were there Every July since 1974, Manitoba's Birds Hill Provincial Park has been home to one of Canada's most vibrant and storied celebrations of folk music-the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Founding Folks tells the festival's origin story, from founder Mitch Podolak's unlikely dream of bringing folk music to prairie stages to how it became one of the most influential Folk Festivals in North America. Through conversations with staff, volunteers, and musicians-including Bruce Cockburn, Tom Jackson, and David Amram-filmmaker Kevin Nikkel offers a nuanced look at community building, explores the relationships between politics and culture, and provides fascinating insight into the lifelong friendships that developed among some of folk music's most defining figures. Brought to life by more than ninety photographs, this book is a testament to the vitality of prairie arts and culture. Founding Folks captures the spirit and enthusiasm of those early festival days and preserves this legacy for festival goers, students of culture and history, music enthusiasts, and folkies everywhere.

Teammates, champions, Survivors In 1951, after winning the Thunder Bay district championship, the Sioux Lookout Black Hawks hockey team from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School embarked on a whirlwind promotional tour through Ottawa and Toronto. They were accompanied by a professional photographer from the National Film Board who documented the experience. The tour was intended to demonstrate the success of the residential school system and introduce the Black Hawks to "civilizing" activities and the "benefits" of assimilating into Canadian society. For some of the boys, it was the beginning of a lifelong love of hockey; for others, it was an escape from the brutal living conditions and abuse at the residential school.  In Beyond the Rink, Alexandra Giancarlo, Janice Forsyth, and Braden Te Hiwi collaborate with three surviving team members-Kelly Bull, Chris Cromarty, and David Wesley-to share the complex legacy behind the 1951 tour photos. This book reveals the complicated role of sports in residential school histories, commemorating the team's stellar hockey record and athletic prowess while exposing important truths about "Canada's Game" and how it shaped ideas about the nation. By considering their past, these Survivors imagine a better way forward not just for themselves, their families, and their communities, but for Canada as a whole.

WINNER Scholarly Writing Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards (2026) WINNER CLIO History Prize (Prairies), Canadian Historical Association (2026) WINNER Indigenous History Book Prize, Canadian Historical Association (2026) WINNER Errol Sharpe Book Prize, Society for Socialist Studies (2026) SHORTLISTED Best Scholarly (English-Language) Book in Canadian History Prize, Canadian Historical Association (2026) FINALIST Indigenous Peoples Writing Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards (2026) FINALIST Non-Fiction Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards (2026) Mapping Métis history and cultural heritage through women's work Centring kinship and the strength of women, Putting Down Roots reframes Métis road allowance communities as sites of profound resistance and resilience, restoring Métis life in places, times, and scholarship where it has been obscured by settler narratives. These communities were not peripheral spaces where Métis lived as squatters, but places where families culturally thrived by visiting each other, telling stories, sharing food, and providing mutual aid. With stories of Métis li vyeu (Elders) as its foundation, this innovative study reveals the agency embedded in the everyday actions of women's work, which sustained Métis identity, family systems, and relationships to land. Cheryl Troupe charts a century of Métis presence and persistence in the Qu'Appelle Valley, from the end of the buffalo hunt in the 1850s, through displacement following the northwest resistances, resettlement on fringe Crown lands, ongoing political activism and opposition to Canadian land-use practices, and finally the dissolution of the road allowance community along Katepwa Lake in the 1950s. Focusing on female kinship relationships and food production, Putting Down Roots illuminates the ways women created the stability necessary to adapt to the rapidly changing economic, social, and political conditions that defined this period of Canadian history. Troupe's sophisticated use of oral histories, archival sources, genealogies, photographs, and deep mapping links people and their stories to the spaces that are important to them. Adding a new dimension to the study of Métis history, Putting Down Roots brings to life the tremendous cultural strength that characterized Métis road allowance communities.

