Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters

Publisher Description (J.Charlton Publishing):
This book deals with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, an extremely painful topic—one that we struggled at times to write or think about, and it raises some painful memories and feelings, not only for us but particularly those whose stories and reflections are within it.

The book includes essays and reflections by both men and women, because it seeks to help bring balance to our collective, equally important and unique, roles and responsibilities. It hopes to incorporate Indigenous knowledge principles about relationships and love in the hope that we can begin to emulate and live our lives in balance. In this circle, we begin in the eastern direction with respect—seeing someone from all sides, and having ‘1,000 cups of tea’ with them; moving into time in the south where we must physically, mentally and spiritually sit and spend time with someone; then to empathy or feeling in the west where our connection to a person is strong enough so we hurt when they are hurting; then finally, into the gift of movement, where caring behaviour in the northern direction drives us to actually do something about it.

Author Biographies:
Kim Anderson is a Metis writer and Associate Professor at the University of Guelph.

Maria Campbell (born 6 of 26 Apr 1940 near Athlone, Edmonton) is a Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker, and Elder. Campbell is a fluent speaker of four languages: Cree, Michif, Saulteaux, and English. Park Valley is located 80 miles northwest of Prince Albert. Her first book was the memoir Halfbreed (1973), which continues to be taught in schools across Canada, and which continues to inspire generations of indigenous women and men. Four of her published works have been published in eight countries and translated into four other languages (German, Chinese, French, Italian).

Christi Belcourt is a Michif visual artist from Manito Sahkahigan (Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta). She is a lead co-ordinator for the Walking With Our Sisters commemoration.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, and musician, and is a member of Alderville First Nation in Ontario, Canada. She is the author of six previous books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. Her newest novel is Noopiming: The Cure For White Ladies and her latest album is The Theory of Ice. Simpson holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and is faculty at the Dechinta Centre for Research.

Resource type: Other non-fiction

Age recommendation: Post-secondary

Keywords: Missing and murdered Indigenous women, MMIW, police, community, edited volume, feminism, Indigenous studies

Year of publication: 2018

Publisher information: The University of Alberta Press