E nâtamukw miyeyimuwin: Residential School Recovery Stories of the James Bay Cree, Volume 1

by Ruth DyckFehderau, James Bay Cree Storytellers (Primary Contributor)

In this quietly powerful and deeply human book, Ruth DyckFehderau and twenty-one James Bay Cree storytellers put a face to Canada’s Indian Residential School cultural genocide. Through intimate personal stories of trauma, loss, recovery, and joy, they tell of experiences in the residential schools themselves, in the homes when the children were taken, and on the territory after survivors returned and worked to recover from their experiences and to live with dignity. The prose is clear and accessible, the stories remarkably individual, the detail vivid but not sensational. Together they reveal the astonishing courage and strength of children along with the complexity and myriad methods of their oppressors. A tough, often funny, and ultimately uplifting book that’s not quite like anything else out there. This book is published by Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay and distributed by WLU Press.

320 pages, Paperback

Published March 14, 2023

About the author

Ruth DyckFehderau grew up on a farm in Southern Ontario. She holds degrees from Universities of Alberta (’01 PhD, '95 MA) and Winnipeg (’91 BA). She has lived in many places and has travelled widely. These days, she is writing nonfiction books with the James Bay Cree of Northern Quebec, and she sometimes teaches Creative Writing and English Lit at the University of Alberta where she is an Adjunct Professor. She does quite a bit of public speaking, has published many short works in literary journals and anthologies, and has received awards for writing, for teaching, and for activism. She lives in Edmonton with her partner. She is hearing-impaired.

Ruth has written three books. I (Athena) was released by NeWest Press in April, 2023. E nâtamukw miyeyimuwin: Residential School Recovery Stories of the James Bay Cree, Volume One, nonfiction, written with James Bay Cree storytellers, was released in March, 2023. The Sweet Bloods of Eeyou Istchee: Stories of Diabetes and the James Bay Cree (2017), nonfiction, also written with James Bay Cree storytellers, is now in Second Edition (2020) and is being translated into Northern East Cree, Southern East Cree, Ojibwe, French, and excerpts into Chinese.

Reviews

[Jesse Chevrier · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 - no words.

[Megane Laliberte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book, but hard to read