Treaty #

by Armand Garnet Ruffo

A treaty is a contract. A treaty is enduring. A treaty is an act of faith. A treaty at its best is justice. It is a document and an undertaking. It is connected to place, people and self. It is built on the past, but it also indicates how the future may unfold. TREATY # is all of these. In this far-ranging work, Ruffo documents his observations on life as he sets out to restructure relationships and address obligations nation-to-nation, human-to-human, human-to-nature. Now, he undertakes a new phase in its restoration. He has written his TREATY # like a palimpsest over past representations of Indigenous bodies and beliefs, built powerful connections to his predecessors, and discovered new ways to bear witness and build a place for them, and all of us, in his poems.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous

100 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2019

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was soooo good. I read this for my english class: Topics in Migration and Decolonization. The author, Armand Ruffo was born and raised in Ottawa and writes many of his poems in this setting. He works at QueensU now!
It’s full of poems that highlight Indigenous issues, settler society, connections to the Earth, etc.
So so powerful.
My favourite poems:
- The jumbled treaties (#9, 1, 5)
- The Claim
- The Poet
- Under Construction
- At père-Lachaise
- Family Time
- Ethic
- Nanabozhoo (this one made me cry)
Honestly, they’re all so good. I highly recommend if you want to educate yourself on Indigenous-Settler relations and want to feel things.

[Kathryn Mockler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read book of poetry.

"Filament" is one of many stunning poems. "We're all eventually blown away into uncertainty." is one of my favourite lines of poetry ever!

I was thrilled to see "Ethic" in this collection, a poem I have long admired and first read on U of T's Canadian Poetry Online: https://canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca...

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read a lot of poetry but I’m glad I picked up this collection. Each piece grapples with large and small themes about how treaties have impacted Indigenous life and the losses and pain in the broken promises of the nation to nation construct.