On Wholeness: Anishinaabe Pathways to Embodiment and Collective Liberation

by Quill Christie-Peters

A brilliant exploration of the body as a site of settler colonial impact, centring embodied wholeness as the pathway to our collective liberation.


This fierce and enlightening book explores a new way of understanding settler colonialism through the intimate lens of how it impacts the body. We start in the place before birth, before time, and before form, swirling like smoke with our ancestors in the great beyond. But we are born into bodies that are contorted, eroded, and shaped by the settler colonial environment. In lyrical and vulnerable prose, Anishinaabeg visual artist Quill Christie-Peters shares her experiences of colonial disembodiment through gendered violence and her father’s legacy as a survivor of residential school.


Despite colonial violence, the Anishinaabeg perspective sees the body extending to encompass ancestors, homelands, spirit relations, and animal kin. Dancing with the wild smoke swirling within, Quill explores the themes of childbirth, parenting, creative practice, pleasure, and expansive responsibility to chart a pathway to wholeness. An integral part of Indigenous resurgence and resistance, wholeness is also the pathway to liberation for all people.

264 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2025

Reviews

[jac · Rating 5 out of 5]

so grateful to be able to learn from this knowledge and way of being in the world. deepening somatic practice to the totality of the world and liberation, never limited by our physical forms. feeling changed

[Nichole · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Our wholeness requires us to experience presence within our bodies, but the ability to exist in a truly embodied state as an Indigenous person feels nearly impossible in a settler-colonial world intent on the destruction of Indigenous life."

This book was so beautiful. The author reflects on her own experiences of settler colonial violence through a decolonial lens. She explores topics like gendered violence, settler-colonial violence, parenting, disembodiment, compartmentalization, Anishinaabe beliefs, and art. She has a poetic prose that carries the reader along in an intimate way. Despite the heavy topics, you won't want to put this book down because of the writing.

This is a mindful exploration of the above topics. The author is viscerally aware how settler-colonialism has impacted her, her parents, her ancestors, Anishinaabe lands. She gently explores the complexities of having a white parent whose parents were settlers to this land though they decided to stand with Indigenous people. She uses her Anishinaabe beliefs to weave a story that is outside of colonial understanding.

One of my favorite chapters was the one on parenting. I recently tried reading a book that challenged adult supremacy. But On Wholeness did in one chapter which that other book could not which is put a decolonial lens on parenting. It was a beautiful chapter that challenged a lot of my own thinking and further expanded my beliefs on how we can be in a world with children.

I cannot wait to revisit this book.

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quill Christie-Peters is influencing liberation with poetic nuances and thoughtful deconstructions to fight against colonialized norms. This is a narrative that perfects the art of weaving personal stories and advocating for real genuine connectedness and justice. This is the type of narrative that is designed to make you think about your place amongst everything and how you can contribute to real genuine change. If there is any book you are going to read about liberation – this is the one you read to really challenge your ideals and align them with your morals. Indigenous perspective that is eloquent and vivaciously detailed for inquiring minds.
They have an enchanting writing style that will make you think deeply as you dissect the language line by line. There is something about the way she invites all her readers to the conversation while critically analyzing the social constructs that define the pitfalls of our current societal structures. I found myself really thinking about the way I interact with my personal activism and how I can utilize my resources for a more united front. This is a narrative you will digest slowly because the of the breadth of the content but appreciate the level of thought it invokes after. Anishinaabe perspective advocating for land back and a place without settler influence constructs.

[Nike · Rating 5 out of 5]

On Wholeness should be a required reading for all of humanity. I found myself savouring this book in an effort to fully digest the wisdom shared in each chapter, while reflecting on my own responsibility to collective liberation. There are books that fundamentally change you and this feels like one of them! Thank you Quill Christie-Peters for sharing this gift.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this one slowly because I had to digest it slowly. Every chapter opened up my mind in a different way. Quill's writing is absolutely gorgeous and I hope she continues to write and publish.

[Becky McM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and powerful. I enjoyed every second of this journey.

[Nora Crete · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perspective gift of storytelling & wholeness with an inspiring call to action.

[Haley]

Beautiful. Deep. Insightful.

Thank you so much Anansi Press for the gifted copy.