Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves

by Andrea Currie

Forcibly removed from her Indigenous family as a child, Andrea Currie journeys back to her Nation and the truth of who she is


Otipemisiwak is a Plains Cree word describing the Métis, meaning "the people who own themselves."


Andrea Currie was born into a Métis family with a strong lineage of warriors, land protectors, writers, artists, and musicians—all of which was lost to her when she was adopted as an infant into a white family with no connection to her people. It was 1960, and the policy of removing children from their Indigenous families was firmly in place. Together with her younger adopted brother, also Métis, she struggled through her childhood, never feeling like she belonged in that world. When their adoptions fell apart during their teen years, the two siblings found themselves on different paths, yet they stayed connected. Currie takes us through her journey, from the harrowing time of bone-deep disconnection, to the years of searching and self-discovery, into the joys and sorrows of reuniting with her birth family.


Finding Otipemisiwak weaves lyrical prose, poetry, and essays into an incisive commentary on the vulnerability of Indigenous children in a white supremacist child welfare system, the devastation of cultural loss, and the rocky road some people must walk to get to the truth of who they are. Her triumph over the state's attempts to erase her as an Indigenous person is tempered by the often painful complexities of re-entering her cultural community while bearing the mark of the white world in which she was raised. Finding Otipemisiwak is the story of one woman's fight—first to survive, then to thrive as a fully present member of her Nation and of the human family.


This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. This book is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

Genres: Indigenous, Nonfiction, Canada, Audiobook, Memoir, Biography Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Jo Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy publication day 🎉🥳🎧

I don’t have any words that will compare to Andrea’s own. I can tell you that her story resonated deeply, for several reasons really, it moved me to tears and took my breath away several times, I’m grateful for what I’ve learned in the pages. If you can, listen to the audiobook which is performed by Andrea herself and is speckled throughout with her poetry and songs.

Raw, powerful and beautiful.

All the stars 🌟
#Jorecommends

Huge thanks to ECW Press Audio via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC 🎧

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a moving and important memoir! Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves by Andrea Currie opens with an epigraph from one of my fave authors Billy-Ray Belcourt. I appreciated the author’s note at the beginning to take care of yourself. The author shares her experiences of being taken during the sixties scoop and living with her adoptive family in Winnipeg. She later finds her birth family and begins working with Indigenous communities and connecting with her Red River Métis heritage. In the introduction she hopes that someone will read this book and feel less alone and I’m glad to have read this book too to learn more about her experiences growing up separated from her birth family and culture. The audiobook was really well done read by the author and included her songs.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for my ALC!

[Zsa Zsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a very heavy read, albeit very poetic.
The resilience born to defy the suffering and the trauma of indigenous peoples should be proclaimed and celebrated, the same resilience is the path to our collective freedom from the chains that bind us.
“The meandering river of melancholy that runs through my heart”
“I didn't exist beyond the absence of the person I was supposed to be, mirrored back to me in my mother's ever-present disappointment. My self-image was the negative of a photo-graph.”
“Forced to become emotionally independent at a young age, to me physical independence felt like a walk in the park by comparison.”
“understand integrity to be when we are the same on the outside as we are on the inside.”
“Fear distorts. When we put off doing something because we are afraid of what might happen, the worst-case scenario that we imagine takes on monstrous proportions. Quite often, once we get around to doing the thing we're afraid of, we discover that it wasn't as hard as we thought it would be.”
“The two of us didn't have to talk about it, but when he was on the planet, there was someone who kept company with the deepest part of me.”

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves

I really enjoyed this book.

I found that the book has a really important message and story. Currie highlights the long-term effects of being separated from her Métis heritage. I found the details on the historical injustices quite triggering. However, I am totally in support with how critical Currie is with systematic oppression. Really powerful read on social justice.

The book was honest, and raw. Currie has a real skill at writing powerfully and with a complex tone.

Finding Otipemisiwak is not just a memoir but also a call for awareness about the long-lasting effects of oppression on Indigenous communities. It celebrates the resilience of those who fight past challenges for their identities.

As a Métis myself, I resonated a lot with the writings.

Check it out if this sounds interesting to you as well!

I recommend it.

3.9/5

[Grace (graceisbookedandbusy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨Book Review✨
Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves - Andrea Currie

Thank you to @zgreads and @arsenalpulppress for sending me this book for review!

I present to you one of my new favourite memoirs. I knew as soon as I read the description of this one that I would hold it near and dear to my heart.

