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speculativebecky 's review for:
This Place: 150 Years Retold
by David A. Robertson, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Jen Storm, Katherena Vermette, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Chelsea Vowel, Brandon Mitchell, Richard Van Camp, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Sonny Assu
“I have never liked the phrase, ‘History is written by the victors.’ I understand the idea behind it - that those in power will tell and retell stories in whatever ways flatter them best, until those stories harden into something called ‘history.’ But just because stories are unwritten for a time, it doesn’t mean they’ll be unwritten forever. And just because stories don’t get written down, it doesn’t mean they’re ever lost. We carry them in our minds, our hearts, our very bones. We honour them by passing them on, letting them live on in others, too.” - Alicia Elliott in the foreword to This Place.
In 1867 the Constitution Act proclaimed Canadian Confederation. This Place is an anthology of nonfiction comics by a diverse group of Indigenous creators recounting 150 years of their history since. Each of these ten comics is introduced briefly by the author alongside a timeline of key dates related to the history, which heightened how much I learned through reading, especially as I’m not very familiar with Canadian history. Using comics to tell these stories makes this book very approachable and not at all dense, even as it’s packed with information from such a large span of time and place. Occasionally I found the comics hard to follow and wished for something a little more straightforward to help me grasp the story, but I think that’s often the case with using sequential art as a storytelling mechanism.
The history this book covers is vast and varied, from anti-Indigenous sentiments in the 1860’s and a woman named Annie Bannatyne who fought them, to the 1885 Indian Act amendment that banned the potlatch, to the story of Francis Pegahmagabow, who fought in WWI and is recognized to this day as the most effective sniper in North American History.
One of the most moving stories recounts the history of Indigenous children stolen into foster care or adopted by non-Indigenous families. For example, by the end of the 1980’s a third of the children of Wabaseemoong had been taken into foster care, but in 1990 the Wabaseemoong Band Council passed a resolution forbidding the Children’s Aid Society from entering the reserve and stealing any more of their children.
Informative and beautifully crafted, This Place is history that must be told. I highly recommend this book.
In 1867 the Constitution Act proclaimed Canadian Confederation. This Place is an anthology of nonfiction comics by a diverse group of Indigenous creators recounting 150 years of their history since. Each of these ten comics is introduced briefly by the author alongside a timeline of key dates related to the history, which heightened how much I learned through reading, especially as I’m not very familiar with Canadian history. Using comics to tell these stories makes this book very approachable and not at all dense, even as it’s packed with information from such a large span of time and place. Occasionally I found the comics hard to follow and wished for something a little more straightforward to help me grasp the story, but I think that’s often the case with using sequential art as a storytelling mechanism.
The history this book covers is vast and varied, from anti-Indigenous sentiments in the 1860’s and a woman named Annie Bannatyne who fought them, to the 1885 Indian Act amendment that banned the potlatch, to the story of Francis Pegahmagabow, who fought in WWI and is recognized to this day as the most effective sniper in North American History.
One of the most moving stories recounts the history of Indigenous children stolen into foster care or adopted by non-Indigenous families. For example, by the end of the 1980’s a third of the children of Wabaseemoong had been taken into foster care, but in 1990 the Wabaseemoong Band Council passed a resolution forbidding the Children’s Aid Society from entering the reserve and stealing any more of their children.
Informative and beautifully crafted, This Place is history that must be told. I highly recommend this book.