Library Spotlight: National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

In honour of National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, the Library has curated a list of books and audiobooks of Indigenous voices, stories and lived experiences. Read or listen to new titles such as:

  • Tanya Talaga's The knowing (2024): Award-winning and bestselling Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga retells the history of this country as only she can—through an Indigenous lens, beginning with the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and her family as they experienced decades of government- and Church-sanctioned enfranchisement and genocide.
  • Helen Knott's Becoming a matriarch: A memoir (2023): Having lost both her mom and grandma in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of them, but let go of who she thought she was. Woven into the pages are themes that touch on mourning, staying sober through loss, and generational dreaming.
  • Marie Wilson's North of nowhere: Song of a Truth and Reconciliation commissioner (2024): The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to record the previously hidden history of more than a century of forced residential schooling for Indigenous children. Marie Wilson helped lead that work as one of just three commissioners. With the skills of a journalist, the heart of a mother and grandmother, and the insights of a life as the spouse of a residential school survivor, Commissioner Wilson guides readers through her years witnessing survivor testimony across the country, providing her unique perspective on the personal toll and enduring public value of the commission. In this unparalleled account, she honours the voices of survivors who have called Canada to attention, determined to heal, reclaim, and thrive.
  • Jennifer Grenz's, Medicine wheel for the planet: A journey toward personal and ecological healing (2024): Building on sacred stories, field observations and her own journey, Dr. Grenz invites readers to share in the teachings of the four directions of the medicine wheel: the North, which draws upon the knowledge and wisdom of elders; the East, where we let go of colonial narratives and see with fresh eyes; the South, where we apply new-old worldviews to envision a way forward; and the West, where a relational approach to land reconciliation is realized.
  • Jody Wilson-Raybould's True reconciliation: How to be a force for change (2022): True Reconciliation is broken down into three core practices—Learn, Understand, and Act—that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments. They are based on the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples in their relentless efforts to effect transformative change and decolonization; and deep understanding and expertise about what has been effective in the past, what we are doing right, and wrong, today, and what our collective future requires. True Reconciliation, ultimately, is about building transformed patterns of just and harmonious relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples at all levels of society.

Explore these resources and more in our two Truth & Reconciliation Library Spotlights: