Bearskin Diary

Publisher's description (Nightwood Editions, 2015): 
Raw and honest, Bearskin Diary gives voice to a generation of First Nations women who have always been silenced, at a time when movements like Idle No More call for a national inquiry into the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Carol Daniels adds an important perspective to the Canadian literary landscape.

Taken from the arms of her mother as soon as she was born, Sandy was only one of over twenty thousand Aboriginal children scooped up by the federal government between the 1960s and 1980s. Sandy was adopted by a Ukrainian family and grew up as the only First Nations child in a town of white people. Ostracized by everyone around her and tired of being different, at the early age of five she tried to scrub the brown off her skin. But she was never sent back into the foster system, and for that she considers herself lucky.

From this tragic period in her personal life and in Canadian history, Sandy does not emerge unscathed, but she emerges strong--finding her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties Scoop had tried to deny. Those very roots allow Sandy to overcome the discriminations that she suffers every day from her co-workers, from strangers and sometimes even from herself.

Author Biography (www.carolrosegoldeneagle.ca): 
Carol Rose GoldenEagle (previously Carol Daniels) is Cree/Dene with roots in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan. She is a published novelist, poet, playwright, visual artist, and musician.  She is the author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary (2015), Hiraeth, a book of poetry (2018), Bone Black (2019), and is now excited to announce the book launch of her new novel, Narrows of Fear (2020). Carol has also written poems including "Qu'Appelle" (2021), "DNA" (2019) and essays including "Joy & heartbreak: Life as an Indigenous mother" (2021), "Sanctuary" (2020) and a "Personal Essay" (2016).  Her children's storytelling include "The Ugly Little Christmas Tree" (2020), "The 7 spotted Lady Bug" (2021), and a children's play, "Mr. Brown" (not yet published).  In June of 2021, Carol was named as the 2021 - 2023 Saskatchewan Poet Laureate!

As a visual artist, her work has been exhibited in art galleries across Saskatchewan and Northern Canada.  As a musician, a CD of women's drum songs, in which Carol is featured, was recently nominated for a Prairie Music Award. Before pursuing her art on a full-time basis, Carol worked as a journalist for more than 30 years in television and radio at APTN, CTV, and CBC.  She lives in Regina Beach with her puppy dog, Saffy and her kitty cat, Pumpkin and enjoys and loves visiting with her three children, Jackson, Nahanni and Daniel .

Resource format: Novel

Age recommendation: University

Keywords: Sixties Scoop, 60s scoop, MMIW, foster system, foster care, reconnection, healing, trauma, survival, bullying, spirituality, government, stolen sisters, colonialism, racism, women, disconnecton, culture, Canadian government, Indigenous relations

Year of publication: 2015

Publisher information: Nightwood Editions