RESOURCES
Wish To Learn More?
Informative Resources
One of the major barriers that holds back proper reconciliation in the modern day is an overall lack of awareness among the Canadian populace of the very real issues Indigenous peoples face—and have faced—with the courage and resilience that has come to define them.
​
What is the history of the reservation system? Why do indigenous people need support? What kind of support do indigenous people need to truly overcome the challenges of the past and the present? Canadian Indigenous have spent years providing their answers and sharing their stories with the world—it is now up to the world to listen.
​
Below, we have assembled a list of free (or inexpensive) informative resources that are easily accessible to learn more about the history of colonization in North America, so that all who wish to listen and learn will know where they can begin.
Movies
“Wind River”
Takeaways: This movie exemplifies how cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women are treated by the bureaucracy. This movie’s portrayal of the situation was so powerful and accurate, that an executive order was signed, and a task force was created in 2019 to work on MMIW cases in the United States


IMDB Synopsis: A wildlife officer, who is haunted by a tragedy that happened because of him, teams up with an FBI agent in solving a murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation and hopes to get redemption from his past regrets
“Indian Horse”
Takeaways: 'Indian Horse' is both a movie and a book. This adaptation portrays how children were abducted from their homes and taken to residential school. It also shows how survivors of residential school function with trauma after “rejoining” society.
“The New World”
Takeaways: This Movie is an adaptation of the Pocahontas story. Shows how indigenous cultures functioned before Europeans arrived on the continent, and shows the history and process of colonization. Throughout the movie you will see what was lost during colonization.
IMDB Synopsis: Arriving with a British expedition in Virginia in 1607, Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell) is captured by Native Americans. His life is spared thanks to Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher), daughter of the tribe's chief. Smith and Pocahontas fall in love, to the mutual dismay of the Native Americans and the British.
Documentaries
“This is where I live”
An incredibly powerful documentary that follows the lives of a few different teenagers from the Crosslake Reservation. We believe this accurately, and respectfully, represents what many reservations experience. From trauma, suicide, lack of resources, and broken promises; unfortunately, this is the reality that many reserves experience.
Novels / Literature
Inconvenient Indian - Thomas King
​This book is a very detailed account of all the ways that the Canadian government continually ignores treaty agreements with indigenous people, and continually ignores issues of indigenous peoples
Seven Fallen Feathers - Tanya Talaga
​This book focuses on discrimination indigenous people receive in education, and our judicial system, following the story of 7 indigenous children that were murdered in Thunder Bay. This book details all the ways that indigenous people are ignored in the education system, and are discriminated against in the judicial system.
Birdie - Tracy Lindberg
This book is written from the perspective of an indigenous person with intergenerational trauma. It brilliantly shows how a person with this type of trauma sees the world, and functions in society.
Textbooks / Academic Journals
The Fall of Natural Man - Anthony Pagden
The author of this text book analyzes writing from colonial philosophers and how they saw the indigenous people in North America, and how they thought they should be treated / researched. I think this textbook does a great job at showing the attitudes that Europeans had towards indigenous people when they came to North America, which greatly influenced their treatment of indigenous people.
Plastic Shaman and Astroturf Sundances - Lisa Aldred
This journal article, which is cited in many academic texts, and used in academic books, goes over the usage, appropriation, and misappropriation of indigenous works, and indigenous culture. For better or for worse, people try to purchase an indigenous experience by going to a “plastic shaman.” This has caused some conflict within indigenous circles due to the external pressures to commodify something which is typically seen as sacred—indigenous culture— something which cannot be purchased.
This journal article asks—and answers—many controversial questions surrounding culture, and how it should be shared.