"A new book shows that the Northern Dene people of Alaska and Canada have known far more about the stars than an earlier generation of scientists were willing to acknowledge."-The New York Times Teachings from the stars Much more than stories about the sky, Indigenous astronomies provide powerful, centuries-old models of knowing, being, and relating to the world. Through collaboration with more than sixty-five Dene Elders and culture bearers across thirty-four communities in Alaska and Canada, In the Footsteps of the Traveller reveals the significance of the stars to Northern Dene life, language, and culture. At the centre of these knowledge systems is the Traveller, a being who journeyed around the world in Ancient Time before incarnating among the stars. The Traveller constellation is a teacher, a gamekeeper, a guardian, and a practical guide for wayfinding. The Traveller, together with a host of other celestial and atmospheric phenomena like thunder and the northern lights, bridges the divide between earth and sky, instilling balance and instructing people on how to live with each other and their environments. This study combines interviews, stunning photographs and detailed illustrations of the northern night sky, author Chris M. Cannon's own experiential learning, and a foreword from Chief Fred Sangris of Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Rooted in years of collaborative fieldwork, In the Footsteps of the Traveller leads the way to deeper understandings of Northern Dene astronomical knowledge.

WINNER Governor General's History Award for Scholarly Research (2025) WINNER Best Book in Canadian Studies Prize, Canadian Studies Network (2025) WINNER Best First Book - Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (2025) WINNER CLIO History Prize (North), Canadian Historical Association (2025) WINNER Best Scholarly (English-Language) Book in Canadian History Prize, Canadian Historical Association (2025) SHORT-LISTED Indigenous History Book Prize, Canadian Historical Association (2025) SHORT-LISTED J.W. Dafoe Book Prize (2025) SHORT-LISTED Robert Kroetsch - City of Edmonton Book Prize (2025) The first comprehensive study of Indian residential schools in the North In this ground-breaking book, Crystal Gail Fraser draws on Dinjii Zhuh (Gwich'in) concepts of individual and collective strength to illuminate student experiences in northern residential schools, revealing the many ways Indigenous communities resisted the institutionalization of their children. After 1945, federal bureaucrats and politicians increasingly sought to assimilate Indigenous northerners-who had remained comparatively outside of their control-into broader Canadian society through policies that were designed to destroy Indigenous ways of life. Foremost among these was an aggressive new schooling policy that mandated the construction of Grollier and Stringer Halls: massive residential schools that opened in Inuvik in 1959, eleven years after a special joint committee of the House of Commons and the Senate recommended that all residential schools in Canada be closed. By Strength, We Are Still Here shares the lived experiences of Indigenous northerners from 1959 until 1982, when the territorial government published a comprehensive plan for educational reform. Led by Survivor testimony, Fraser shows the roles both students and their families played in disrupting state agendas, including questioning and changing the system to protect their cultures and communities. Centring the expertise of Knowledge Keepers, By Strength, We Are Still Here makes a crucial contribution to Indigenous research methodologies and to understandings of Canadian and Indigenous histories during the second half of the twentieth century.

Reclaiming crops and culture on Turtle Island Manomin, more commonly known by its English misnomer "wild rice," is the only cereal grain native to Turtle Island (North America). Long central to Indigenous societies and diets, this complex carbohydrate is seen by the Anishinaabeg as a gift from Creator, a "spirit berry" that has allowed the Nation to flourish for generations. Manomin: Caring for Ecosystems and Each Other offers a community-engaged analysis of the under-studied grain, weaving together the voices of scholars, chefs, harvesters, engineers, poets, and artists to share the plant's many lessons about the living relationships between all forms of creation. Grounded in Indigenous methodologies and rendered in full colour, Manomin reveals and examines our interconnectedness through a variety of disciplines-history, food studies, ethnobotany, ecology-and forms of expression, including recipes, stories, and photos. A powerful contribution to conversations on Indigenous food security and food sovereignty, the collection explores historic uses of Manomin, contemporary challenges to Indigenous aquaculture, and future possibilities for restoring the sacred crop as a staple. In our time of ecological crisis, Manomin teaches us how to live well in the world, sustaining our relations with each other, our food, and our waterways.

Newly discovered work by one of Canada's favourite writers The Canadian Shields brings together fifty short writings by Carol Shields (1935-2003), including more than two dozen previously unpublished short stories and essays and two dozen essays previously published but never before collected. Invaluable to scholars and admirers of Shields's work, the writings discovered in the National Library Archives by Nora Foster Stovel and presented to the public here for the first time reflect Shields's interest in the relationships between reality and fiction, mothers and daughters, and gender and genre. They also reveal her love of Canada, especially Winnipeg, her home for twenty years. Originally written for women's magazines, travel journals, convocation addresses, and even graduate school term papers, Shields's imaginative essays explore ideas about home, Canadian literature, contemporary women's writing, and the future of fiction. Whether autobiographical, cultural, or feminist in focus, these works vividly illuminate the multiple chapters of Shields's writing life. Margaret Atwood and Lorna Crozier frame Shields's texts with tributes to her work and impact. An introduction by Stovel situates Shields as a Canadian author and subversive feminist writer, demonstrating how American-born-and-raised Carol Anne Warner became "the Canadian Shields"-a quintessential and beloved Canadian writer and the only author to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the Governor General's Gold Medal for Fiction.

