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Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada
Abold, provocative collection of essays exploring the historical and contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.
With authority and insight, Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good’s personal experience and knowledge.
From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. Truth Telling also demonstrates the myths underlying Canadian history and the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin modern social institutions in Canada.
Passionate and uncompromising, Michelle Good affirms that meaningful and substantive reconciliation hinges on recognition of Indigenous self-determination, the return of lands, and a just redistribution of the wealth that has been taken from those lands without regard for Indigenous peoples.
Truth Telling is essential reading for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward.
With authority and insight, Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good’s personal experience and knowledge.
From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. Truth Telling also demonstrates the myths underlying Canadian history and the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin modern social institutions in Canada.
Passionate and uncompromising, Michelle Good affirms that meaningful and substantive reconciliation hinges on recognition of Indigenous self-determination, the return of lands, and a just redistribution of the wealth that has been taken from those lands without regard for Indigenous peoples.
Truth Telling is essential reading for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward.
231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 30, 2023
235 people are currently reading
5358 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Good
3 books664 followersMichelle Good is a writer of Cree ancestry and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She obtained her law degree after three decades of working with indigenous communities and organizations. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, while still practising law, and won the HarperCollins/UBC Prize in 2018. Her poems, short stories and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada. Michelle Good lives and writes in south central British Columbia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 337 reviews
January 12, 2026
The author of this book managed to distill complex questions in short and effective essays. If you've never read anything about the indigenous condition Canada this book would be a perfect entry point. Every word feels very intentional and precisely chosen. From the state of the indigenous literary canon to land back there's not many topics she doesn't make simple. It's a short book but you'll want to take your time with it, can't recommend it enough.
July 6, 2023
4.5 STARS - 
This small book is a set of seven essays that packs a powerful punch. It is a book that I took my time with, reflect up and reassess what I was taught in school as a Canadian non-Indigenous person, what I saw in the media and read in books.
Truth Telling should be required reading in high school. Good pulls no punches in describing how Indigenous peoples have been and continue to be treated by the Canadian government and society. From the beginning of colonization and our government's planned pillaging of Indigenous land, intentional starvation and subsequent genocide of Indigenous communities and their culture; to residential schools that resulted in intergenerational trauma, to our government's encouragement of racism and misinformation about Indigenous Peoples.
This is a well-written, often emotional call to action and request for non-Indigenous Canadians to stop viewing history through the colonial lens. It is a time for action, not continued apologies. As Good says
Readers need to understand and acknowledge:
Truth Telling is a request for non-Indigenous Canadians to do better. To ask questions, to learn more and understand what restitution means.
Thought-provoking, emotional and provocative, Truth Telling is a book that will shock many non-Indigenous readers, but will hopefully inspire the much needed action so that we can honestly and truthfully reconcile with Canada's dark colonial past.
This small book is a set of seven essays that packs a powerful punch. It is a book that I took my time with, reflect up and reassess what I was taught in school as a Canadian non-Indigenous person, what I saw in the media and read in books.
Truth Telling should be required reading in high school. Good pulls no punches in describing how Indigenous peoples have been and continue to be treated by the Canadian government and society. From the beginning of colonization and our government's planned pillaging of Indigenous land, intentional starvation and subsequent genocide of Indigenous communities and their culture; to residential schools that resulted in intergenerational trauma, to our government's encouragement of racism and misinformation about Indigenous Peoples.
This is a well-written, often emotional call to action and request for non-Indigenous Canadians to stop viewing history through the colonial lens. It is a time for action, not continued apologies. As Good says
"Let the age of the apology end. We don't need any more apologies. We need an acknowledgement of the harm that's been done. We need a mea culpa, followed by full and proper restitution". - pg 30
Readers need to understand and acknowledge:
From those very early days, Canadians bought into the myth of Canada as the benevolent provider to Indigenous Peoples as opposed to the colonial oppressor determined to control the valuable resources on Indigenous lands. - p 52
Truth Telling is a request for non-Indigenous Canadians to do better. To ask questions, to learn more and understand what restitution means.
Truth Telling is important in that it restores the human dignity of the victims of violence and calls governments and citizens to account. Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada - pg 54
Thought-provoking, emotional and provocative, Truth Telling is a book that will shock many non-Indigenous readers, but will hopefully inspire the much needed action so that we can honestly and truthfully reconcile with Canada's dark colonial past.
June 13, 2023
7 Stars. One for each of these highly important, insightful and incredibly thought provoking essays. Heartbreaking, full of joy, pride and deeply provocative. This book should be required reading in every history class across this country. Michelle Good does it again.
“No Canadian can feign ignorance of the Indigenous struggle when this book is in arm’s reach”.
“No Canadian can feign ignorance of the Indigenous struggle when this book is in arm’s reach”.
