INDIGENOUS RELATIONS: INSIGHTS, TIPS & SUGGESTIONS TO MAKE RECONCILIATION A REALITY

Joseph, Bob with Joseph, Cynthia F. INDIGENOUS RELATIONS: INSIGHTS, TIPS & SUGGESTIONS TO MAKE RECONCILIATION A REALITY. Indigenous Relations Press, 2019.

Good tips on what to do and not do when meeting with Indigenous people. Aimed mainly at businesses wanting to work with communities, but some info at the end to help individuals apply to their own situations. Recommended readings.

The positive attitude, the belief that reconciliation must and can happen if we all work towards it is what I most enjoyed. 

AN ELDERLY LADY IS UP TO NO GOOD

 Helene Tursten. AN ELDERLY LADY IS UP TO NO GOOD. Soho, 2018. Translated from Danish.

A library book borrowed from a reader friend. The title says it all. And explains what I do not like about the book. Not interested in the motives behind crime, attempts to justify. The title character, Maud, has a large apartment in a building her family previously sold. She has interactions with neighbours and local businessmen. She travels. She can feign dementia. She is impulsive. Not anyone I would want to live near. Or become.

The Farm

Joanne Ramos. The FARM. Doubleday, 2019.

First selection for a new book club I am trying out. Set somewhere outside New York, Mae runs a residence for surrogates carrying and birthing babies for other women. Chapters flip between the three or four surrogates we get to know, beginning with Jane from the Philippines and the two women who run the business end of things. Mae runs Golden Oaks with a strict law about health and nutrition. Ate recruits women for her from the city. The conflict is between emotions, parental responsibilities, and business ethics. 

BLUE MOON

Lee Child. BLUE MOON. Delacorte, 2019.

A find at the thrift store, perfect for these spring days busy with taxes and cleaning. Jack Reacher is always good for a lost weekend. 

A franchise. You know what to expect. Heavy on plot. No character development. A trendy topic--criminal gangs, Albanian and Ukrainian; bankruptcy-inducing medical costs. I loved the title too, a not so subtle reminder that good does not often win. That there are few ethically positive saviours like Jack with the skills and training and moral reasoning that allow the stacked body-count to block out the high-rise buildings. Mission accomplished. It is a kind of romance, the dream of rescue from the POV of the white knight.

21 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN ACT

Bob Joseph. 21 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN ACT, Indigenous Relations Press, 2018

An excellent primer if you are just beginning to research for yourself. Very useful add-ons including the text of the apology in parliament. 

HOW DEEP IS THE LAKE

Shelley O'Callaghan. HOW DEEP IS THE LAKE: A Century at Chilliwack Lake. Caitlin, 2017.

I have owned this copy for some time and decided to read it after reviewing the Caitlin catalogue. I don't think it lives up to the book blurb because I get no sense of awareness of the issue of land and Indigenous people. For example, the fear of and battle against expropriation, when what else was done to Indigenous land if not expropriated by the Crown? Did not they too feel the encroachment of all these uninvited neighbours, including American fishermen, church camps, and provincial prison camps? The opportunity to feel and express empathy seems lost. I also find the title poorly edited [missing ? and repeated word, "lake"] and not really indicative of what the book is about, which seems to be one family's attachment to a summer cottage grouping on the shores of Chilliwack Lake in the Cascade Mountains south of Chilliwack, BC. I was also confused by the switching between metric and feet measurements. The calculations of lake depth were done in feet while all other measurements seem to be in metric. 

That said, I did finish reading it, for local history and geology and geography if nothing else. I have lived in this valley for over thirty years but I have never been to this lake. I did get that feeling of envy, of a family that holidays together, and couples that have the type of lifestyle that supports three weeks every summer getting away into the wilderness. That is not and has never been my experience. I was also looking for but had to go elsewhere to find out about the diverging course of the Chilliwack River, why it no longer runs through downtown Chilliwack, and for info about Sumas Lake, drained for land reclamation. If the grandfather worked for Water all his career, would he not have been aware of if not involved in the decision to divert the river, change watersheds, drain a lake, etc? I did learn in my research how Sumas Lake sometimes drained into the Nooksack and sometimes drained into the Fraser. Not Chilliwack Lake, but linked, because Chilliwack Lake water ended up in Sumas Lake. Many other changes over time, especially travel arrangements, are well documented. 

HOUSE MADE OF DAWN

N. Scott Momaday. HOUSE MADE OF DAWN. Harper & Row, 1966 & 1989. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Absolutely beautiful. Incorporates some pages from The WAY to RAINY MOUNTAIN. Abel returns to the reservation from war, from prison, from the city, and participates in ceremony.