Prompt: A book by an indigenous person

[Stina]

I have two books by local and indigenous author Stephen Graham Jones, so I will probably go with one of those.

This is, of course, not limited to the indigenous peoples of North America. What indigenous authors do you recommend?

[Mary]

I have just read "Life Among the Qallunaat" by Mini Aodla Freeman and totally recommend it. Mini was born in 1936 in St. James Bay and she is Inuit. Her world has changed completely during her lifetime. Her way of life was still very traditional when she was a little girl, her family was nomadic and followed nature. They were pressured to send her to boarding school, and eventually she ended up in Ottawa working as a translator. In 1978 her book was published to great reviews, but the Canadian government feared it might cause a scandal. They purchased more than half the books and hid them in a cellar. Think of the books we have been denied! She had been put forward for literary prizes, but they never happened. It had been thought, her book might have become a best seller. Alas, that didn't happen either. It was reworked with her permission and cooperation and brought back closer to her original manuscript and republished in 2015. I was quite pleased to find it in a Scottish library!

[Stina]

Mary wrote: "I have just read "Life Among the Qallunaat" by Mini Aodla Freeman and totally recommend it. Mini was born in 1936 in St. James Bay and she is Inuit. Her world has changed completely during her life..."

Wow, that sounds amazing!

I counted Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience for this prompt, but I did also read Mapping the Interior. They're both great, but they are such completely different reading experiences! I expect I will finish reading The Marrow Thieves sometime next month for GenreLand.