June 4, 2023
This should be required reading.
I read this alongside “Sisters of the Lost Nation” by Nick Medina and they worked really well in dialogue.
I read this alongside “Sisters of the Lost Nation” by Nick Medina and they worked really well in dialogue.
June 19, 2023
A MUST READ!
Part brutally honest truth telling of Indigenous treatment in Canada and part personal and family history, this collection of essays are deeply heartfelt calls to action for individuals and politicians to finally make true changes to work towards improving Indigenous relations, treatment and respect.
The author doesn't shy away from talking about intergenerational trauma, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, land appropriation, racism and the violence and mistreatment of Indigenous women (through forced sterilization, rape and murder) - including her own history of rape, anxiety and cPTSD.
Eye opening and likely shocking for some readers, this is a book everyone should be reading and hopefully will go towards inspiring the type of change we so desperately need in Canada. Good on audio read by Megan Tooley.
**I especially enjoyed the author calling out Joseph Boyden and Carrie Bourassa (among others') attempts to appropriate Indigeneity in her chapter on Cultural pillagers and the damage their actions cause to actual Indigenous people!
Part brutally honest truth telling of Indigenous treatment in Canada and part personal and family history, this collection of essays are deeply heartfelt calls to action for individuals and politicians to finally make true changes to work towards improving Indigenous relations, treatment and respect.
The author doesn't shy away from talking about intergenerational trauma, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, land appropriation, racism and the violence and mistreatment of Indigenous women (through forced sterilization, rape and murder) - including her own history of rape, anxiety and cPTSD.
Eye opening and likely shocking for some readers, this is a book everyone should be reading and hopefully will go towards inspiring the type of change we so desperately need in Canada. Good on audio read by Megan Tooley.
**I especially enjoyed the author calling out Joseph Boyden and Carrie Bourassa (among others') attempts to appropriate Indigeneity in her chapter on Cultural pillagers and the damage their actions cause to actual Indigenous people!
July 20, 2024
I learned so much about indigenous people (in Canada and in general). However, the lack of recognition, sovereignty, and legitimacy of all indigenous people isn’t surprising - which is a fucking sad reality. The consistent white-washed and farcical “truths” continue to out weigh the truth of colonialism and its devastating impact on Canada’s indigenous community.
July 27, 2023
I was particularly interested in the essays where Michelle shared her own story a bit, as well as the one about the Indigenous literary canon and the one about Pretendians. SUPER INTERESTING STUFF.
May 31, 2023
If you've read Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, then you already know that she is a fine writer and a compelling storyteller. Her new book is also compelling and pretty powerful.
Introduction: "Truth is more than fact."
We need to "move beyond...positional and confrontational relationships and into functional ones dedicated to functional change." She talks about the effects of colonization being economic exploitation, and she returns to this theme throughout the book. She challenges non-indigenous people to not only talk but to act.
Residential Schools: Taking of land by colonizers happened without consideration of the interests of Indigenous people. Broken treaties and the slaughter of buffalo was intentional starvation of Indigenous people, and that violence has extended to very recent history. First steps for the government were to civilize the savages through education and to transition them from hunter-gatherers to farmers. However, inadequate tools were provided to encourage farming. From 1885, potlatches were illegal since they were anti-Christian, and by 1920 indigenous children were required to attend residential schools as a further attempt to stomp out indigenous culture. Good calls this colonial violence genocide, and she expressed that apologies for this are inadequate.
Lucy & the Football: This is a reference to Lucy in the Charlie Brown comics promising not to pull the football away from Charlie Brown, and as he runs up to kick it, of course she pulls it away. She makes the point that Canadian promises are pulled away each time, and the Indigenous Charlie Browns are left with empty promises. She says that the promises of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) have yet to be realized, and that reconciliation is "setting things right" with societal change at the roots. There must be truth, justice and healing to achieve reconciliation. We don't just want Lucy to hold the football as promised, but to actually set aside her need to control the ball.
Racism: Exorbitant rates of TB in the residential schools, generations of conditioning by non-indigenous people to believe that Indigenous people are less than human and can be disposable. Indigenous women who have been abused, raped, sold, and gone missing is proof of the disposable Indian. "Colonial archtypes...have become...normalized and form a Canadian 'common sense'" which is wildly inaccurate.
$13.69: Michelle Good spent 5 years in residential schools, and her "sixties sweep" compensation amounted to $13.69 per day for that time she spent being physically, emotionally and sexually abused. She asks us if that is adequate compensation.
Rise and Resistence of Indigenous Literature: Good writes that most of Canada's history is written by colonizers and descendants of non-indigenous people. The 1960's saw the Hawthorne report which provided a "lightning rod for change" which has not been realized yet. It was also the beginning of Indigenous literature, which grew slowly until about the 1990's when it began to expand more quickly. "Indigenous writers play such an important role in fostering non-indigenous understanding."
