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Nitisanak Review: By: Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith Nitisanak is a ground breaking memoir that explores love in its many intricate and difficult ways. It explores queer love, prairie punk scenes, toxic masculinities, the feminine divine and so much more. Author, Lindsay Nixon asks “Is there really such thing as NDN love, as trauma bb love, as…

Review- Ohpikiihaakan- Ohpihmeh- Raised Somewhere Else Reviewed by Christine Miskonoodinkwe-Smith Cardinal’s book “Raised Somewhere Else” brings awareness to an assimilationist policy that the Canadian government practiced between the 1960s to the early 1980s of removing First Nations children from their biological families and being raised somewhere else (outside their own culture) and striving to essentially…

Home? What is it? That’s a question that often crosses my mind and as I contemplate it I think about my biological family, question the audacity of the Canadian government and their puppets who took my siblings and I away from my mommy, and that we were kidnapped to another province. It has taken me…

I wish memory didn’t become faulty or wax and wane with time. I remember the day I met you, I travelled three days on a greyhound from another province. Told a stranger in the seat beside me with the excitement of a little kid “I’m meeting my mom for the first time” the lady looked…

Red power Nations strong and intact Red power blood contact begins   destruction ensues   Red power blood chaos colonialism divides and tries to conquer Red power Blood Missing women Murdered women   Red Power Blood Mayhem we try to fight But government ignores Red Power Blood Truths, words Mean everything Did you say reconciliation?…

Review-21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality  Reviewed By: Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith In “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality,” the author Bob Joseph endeavors to provide insight into 21 rules,…

Review: The Water Walker Written and Illustrated by Joanne Robertson Reviewed By: Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith   In this beautifully written and illustrated children’s book, we are all reminded of how important water is. Water (Nibi) is life. This book chronicles the journey of one Nokomis (Grandmother)- Josephine Mandamin and her quest to bring awareness of…

By: Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith The world isn’t the same Without you here I miss you more than The day you left this world behind Your smile Your laughter And telling of stories The world isn’t the same Without you here I miss you more than The day you left this world behind. Oh what I’d…

You erased me When you took me to court At the age of ten And told the judge “Christine is not wanted” You erased me When you gave me An album of my short childhood And walked away As though that would appease me It hurt more than You’ll ever know Or begin to understand…

  Review: Heart Berries: A Memoir Reviewed By: Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith What author Terese Marie Mailhot achieves in her memoir “Heart Berries” is exquisite.  It took my breath away reading it because her writing is poetically lyrical and the language raw with emotion. Mailhot writes about her coming of age, what happens in those stages…