Joseph, Justice, Annett & Younging
April 16th, 2018

A former associate professor at Royal Roads University, Bob Joseph described the draconian and oppressive effects of the Indian Act since its creation in 1876 with 21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality (Indigenous Relations Press $19.95)—outlining such prohibitions as entry into pool halls or soliciting funds for Indians to hire legal counsel. He is founder of Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. and a member of the Gwawaenuk Nation. Also known as, Gwawa_enux_w, the Gwawaenuk Tribe is a First Nations band government of the Kwakwaka’wakw people located in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. The Gwawaenuk Tribe is described as an off-grid, water access-only community. Its main communiuty is known as Hopetown, located at on the south coast of Watson Island in Grapler Sound. 978-0-9952665-2-0
Coming from a historically oral tradition, many Indigenous North Americans have only recently turned to the written word. But it has been significant in helping Indigenous people understand who they are. Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation) studies and writes about Indigenous literature for a living. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture at UBC. His new book, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (Wilfrid Laurier $19.99) surveys the field of Indigenous literary studies as well as analyzes Indigenous literature through a political and social history lens. The book challenges readers to re-think their assumptions about Indigenous literature, history and politics. As well, at a time when reconciliation is in the news, Justice shows how Indigenous writers nurture and restore imaginative kinship with the world. He has published widely on the subject of Indigenous literature and is Professor of First Nations and Indigenous Studies and English at UBC. 978-1-77112-176-7
Born in Edmonton, Alberta on February 10, 1956 of Scottish-Irish parentage, Kevin Annett was raised up in Winnipeg and was brought to Vancouver at age twelve in 1968. He attended University Hill School and refrained from attending university for five years after graduation. He then received degrees at UBC from Anthropology and Political Science, and studied law for one year. After he became disenchanted with left wing politics during his involvements with steel workers in Hamilton, Ontario, Annett became a United Chuch minister hoping it would lead to involvements in progressive social reforms. He came to Port Alberni in 1992. “The same year I arrived there,” he has recalled, “Port Alberni was ranked by the provincial government as the second poorest community in British Columbia, the town with the highest level of infant mortality and family violence, and the suicide capital of the west coast. And at the bottom of this heap of suffering were the local Indian nations: one third of the population perched on not even one percent of the land that had once been theirs.” Having accused the church of complicity in “Canada’s slaughter of Aboriginal people,” Annett claims he was ousted from the pulpit in Port Alberni on January 23, 1995, without just cause or notice by United Church officials after he had criticized their actions. In February of 1996, survivors of residential schools in Port Alberni commenced seeking legal retribution against church and state. Annett has since worked to initiate an International War Crimes Tribunal into genocide against the Aboriginal people of Canada and gained support from Noam Chomsky. He has self-published numerous books. Most recently, At the Mouth of a Cannon: Conquest and Cupidity on Canada’s West Coast: A Personal Account (Amazon $15 U.S.) recounts his conflicts with the United Church of Canada and his friendship with Ahousaht chief Chief Earl Maquinna George in the 1990s to prevent the sale and logging of Ahousaht ancestral land on Flores Island.
Gregory Younging, publisher of Theytus Books and an instructor at UBC Okanagan, has published Elements of Indigenous Style (Brush Education / Dog Training $19.95) as A Guide to Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples for writers, editors and journalists to help and encourage them to write about Indigenous Peoples in respectful and insightful ways. He outlines 22 succinct Indigenous style principles that are about process as well as appropriate terminology. He also discusses the place of Indigenous Literatures in the world of CanLit and the representation of Indigenous Peoples in literature. 9781550597165
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