Cultural Pillagers: The legal definition of "Indian" comes from the Indian Act that was discriminatory. Bill C-35 in 1985 tried to correct this but ended up excluding others rather than addressing the problem completely. The U.S. uses a blood quantum system for measuring whether someone is an Indian, but this will never be used in Canada. Inevitably some non-indigenous people will try to pass themselves off as indigenous ("pretendians"), but Good describes these people as an invasive species that have a destructive influence. "Pretendians only pop up where lucrative opportunities await them."
Land Back: Good writes that "the government's intention is to terminate us Indians". She reports that the Supreme Court of Canada recognizes the "collective nature of land titles", but then they uphold fishing rights and mining rights of non-indigenous people. She said that Indigenous people agreed to share the land, not disinherit themselves. She concludes that "We must have the land back in order to return to a self-determining state." She makes the point that 89% of Canada is public land, and that Canada should begin returning it.
Introduction: "Truth is more than fact."
We need to "move beyond...positional and confrontational relationships and into functional ones dedicated to functional change." She talks about the effects of colonization being economic exploitation, and she returns to this theme throughout the book. She challenges non-indigenous people to not only talk but to act.
Residential Schools: Taking of land by colonizers happened without consideration of the interests of Indigenous people. Broken treaties and the slaughter of buffalo was intentional starvation of Indigenous people, and that violence has extended to very recent history. First steps for the government were to civilize the savages through education and to transition them from hunter-gatherers to farmers. However, inadequate tools were provided to encourage farming. From 1885, potlatches were illegal since they were anti-Christian, and by 1920 indigenous children were required to attend residential schools as a further attempt to stomp out indigenous culture. Good calls this colonial violence genocide, and she expressed that apologies for this are inadequate.
Lucy & the Football: This is a reference to Lucy in the Charlie Brown comics promising not to pull the football away from Charlie Brown, and as he runs up to kick it, of course she pulls it away. She makes the point that Canadian promises are pulled away each time, and the Indigenous Charlie Browns are left with empty promises. She says that the promises of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) have yet to be realized, and that reconciliation is "setting things right" with societal change at the roots. There must be truth, justice and healing to achieve reconciliation. We don't just want Lucy to hold the football as promised, but to actually set aside her need to control the ball.
Racism: Exorbitant rates of TB in the residential schools, generations of conditioning by non-indigenous people to believe that Indigenous people are less than human and can be disposable. Indigenous women who have been abused, raped, sold, and gone missing is proof of the disposable Indian. "Colonial archtypes...have become...normalized and form a Canadian 'common sense'" which is wildly inaccurate.
$13.69: Michelle Good spent 5 years in residential schools, and her "sixties sweep" compensation amounted to $13.69 per day for that time she spent being physically, emotionally and sexually abused. She asks us if that is adequate compensation.
Rise and Resistence of Indigenous Literature: Good writes that most of Canada's history is written by colonizers and descendants of non-indigenous people. The 1960's saw the Hawthorne report which provided a "lightning rod for change" which has not been realized yet. It was also the beginning of Indigenous literature, which grew slowly until about the 1990's when it began to expand more quickly. "Indigenous writers play such an important role in fostering non-indigenous understanding."
Cultural Pillagers: The legal definition of "Indian" comes from the Indian Act that was discriminatory. Bill C-35 in 1985 tried to correct this but ended up excluding others rather than addressing the problem completely. The U.S. uses a blood quantum system for measuring whether someone is an Indian, but this will never be used in Canada. Inevitably some non-indigenous people will try to pass themselves off as indigenous ("pretendians"), but Good describes these people as an invasive species that have a destructive influence. "Pretendians only pop up where lucrative opportunities await them."
Land Back: Good writes that "the government's intention is to terminate us Indians". She reports that the Supreme Court of Canada recognizes the "collective nature of land titles", but then they uphold fishing rights and mining rights of non-indigenous people. She said that Indigenous people agreed to share the land, not disinherit themselves. She concludes that "We must have the land back in order to return to a self-determining state." She makes the point that 89% of Canada is public land, and that Canada should begin returning it.
August 28, 2025
This should be a required read for all high school students.
July 30, 2023
7 essays. Author / lawyer Michelle Good presents the evidence and makes convincing arguments of “the truth behind the myth of Canadian history”. The history of indigenous literature in Canada, Pretendians, Wet’suwet’en protecting their legally recognized and unceded land, the Land Back movement, Residential schools, reconciliation and more. Not what I learned in school and absorbed from growing up in this country but once you know, you can’t not know.
July 16, 2023
Really good! Very thought provoking essays that highlight how hopelessly inadequate our education system is when it comes to teaching indigenous issues and centring indigenous voices and perspectives. I learned more in a four hour audio book than I did in my entire secondary education. Highly recommended.
