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IMPACT: Colonialism in Canada
A collection of fiction, poetry, essays and creative non-fiction, this anthology features works by over 20 Indigenous Canadian writers (Beatrice Mosionier, Richard Van Camp, Rosanna Deerchild, Janet Rogers). It focuses on the effects of colonialism in this country from both historical and contemporary perspectives.
244 pages, Paperback
Published April 3, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 8, 2024
This is a great collection with good representation of Indigenous peoples accross the Provinces, representation from the Territories and Inuit people would have made the collection perfect I think. The pieces are wonderful and some are so, so candid it is a enormous priviledge for the reader to know the most private thoughts and desires of the contributors.
I especially loved the contributions from Donna Beyer (An Indigenous Mother's Thériac), Sharron Proulx-Turner (The Queer House 1 & 2), and Beatrice Mosionier (Kookhoum's Story), because they spoke to me personally as a Métis Ace woman. I was saddened that Rosanna Deerchild's was a single poem, I love hearing her on Unreserved and know she has plenty of important things to say.
Richard Van Camp, Waubgeshig Rice, Lisa Bird-Wilson and so many others shared contributions that make me hungry to read more longform Indigenous fiction, which I think means that the collection works very efficiently. The collection, subtitle Colonialism in Canada, should be noted to be a celebration of perseverence and resistance rather 'torture porn,' which also speaks to the effectiveness of the collection for readers who may think that Indigenous peoples are defeated.
I especially loved the contributions from Donna Beyer (An Indigenous Mother's Thériac), Sharron Proulx-Turner (The Queer House 1 & 2), and Beatrice Mosionier (Kookhoum's Story), because they spoke to me personally as a Métis Ace woman. I was saddened that Rosanna Deerchild's was a single poem, I love hearing her on Unreserved and know she has plenty of important things to say.
Richard Van Camp, Waubgeshig Rice, Lisa Bird-Wilson and so many others shared contributions that make me hungry to read more longform Indigenous fiction, which I think means that the collection works very efficiently. The collection, subtitle Colonialism in Canada, should be noted to be a celebration of perseverence and resistance rather 'torture porn,' which also speaks to the effectiveness of the collection for readers who may think that Indigenous peoples are defeated.
February 6, 2020
A compelling collection of personal accounts of the impacts of colonialism in Canada.
June 13, 2017
Such a relevant Indigenous contribution to literature, in light of 150 years of Canadian genocide, amidst relentless resistance from Aboriginal peoples! This anthology should be required reading for anyone remotely interested in addressing systemic oppression.
April 16, 2018
Fascinating read. Anyone (and everyone should be) interested in colonialism on native populations will want to read this book. Offers some insights I had never given thought to before. These are short writings by a wide variety of indigenous people on many subjects affecting them. Good and powerful book.
October 24, 2020
I picked this up several years ago and am finally diving into it. It’s not what I expected—I was looking for something with essays, including personal essays, but this includes a lot more poems and other, shorter and more artistic pieces. IMPACT: Colonialism in Canada is an anthology that makes quite a statement. If it’s what you’re looking for, it’s going to satisfy. In my case, it wasn’t quite what I wanted, but don’t interpret that as a bad thing.
Let’s talk about storytelling and colonialism.
When my ancestors came to this land that has become Canada, we set out to take away the stories. English and French became the lingua franca. Residential schools and other strategies separated Elders from youth and broke the line of oral storytelling that had been unbroken from time immemorial. Don’t practise your arts. Don’t dance your dances or sing your songs. Don’t tell your stories.
I think a lot about the fact that so many stories by or about Indigenous people are told in English or French rather than their original languages. IMPACT is a book that meditates on this by telling us stories, personal and political and old and new, in an attempt to help demonstrate the wide-ranging effect of colonialism.
Yes, you will get stories in here about residential schools and other more “obvious” signifiers of colonization.
But you also get stories about fitting in. About being an Indigenous woman. About food and family and love and hatred and the difficulty of navigating growing old in a country that doesn’t often treat you like you are human.
This is not an academic book, and that’s probably a good thing. If you don’t want academic discussions of colonialism; if you want personal and emotional connections through poetry and song and careful reflection, you’ll get it here. I think the average Canadian wouldn’t do much wrong picking up this book.
That generality, that lack of focus in its attempt to include so many voices and conceptions of the effects of colonialism, ultimately is why I didn’t enjoy this as much as I could. That is not a problem with this book, just an incompatibility with what I want: I want to read more focused books about colonialism, books that discuss the impact of colonialism within specific spheres. So if you are looking for depth rather than breadth, you should keep looking.
IMPACT is a nice little anthology, but its appeal is for the general, not the specific.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
Let’s talk about storytelling and colonialism.
When my ancestors came to this land that has become Canada, we set out to take away the stories. English and French became the lingua franca. Residential schools and other strategies separated Elders from youth and broke the line of oral storytelling that had been unbroken from time immemorial. Don’t practise your arts. Don’t dance your dances or sing your songs. Don’t tell your stories.
I think a lot about the fact that so many stories by or about Indigenous people are told in English or French rather than their original languages. IMPACT is a book that meditates on this by telling us stories, personal and political and old and new, in an attempt to help demonstrate the wide-ranging effect of colonialism.
Yes, you will get stories in here about residential schools and other more “obvious” signifiers of colonization.
But you also get stories about fitting in. About being an Indigenous woman. About food and family and love and hatred and the difficulty of navigating growing old in a country that doesn’t often treat you like you are human.
This is not an academic book, and that’s probably a good thing. If you don’t want academic discussions of colonialism; if you want personal and emotional connections through poetry and song and careful reflection, you’ll get it here. I think the average Canadian wouldn’t do much wrong picking up this book.
That generality, that lack of focus in its attempt to include so many voices and conceptions of the effects of colonialism, ultimately is why I didn’t enjoy this as much as I could. That is not a problem with this book, just an incompatibility with what I want: I want to read more focused books about colonialism, books that discuss the impact of colonialism within specific spheres. So if you are looking for depth rather than breadth, you should keep looking.
IMPACT is a nice little anthology, but its appeal is for the general, not the specific.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews