FGL Book Highlights for Truth and Reconciliation 2025

Theory of water: Nishnaabe maps to the times ahead
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
BF789.W3 S56 2025

This book explores Indigenous relationships with water as a source of knowledge, resistance, and radical transformation. Drawing from Nishnaabeg origin stories, personal reflection, and works of Indigenous writers and artists essays, it critiques Authoritarianism and Capitalism’s violence against the environment and Indigenous knowledge. Through prose, lists, and poems, it reimagines water as a force of interconnection and renewal, calling for collective action to ensure environmental and social justice.

When the pine needles fall: Indigenous acts of resistance
Ellen Gabriel
E99.M8 G33 2024

This book shares Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel’s firsthand account of the 1990 Kanehsatà:ke siege, reflecting on her role as Mohawk spokesperson and her lifelong activism. In dialogue with historian Sean Carleton, she offers insight into Indigenous language, history, and philosophy, reflections on our relationship with the land. This book is both a personal memoir and an urgent call to collective action against both colonialism and capitalism in the face of climate crisis.

Because the land is who we are: Indigenous practices of environmental repossession
Chantelle Richmond, Brad Coombes, & Renee Pualani Louis
GN449.3 .R53 2024

This book explores theoretical and applied concepts of Indigenous environmental repossession through collaborative case studies from Canada (Anishinaabe), Hawai’i (Kanaka Maoli) and Aotearoa (Maori). It highlights relational ontologies like kincentric ecology and kinship, and discusses diverse activism strategies, including occupations, blockades and cultural productions. It celebrates Indigenous ways of knowing, relating to and honouring the land, while offering insights to support local and global Indigenous struggles to assert its rights to land.

Tricky grounds: Indigenous women’s experiences in Canadian university administration
Candace Brunette-Debassige
LB2341.8.C2 B78 2023

This book examines the challenges Indigenous women face in senior administrative roles as they work to indigenize Canadian universities. It reveals how these women navigate colonial, Eurocentric, and male-dominated institutions, often bearing emotional and gendered labor. Through Indigenous feminist theory and storytelling, it shows how these women assert agency through resistance and drive transformative change, offering a powerful model for meaningful reconciliation and Indigenization in higher education.

Ally Is a Verb: A Guide to Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples
Rose LeMay
E78.C2 L46 2025

This book is a potent and practical manual for becoming better allies for Indigenous colleagues, community members, and friends. Through an honest exploration of the complex and often painful history of Indigenous–settler relations in Canada, it provides actionable steps for fostering reconciliation, strengthening allyship, and driving meaningful change. A vital resource for anyone dedicated to understanding the genuine history shared by Indigenous peoples and advancing true reconciliation.

A steady brightness of being: Truths, wisdom, and love from celebrated Indigenous voices
Sara Sinclair & Stephanie Sinclair
E78.C2 S67 2025

This book is a powerful anthology of heartfelt letters from Indigenous writers, activists, and artists, addressed to ancestors, future generations, allies, and themselves. Structured like the sacred medicine bundle of tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass, this collection reflects on the past, present, and future of Indigenous life: It explores the histories that shape our current moment, the urgent challenges faced by communities today, and the new pathways toward reimagining Indigeneity.

21 things you need to know about Indigenous self-government: A conversation about dismantling the Indian Act
Bob Joseph
E98.T77 J67 2025

Building on the success of 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, this timely follow-up offers a clear roadmap for Canada’s next step toward reconciliation: Dismantling the Indian Act and moving toward true Indigenous self-governance. Through practical examples and thoughtful analysis, it addresses urgent questions about the path forward, demonstrating that Indigenous self-government isn’t just feasible—it is a vital foundation for meaningful reconciliation in Canada.