I finished Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga last night and what a gut-punch. This book is about the mistreatment of First Nations people and kids at the hands of the Canadien government. It goes into detail about seven kids who were attending high school far from their families in Thunder Bay, Ontario, who were all found dead, and five of them in the water.

This book also goes into the history of residential schools and the abuse faced by Indigenous people sent to them, and the extreme repercussions of the system today where survivors face intergenerational trauma as a result. Talaga also describes the lack of educational resources that tribes face today - education is funded at a lower rate for Indigenous students, setting them further and further behind. There are often no or extremely sub-par schools (or even running water) in remote First Nations communities, so lots of kids end up being sent to high school far from their families, in a big city for the first time, alone, living at a boarding house with little supervision.

This book is extremely compelling and thoroughly researched. Talaga is a clearly skilled investigative journalist and writer. I’m not a huge reader of nonfiction (as in... it’s a struggle for me to get through normally) and I found this book to be a good combo of compelling and informational. She gives you the facts and she also shows you the community’s pain. I would highly, highly recommend reading this book.