October 14, 2024
4.5/5
Quick but informative and personal - would highly recommend to anyone looking to engage with authentic Indigenous experiences of injustice, discrimination, and the path forward to reconciliation
Quick but informative and personal - would highly recommend to anyone looking to engage with authentic Indigenous experiences of injustice, discrimination, and the path forward to reconciliation
July 25, 2023
Parroting Andrew, this needs to be read by all.
September 30, 2025
Excellent and important read. 🧡
January 7, 2024
Excellent book. A must-read for all Canadians. Questions about what truth and reconciliation looks like in action? Read this book. This is how we change.
July 1, 2023
An absolute must read. Loved the collection of essay style, reading about specific topics injected with history (told correctly), personal anecdotes, and work to be done in the present day.
July 8, 2024
4 stars. It would be 5 stars, but the author ignorantly asserts imperialist propaganda about Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Solid understanding of settler colonialism in a N. American context. Great work on that. Then she parrots the "correct" position on China every progressive is supposed to without any deeper understanding of the history or geopolitics. Quintessential liberalism. I'm sorry, but spreading propaganda manufactures consent for the coming war with China. That virtue signaling bs has real world consequences.
February 19, 2025
I'm grateful to audiobooks because they help my brain focus on books I normally wouldn't pick up but are incredibly important. TRUTH TELLING is such an incredibly powerful collection of essays, that I urge everyone to read it.
There were definitely instances where I had to pause my audiobook to just say "wow", or to just be incredibly angry and disappointed. I have a complicated relationship with Canada and its history, but the topic of Indigenous peoples and how wronged they have been and continue to be in this society will always make me so angry.
The author shares her own experiences with how the government "repays her" monthly and how her family was affected by the crimes committed against them. We also get some insightful history lessons and, to be punny, some truths that desperately need to be told. Also, the subject of people faking their Indigenous ancestry in order to benefit from certain things like publishing was so eye-opening.
This book is short and to the point--I recommend TRUTH TELLING to all. It's important and powerful!
Happy reading!
There were definitely instances where I had to pause my audiobook to just say "wow", or to just be incredibly angry and disappointed. I have a complicated relationship with Canada and its history, but the topic of Indigenous peoples and how wronged they have been and continue to be in this society will always make me so angry.
The author shares her own experiences with how the government "repays her" monthly and how her family was affected by the crimes committed against them. We also get some insightful history lessons and, to be punny, some truths that desperately need to be told. Also, the subject of people faking their Indigenous ancestry in order to benefit from certain things like publishing was so eye-opening.
This book is short and to the point--I recommend TRUTH TELLING to all. It's important and powerful!
Happy reading!
August 7, 2024
This should be in the curriculum for Canadian history classes. Michelle Good systematically dissects the political follies that Canada has ingrained into the way in which land is governed against the indigenous community. Not only does she highlight the pitfalls on where racisms and oppression has been taught to every generation, she also provides solutions and suggestions on how these reparations can be made. A very educational read for someone who grew up and attended school in Canada but 'somehow' was never taught the country's indigenous history.
February 10, 2025
These essays are so emotionally charged that you can sense the passion with which the author shares their Stories, Truths, and Experiences. While I was familiar with most of the information mentioned in these essays, I did learn a few new things. It’s important to remember that everyone has slightly different opinions, and there’s always something valuable to take away from reading these accounts. If all you’ve ever been taught about Indigenous life in Canada was in school, I highly recommend picking up this book!
September 30, 2023
This is extraordinary and taught me so much. I would universally recommend it, especially to Canadians.
June 23, 2025
“It’s been more than five hundred years; Canada should know we aren’t going anywhere. Instead, we remain.”
A must read for all who reside in Canada from indigenous to non indigenous (especially the non indigenous population)!
A must read for all who reside in Canada from indigenous to non indigenous (especially the non indigenous population)!
December 5, 2025
HRCYED- Readathon & Non-Fiction
July 29, 2023
This book showcases 7 essays about Indigenous life and issues in Canada. Some of the information I am very familiar with but some was new and shocking to me.
March 28, 2024
Such clear writing, I almost missed my stop multiple times commuting because I was so drawn in
June 27, 2024
Michelle Good's book, Truth Telling: Seven conversations about Indigenous life in Canada, offered valuable insights and knowledge about past and present Indigenous history and culture. Despite the sadness that Chapter $13.69 brought me, it enhanced my understanding and encouraged me to further educate myself.
August 1, 2025
Audiobook. 3.5/5. Learned a lot listening to this, though there were some parts that weren't overly interesting.
July 25, 2023
A collection of essays. A must read for anyone that wants to learn more about the Indigenous struggle in Canada. I have so much to learn.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 337 reviews