Regina: Staged Reading of The Strength of Indian Women

Many thanks to the volunteers who came together to present a staged reading of Vera Manuel's The Strength of Indian Women at the University of Regina, 1 November 2019. 
Thank you to Michelle Coupal for organizing, and to the funders for supporting her vision. 

Special thanks to Elder Alma Poitras for opening and closing the gathering in a beautiful way.

Photo two, presenters (and the characters played):

Front row (l to r): Emalene Manuel (Sousette), Pamela Sparvier (Agnes), Joanne Arnott (Lucy), Michelle Coupal (Mariah)

Back row (l to r): Elder Alma Poitras, Jesse Pelletier (Suzie), Allyson Stevenson (Eva), Heather Phipps (Sarah), Jesse Archibald-Barber (narrator, man's voice)

Thank you to Ben Schneider and the other students for generous photography!

Regina launch + first review

We'll be on campus at the University of Regina. Here's a link to the campus map: https://www.uregina.ca/contact/maps-directions/full.html

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#610 Secwépemc playwright honoured

The Ormsby Review, September 7, 2019September 9, 2019

Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories, Poetry
by Vera Manuel (author) and Michelle Coupal, Deanna Reder, Joanne Arnott, Emalene A. Manuel (editors)

Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2019
$24.95 / 9780887558368

Reviewed by Diana French

Gratitude: Honouring the Strength of Indian Women

Thank you to all who came out for the launch of Honouring the Strength of Indian Women at the Sty-Wet-Tan Great Hall, First Nations House of Learning aka the Longhouse at UBC.  The gathering was a part of Congress, an ILSA gathering, and part of the Indigenous Voices Awards mentorship day. I saw some of Vera's dearest friends alongside emerging and established Indigenous writers, fans, and scholars from across the land. 

Thank you to my wise and loving co-editors, Emalene, Michelle, and Deanna, and to Warren and Glenn and all the collaborators at University of Manitoba Press/First Voices, First Texts for your support in bringing this project full circle.

If you'd like to order the book online check out Strong Nations, a BC-based, Indigenous owned and operated book distributor.

image: twitter

Unsettling Canada

Unsettling Canada is built on a unique collaboration between two First Nations leaders, Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ron Derrickson.

Both men have served as chiefs of their bands in the B.C. interior and both have gone on to establish important national and international reputations. But the differences between them are in many ways even more interesting. Arthur Manuel is one of the most forceful advocates for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada and comes from the activist wing of the movement. Grand Chief Ron Derrickson is one of the most successful Indigenous businessmen in the country.

Together the Secwepemc activist intellectual and the Syilx (Okanagan) businessman bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to Canada’s most glaring piece of unfinished business: the place of Indigenous peoples within the country’s political and economic space. The story is told through Arthur’s voice but he traces both of their individual struggles against the colonialist and often racist structures that have been erected to keep Indigenous peoples in their place in Canada.

In the final chapters and in the Grand Chief’s afterword, they not only set out a plan for a new sustainable indigenous economy, but lay out a roadmap for getting there.

“This is the back story of both grassroots and backroom struggles that created the context in which we find ourselves today, one in which a new generation of First Nations leaders is demanding sovereignty and self-determination, and more and more non-Indigenous Canadians finally understand that huge swaths of this country we call Canada is not ours—or our government’s—to sell.”

– Naomi Klein, from the Foreword

“Pragmatic and helpful, this is a timely book for our fraught and political moment”

– Quill & Quire

“Unsettling Canada is a breathtakingly beautiful story of Indigenous resistance, strength, and movement building. Unsettling Canada echoes the power of George Manuel’s The Fourth World, centering the heart of the narrative deep inside a kind of Indigenous intelligence rarely shared outside our communities. This is the critical conversation that Canada and Indigenous peoples must have because it is centred on land, and, therefore, it is one of the most important books on Indigenous politics I’ve ever read.”

– Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back

“For me, Unsettling Canada is the most recent addition to a relatively short list of resurgent, grassroots contributions to Indigenous decolonization. Written by one of our most respected and incisive leaders and thinkers, this is a must-read for anyone serious about radically transforming the colonial relationship between Indigenous nations and the Canadian state.”

– Glen Coulthard, University of British Columbia, author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition

•  Thu, May 28th, 6:30pm–8:00pm
  Vancouver launch: “Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call”
  Vancouver, BC

•  May 28th, 2015, 6:30pm–8:00pm
•  Vancouver Public Library - Central Location (350 West Georgia Street), Unceded Coast Salish territories, Vancouver, BC, Canada (map)

•  Thu, May 21st, 2:00pm–4:00pm
  Edmonton book launch “Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call”
  Edmonton, AB

• May 21st, 2015, 2:00pm–4:00pm
•  Athabasca Hall, Room 227 University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada (map)

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• 
  
• Paperback / softback, 320 pages
• ISBN 9781771131766
• Published April 2015

​[source: Between the Lines]