I have mentioned it before on this page but I will again for context, my dad has 5 adopted indigenous siblings who were adopted as part of the 60’s scoop in Canada. It is something I would have known SO little about as a Canadian had it not impacted my family directly which is insane to me.

This memoir is equal parts informational and personal, it is beautifully written and I loved the way it was organized with poems in between pieces. I appreciated this read so much and I truly would call it a must read for everyone. Thank you so much to this author for the vulnerability in their storytelling. This read was truly special!

5/5⭐️ if you’re looking for your next non-fiction read, let this be it!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“As survivors of Indian residential schools in this country we call Canada began to speak, chipping away at the wall of silence that the dominant culture has built and maintained over centuries of settler colonialism […] They pointed out that the colonizers have perpetrated many assaults against us since their arrival, including […] the use of the child welfare system to steal our children and destroy our kinship systems” (Currie 17).

It is the last sentence where Andrea Currie’s Finding Otipemisiwak focuses its attention. Currie’s memoir traces her childhood as a Métis adoptee in a white world threatened by those who promised to keep her safe - another example of this country’s attempt at erasure of indigenous identity - something Currie later refers to as “cultural annihilation by adoption.” The story is told as recurring juxtaposition of before and after: after she was adopted, before she was old enough to leave her adopted home, after she found her personal freedom, before she reconnected with her Métis birth mother and 8 siblings, after she reconnected, before the birth of her child and after her brother’s death.

Set up like scenes in a play, Currie also incorporates her poetry and song lyrics to present her personal history and her indigenous roots as they reawaken.

As the early part of the book is quite fragmented, I found it frustrating to navigate. Thankfully, I pushed on and by the midpoint of the memoir the flow had settled and the chronology became clearer and the story easier to follow and digest. In the end, Currie offers a thoughtful and balanced view of the struggles she faced as an indigenous child othered by her family and society and the struggle to embrace her indigenous family and heritage. It is a compelling read.

I will offer this book as part of my Grade 11 NBE 3U course for my non-fiction unit as it presents an aspect non often addressed: the adoption of indigenous children in Canada.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Otipemisiwak is a Plains Cree word describing the Métis, meaning “‘the people who own themselves.”’

Author, therapist and Sixties Scoop survivor, Andrea Currie, writes about growing up with a white family and not feeling like she belonged. Currie and her adoptive brother Rob, also Métis, experienced physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their white parents. It was not until she was in her mid thirties that she discovered she was Métis and began meeting her birth family. Finding Otipemisiwak reminds me of a puddle where a drop of rain has fallen. The centre where the drop has fallen and joined the water is the author’s experience being adopted by a white family. Each of the concentric rings encircling the drop and expanding ever outwards reveal Currie’s understanding of the world around her. She sees her brother being abused and feels the trauma as though it were own, she sees there are differences in how her elder brother who is of European heritage is treated more fairly. She understands she must flee this household to save herself. She decides to explore her family history and learns she is of a culture that fits her more firmly. Her becomes more fluid as she engrains herself in her newfound family and into the culture where she should have grown up. She will one day be a respected member of the Métis community and lead others in their quest for healing. The ripples are smaller now and she is supported by the bodies of water and people that surround her.

Both a memoir and a text to educate the non indigenous community of the systems in place that do harm and the history of her culture, Finding Otipemisiwak seeks to bring light to a shameful subject and to the rich history of the Métis people. It succeeds in doing this with varying forms of prose and poetry.

Thank you to @zgreads and @arsenalpulp for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. Finding Otipemisiwak publishes October 8, 2024.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Arsenal Pulp Press for sending me this book to read and review.

I’ve been trying to read more non fiction Canlit and indigenous stories. Finding Otipemisiwak educated me on what it was like being a child taken during the 60’s scoop. I can’t believe the way these kids were taken and then put in foster care and were abused in that care. Those people were supposed to keep these kids safe. Why would you even be a foster parent but hate the children? Andrea was so brave and she did what she needed to do to survive everything. I didn’t realize all the prejudices being Métis faced trying to get healthcare. I work in healthcare and it broke my heart hearing about her brother and how he was really treated unfairly and ended up passing from his heath conditions. This opened my eyes to how those prejudices affect people. I was just a really interesting story I’m so glad Andrea decided to share it with all of us. I feel like it taught me a lot. I would read more from her and I think everyone needs to read this book to educate themselves.

