First Nations 101, 2nd edition: Tons of Stuff You Need to Know

by Lynda Gray

First Nations 101 provides a broad overview of the dayto-day lives of Indigenous people, traditional Indigenous communities, colonial interventions used in an attempt to assimilate Indigenous people into mainstream society, the impacts those interventions had on Indigenous families and communities, and how Indigenous people are working towards holistic health and wellness today. This 2nd edition has over 75 chapters, including new ones on rematriation, water for life, governance ‘options’, Indigenous feminisms, decolonization, (mis)appropriation, Indigenous Knowledge, and how to become a great ally.

Author Lynda Gray’s accessible writing style makes First Nations 101 the perfect primer for all to read. She notes that although governments may encourage and fund reconciliation activities, true reconciliation can only happen through the ongoing commitment and consistent actions of individuals, groups, organizations, governments, and businesses.

Lynda Gray is member of the Ts’msyen Nation from Lax Kw’alaams Kw’alaams on the Northwest Coast of B.C.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous

Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2022

Reviews

[Maleekah Zobaidi]

This book is, as said in the description, a broad overview of the day-to-day lives of Indigenous peoples. This book covers over 75 chapters to educate the reader on topics such as residential schools and day schools, the politics of voting, inappropriate phrases, Indigenous feminisms and child welfare/adoption. This book goes into depth including statistics and charts and covers topics that many don’t learn about in schools or hear about often.
If I had to use 2 adjectives to describe this book as a whole, I would use straightforward and thorough because Lynda Gray covers each topic in this book thoroughly and goes in-depth for every subject. She completes each chapter with sites that you can go to to encourage you to do more research, and after reading, Lynda Gray will leave you with a good sense of the topics that were covered and you to be a more informed citizen.
I learned a great deal from reading this book. I learned things such as how tuberculosis vaccines were tested on Indigenous babies, how many falsely claim to have “Indian status” to require perceived benefits, how the child welfare system works and how children grow up not even knowing that they are Indigenous, sexual exploitation and human trafficking and how Indigenous people are over-represented in most aspects of the criminal justice system including stops by police, arrests, charges, remand, inability to post bail, deaths in custody and a lack of fair access to parole or release.
What I liked about this book, even though this is a given, is that the book offered so much more knowledge than just covering residential schools. Even though I would like to recognize that residential schools are and were a huge portion of the genocide against Indigenous people, it shouldn’t be the only thing that is taught to us. Limiting our knowledge and only focusing on one area of history is not making an effort to create a change. Learning about topics such as the ones covered in this book from an Indigenous woman rather than learning about it from a place such as Google makes a big difference to me. This book has an easy-to-read style and makes it fit for a broad range of ages and I wish I read this book sooner.
Moving forward, this book provides us with information on what we can do to be a great ally with Indigenous people. Hearing and listening to an Indigenous individual telling us what we can do better and moving forward with that information is just one small step to helping a bigger problem. At the end of the book, there are a couple of pages on things everyone can do, things Indigenous people can do, things the government of Canada must do, things provincial and territorial governments must do, things city, town and village governments must do and things you must do to become a better ally with Indigenous people. Every action, no matter how small, will always make a difference.
I would recommend this book to early middle/high school students. There are a couple of chapters that could be heavy topics for children under 12, but I think reading a book like this one from an early age is always better. It’s important to be educated on the history and current problems Indigenous people are facing from a young age rather than being uneducated on them until they are older. Making a change and creating a better and stronger generation makes all the difference. Of course, we have moved forward and better decisions than in the past, but there is always more to be done.
Quote from Lynda Gray: “My work is grounded in a strong belief in community development, youth empowerment, and culture as therapy.”

[Stavros Stavrou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good quick overview of some of the major historical and ongoing issues. I like the way she ends sections with lists to other resources. My only complaint is that these should be formatted in a reference style, such as APA. This will help ensure all references are correctly listed and make them easier to locate.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of information in this book. This is a good book if you want to study in depth the hystery of the First Nations. It gives you many other sources to further studing this topic.

[Makena Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly informative, written in a very digestible format so that I was learning on each page.

[Dani Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heavy. Had to read it in micro doses. But filled with stuff everyone needs to know.