Taking Back Our Spirits

Download or read book Taking Back Our Spirits written by Jo-Ann Episkenew and published by Univ. of Manitoba Press. This book was released on 2009-05-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the earliest settler policies to deal with the “Indian problem,” to contemporary government-run programs ostensibly designed to help Indigenous people, public policy has played a major role in creating the historical trauma that so greatly impacts the lives of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. Taking Back Our Spirits traces the link between Canadian public policies, the injuries they have inflicted on Indigenous people, and Indigenous literature’s ability to heal individuals and communities. Episkenew examines contemporary autobiography, fiction, and drama to reveal how these texts respond to and critique public policy, and how literature functions as “medicine” to help cure the colonial contagion.