Sewing new understandings Indigenous beadwork has taken the art world by storm, but it is still sometimes misunderstood as static, anthropological artifact. Today's prairie artists defy this categorization, demonstrating how beads tell stories and reclaim cultural identity. Whether artists seek out and share techniques through YouTube videos or in-person gatherings, beading fosters traditional methods of teaching and learning and enables intergenerational transmissions of pattern and skill.  In Bead Talk, editors Carmen Robertson, Judy Anderson, and Katherine Boyer gather conversations, interviews, essays, and full-colour reproductions of beadwork from expert and emerging artists, academics, and curators to illustrate the importance of beading in contemporary Indigenous arts. Taken together, the book poses and responds to philosophical questions about beading on the prairies: How do the practices and processes of beading embody reciprocity, respect, and storytelling? How is beading related to Indigenous ways of knowing? How does beading help individuals reconnect with the land? Why do we bead?  Showcasing beaded tumplines, text, masks, regalia, and more, Bead Talk emphasizes that there is no one way to engage with this art. The contributors to this collection invite us all into the beading circle as they reshape how beads are understood and stitch together generations of artists. 

WINNER J.W. Dafoe Prize (2025) WINNER CLIO History Prize (Prairies), Canadian Historical Association (2025) WINNER Manitoba Day Award, Scholarly Publication (2025) WINNER Margaret McWilliams Award, Scholarly History (2024) The life and times of the Premier from Red River  John Norquay, orphan and prodigy, was a leader among the Scots Cree peoples of western Canada. Born in the Red River Settlement, he farmed, hunted, traded, and taught school before becoming a legislator, cabinet minister, and, from 1878 to 1887, premier of Manitoba. Once described as Louis Riel's alter ego, he skirmished with prime minister John A. Macdonald, clashed with railway baron George Stephen, and endured racist taunts while championing the interests of the Prairie West in battles with investment bankers, Ottawa politicians, and the CPR. His contributions to the development of Canada's federal system and his dealings with issues of race and racism deserve attention today. Recounted here by Canadian historian Gerald Friesen, Norquay's life story ignites contemporary conversations around the nature of empire and Canada's own imperial past. Drawing extensively on recently opened letters and financial papers that offer new insights into his business, family, and political life, Friesen reveals Norquay to be a thoughtful statesman and generous patriarch. This masterful biography of the Premier from Red River sheds welcome light on a neglected historical figure and a tumultuous time for Canada and Manitoba.

A tasty oral history In 2018, Janis Thiessen, Kimberley Moore, and collaborator Kent Davies refashioned a used food truck into a mobile oral history lab. Together they embarked on a journey around Manitoba, gathering stories about the province's food and the people who make, sell, and eat it. Along the way, they visited restaurant owners, beer brewers, grocers, farmers, scholars, and chefs in their kitchens and businesses, online, and on board the food truck. The team conducted nearly seventy interviews and indulged in a bounty of prairie delicacies, from Winnipeg's "Fat Boys" to Steinbach's perogies to Churchill's cloudberry jam. Thiessen and Moore serve up the results of this research in mmm... Manitoba. Mixing recipes, maps, archival records, biographies, and full-colour photographs with fascinating stories, they showcase the province's diverse food histories. Through the sharing and preparing of food, the authors investigate food security and regulation, Indigenous foodways and agriculture, capitalism's impact on the agri-food industry, and the networks between Manitoban food producers and retailers. The book also explores the roles of gender, ethnicity, migration, and colonialism in Manitoba's food history. Hop on the Manitoba Food History Truck and journey into the province's past with engaging essays and easy-to-follow recipes for kjielkje and schmauntfat, snow goose tidbits, chicken karaage, the Salisbury House flapper pie, duck fat smashed potatoes, Ichi Ban cocktails, pork inihaw, and more. mmm... Manitoba offers a thoughtfully nuanced, deliciously digestible, and wholly unique regional history that is sure to satisfy.