Quiet Book Club

The Quiet Book Club remains committed to featuring Indigenous voices and authors through its book selections.

In honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Quiet Book Club is featuring recommendations from RDP students, faculty, and staff. The selected Indigenous titles provide an opportunity for learning and reflection about the impacts of residential schools.

A new title will be revealed each day during the week of September 26-30, 2022.

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Recommended by Stuart Cullum, RDP President

My recommendation is Five Little Indians by Michelle Good. I listened to this book over the summer. It is a fictional account of five survivors of the British Columbia residential school system and their adult journey.

It powerfully illuminates what happened, as well as the immediate and ongoing effects of the trauma. The five accounts, allow the reader to understand the layers of suffering endured; how the effects manifest in different ways; and how healing and resilience comes in various forms.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the nature of the impact of the residential school system and what it has taken for so many to endure and emerge from its lasting effects.
 

Find Five Little Indians by Michelle Good in the RDP Library Leisure Reading collection.

The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

Recommended by the RDP Students' Association

“The Inconvenient Indian is an insightful look into the events that occurred in North America after Europeans made contact with the First Nations Peoples from the perspective of the author, Thomas King, who is of Cherokee descent. This reframing does a great job illustrating the cultural impacts to the First Nations Peoples and how these things are still relevant today. For those interested in Truth and Reconciliation, or those wondering why Truth and Reconciliation are important, this can be a great primer to Indigenous issues.”

Find The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King in the RDP Library Main collection.

Find Stolen Words by Melanie Florence in the RDP Library Curriculum collection.

Find 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act by Bob Joseph in the RDP Library Leisure Reading collection.

Phyllis’s Orange Shirt by Phyllis Webstad

Recommended by Patricia Marshall
RDP Indigenous Learning Designer Scholar

I really like this book with Phyllis’s story regarding her orange shirt on her experience while attending the Indian Residential School. She writes that ‘We wear our orange shirts to remember that every child matters and not just in September.’  I agree with her statement that all children’s lives matter each and every day and it just doesn’t have to be only on September 30. We believe that our children are on loan to us from our Creator and we must treat them respectfully. Indigenous Peoples believe that our children and our grandchildren are very special and that they are our gifts from our Creator.

Find Phyllis’s Orange Shirt by Phyllis Webstad in the RDP Curriculum collection.

Call Me Indian by Fred Sasakamoose

Recommended by Lloyd Desjarlais
RDP Director of Indigenous Initiatives

“I love the hockey stories and I really enjoyed reading about the relationships that were formed throughout the book between the author and people he had met in his travels that he considered family.

I also enjoyed the positive message that is relayed throughout the book, it’s a story about strength and overcoming challenges.”

Find Call Me Indian by Fred Sasakamoose in the RDP Main collection.