Review of 'This Place: 150 Years Retold' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
And today we are talking about another anthology of stories by and about different First Nations, Metis and Inuk peoples of Turtle Island. Opened with a forward by Alicia Elliot, a Haudenosaunee woman, and author of A Mind Spread out on the Ground that I recently listened to and cannot recommend highly enough. It's very much a set of stories about the post-apocalyptic reality that Turtle Island, First Nations, Metis and Inuk people have been in since contact.
First up we have Annie of Red River, a story about a Metis woman whose actions inspired Louis Riel, profiled here by the illustrious Metis author Katherena Vermette. Whose debut novel, The Break, I would also highly recommend. Each of the stories is introduced by a few paragraphs by the author themselves, and a short timeline of other events that surround each story, giving the reader a context for what is to …
And today we are talking about another anthology of stories by and about different First Nations, Metis and Inuk peoples of Turtle Island. Opened with a forward by Alicia Elliot, a Haudenosaunee woman, and author of A Mind Spread out on the Ground that I recently listened to and cannot recommend highly enough. It's very much a set of stories about the post-apocalyptic reality that Turtle Island, First Nations, Metis and Inuk people have been in since contact.
First up we have Annie of Red River, a story about a Metis woman whose actions inspired Louis Riel, profiled here by the illustrious Metis author Katherena Vermette. Whose debut novel, The Break, I would also highly recommend. Each of the stories is introduced by a few paragraphs by the author themselves, and a short timeline of other events that surround each story, giving the reader a context for what is to come. This short story was illustrated by the very prolific Scott B Henderson, with colours by Donovan Yaciuk. The only thing that brought me up short about this story is that the event that is at the centre, Annie whipping a white racist misogynist who published his vitriol in the Toronto Globe, and the illustration seems to be trying for an angle where you wouldn't see his back after, but there should at least have been frayed edges showing! I guess they didn't want to be graphic at all, but it doesn't really make any sense.
Tilted Ground, on the other hand, is an ever so slightly more abstract looking story about the author's great-grandfather Chief Billy Assu and the colonization of the western side of so-called Canada. Written by Sonny Assu, with illustrations by Kyle Charles and Scott A Ford. The highlight of this comic was probably (among other things because I'm shit at picking favourites) the frames of John A McDonald (first prime minister of so-called Canada) being his alcoholic self. Because that is an image that needs to be emblazoned on the minds of every last colonizer.
The third story, Red Clouds is a semi-fictionalized re-telling of stories related to Windigo (our main character is a composite) and shows a lot of interesting angles on the before mentioned, Apocalypse on Turtle Island, as the colonizers continued to take more and more. This one is written by Jen Storm (who did another short comic with Scott B Henderson that I should read), with illustration and colour by Natasha Donovan.
Peggy is a story by David A Robertson (whose books I should be re-reviewing soon) with illustrations and colours by Natasha Donovan. The story itself is about "one of the most effective snipers in history" who was conscripted into World War I (Despite not really being a full citizen) and then shafted by so-called Canada like every other Indigenous veterans. He went on to be involved in a lot of pro-Indigenous politics, but the story itself mostly focuses on his time of service, so steer clear if you are sensitive to that sort of thing.
The fifth story, Rosie, by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik Tinsley outlines some of the unique difficulties of the Inuk assimilation process. The illustrations for this one were very expressive, with minimilistic colour washes by GMB Chomichuk.
Nimkii, by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, uses the stories of several specific Indigenous children taken into care to illustrate the wide-spread (and well-known) abuses that plague the system of child services across so-called Canada. It's not just a story of hardship, but also of resilience and active resistance. with illustrations by Ryan Howe and Jen Storm, colours by Donovan Yaciuk.
The seventh story, Like a Razor Slash, by Richard Van Camp (another prolific creator I need to re-review) covers the highly effective speech of Chief Frank T'Seleie against the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. An event followed by 1,000 other testimonials, that Van Camp believes set the stage for Idle No More and all the subsequent Indigenous centered anti-pipeline protests. This piece is once again illustrated by Scott B Henderson, with colours by Scott A Ford.
Turning the corner to the last three stories, Migwite'tmeg: we remember it, by Brandon Mitchell tells the story of a militarized raid on Listuguj, exercising their treaty rights to fishing. Brandon talks about a few in their introduction, including the one covered by the beautiful documentary by Alanis Obomsawin entitled Restigouche (which I highly recommend) and I'm not sure exactly which one this was. But knowing it happened more then once only makes the whole thing that much more outrageous! illustrated by Tara Audibert and colours by Donovan Taciuk.
Second to last, Warrior Nation, by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, is a condensed version of his own experience coming into the Oka Crises (the subject of another excellent Alanis Obomsawin documentary!) that is also a classic coming of age story.
Kitaskinaw 2350 by Chelsea Vowel (one of the co-creators of Metis in Space podcast that I, you guessed it, could not more highly recommend!) is a look at what has happened, what is happening and looks forward to an Indigenous future where Turtle Island has been decolonized. A story with many dark points, but like this anthology over all full of healing and the potentiality for hope.
While this anthology does not include a related reading list, they more then made up for it by including actual citations! Which I think is really coolio, since I like the idea of taking comics seriously and showing receipts. Reviewing the bios of all the contributors, I would estimate that at least 75% of them obviously identify as being Indigenous to Turtle Island, with only a few aritsts/colourists not identifying as such. The publisher, Highwater Press, is an inprint of Portage and Maine that is specifically geared to letting Indigenous people of Turtle Island tell their own stories via children's books, graphic novels and YA novels/nonfiction speaking generally. Publishing jargon is not exactly my forte. I have published a wide selection from their children's books and graphic novel collection, many of them I need to repost!
As you've probably noticed I've been on a run of finally getting to a lot of reviews that I had been procrastinating on due to FEELINGS so I apologise if I miss something but, if I remember correctly, while there isn't really anything done with diverse sexuality, there is a pretty good spread of main characters who fall on both sides of the "classic gender binary" which is something for sure. I feel like disability/ability is not really a thing, although race and class are kind in many ways intrinsic to the Indigenous struggle across Turtle Island because we live in a white supremacist world!