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this hybrid memoir sprinkled with poetry and songs, Sixties Scoop survivor Andrea Currie recounts her journey of being raised in an emotionally and physically abusive white family after her Metis birth mother gave her up at the hospital to belonging and healing after reconnecting with her birth family and culture. An ode to the family--birth, adopted, and chosen--who supported her on the way, to the importance of belonging and culture, and an indictment of the child welfare agency's culture-blind policy of placing Indigenous kids in white families without understanding the consequences. At the heart of the book is her Metis adoptive brother, Rob, who withstood the bulk of the abuse and went on to die at age fifty, serving as a tragic counterpoint to the joyful life the author was able to create due to resilience and the healing power of embracing her culture and serving her community.

[Andrea (Hammock and Read) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks @zgreads @arsenalpulp for this book

This book is part memoir and part nonfiction giving the rest of us an idea of what it was like to finally understand your indigenous connection to the land and people around you. The book is a mix of prose, poetry, and essay into her life and gives heavy notes to her understanding of finding themselves after growing up in a white family, due to the Sixties Scoop and then her work as a therapist working with elders and understanding their time in residential schools. Later in life Andrea finds out they are Métis and finally starts to meet her birth family and stay connected to her other adopted brother, Rob. We follow along on their journey of finding and understanding.

I enjoyed the mix of poetry and essays. I learned a lot about the Canadian government policy and also more about adoption.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The community there does a good job of raising awareness of indigenous people. I learned about the Sixties Scoop, a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up," Indigenous children from their families for adoption by white families. The author was one such child. I'm amazed by my own lack of knowledge of this topic and indigenous culture in general. This book provided an interesting window into how incredibly important community is to indigenous people especially, the different paradigms of society and culture held by indigenous people vs. "settlers," how damaging the settler culture was to indigenous communities from the earliest times of settlement, and how the damage continues today.

[Enid Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful exploration of form: A deeply personal memoir interspersed with important learnings. The reader feels as though they are on the journey with her as she discovers her Metis history, following along with her on her own journey of reconnection, and healing.

That it jumps around in time - which would normally drive my buggy - and that there are some gaps - which I wanted filled in while I was reading - don’t bother me at all as I sit with this upon finishing.

I loved the little interludes of poetry - and lyrics to her songs. They - along with white space and blank pages - created necessary space for the reader. Space to pause, and digest and reflect.

Highly recommended.

[Mike Broderick · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many new books this year with an Indigenous theme and reconciliation. Some are okay, some are good and then there is this one. So far, by far, the best. First of all, the emphasis is on the Metis experience. Second, it is a look at the sixties scoop. It is very important to continue to discuss residential schools, but we have had a lot of books about them over the past few years.
This is so well written.
This line sums up the main idea of her journey
If a Monarch butterly who has never seen their summer home knows how to get there, maybe I can find my way home too. Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing all along.

There is prose throughout the book that supports the story and enhances it even.
I highly recommend this book.

[Kim Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very poignant, often painful account of a Métis woman who was adopted during the Sixties Scoop. In addition to physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her adoptive mother, she watched her brother endure even more pain and struggling. After she leaves Winnipeg and that adoptive family, and begins to rebuild, she learns of the Métis family who is still in Winnipeg. For the next number of years, she comes to know her family and reclaim her culture.

There is no real “happy ending” in this story. The scars of her childhood are healed but not entirely gone. But she has found peace at least.

Written very eloquently. Prose interspersed with poetry. Her discussion of “blood memory” was helpful as I learn more about that principle.

[Relena_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an adopted person, this book resonated with me on a deep level, even though I lack the indigeneity of Currie. Currie's background as a therapist allows her to work through her own issues and those she shares from her community with more sensitivity than many other authors in this category would have been able to do.

I also really appreciated her voice as a narrator. She sounds exactly like the type of person you'd want to be working through heavy things with and I understand why her community has been made better through her presence.

[Michael]

My interview with Andrea Currie discussing the book here:
https://umfm.com/programming/broadcas...

[Debbie Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerful, raw, beautiful, and at times, heart-wrenching memoir. Andrea’s personality as a healer shines through and I’m so grateful she has shared her vulnerability with us.

[Sue Marlatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend of Jennifer's wrote this book. It was an interesting read about Andrea's life story, learning she is Metis and meeting her family. Andrea is a 60s scoop survivor.

[Mike Steinharter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting memoir; tragic story of abuse. Interspersed w the authors poetry.

[Gildergreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an amazing memoir, super touching and beautiful.

[Athina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very beautiful writing. I was bored at times but many parts were eye opening.
3.5