Spílexm - by Nicola I Campbell (Hardcover)

About the Book

Captivating and deeply moving, this story basket of memories tells one Indigenous woman's journey of overcoming adversity and colonial trauma to find strength through creative works and traditional perspectives of healing, transformation, and resurgence.

Book Synopsis

If the hurt and grief we carry is a woven blanket, it is time to weave ourselves anew.

In the Nleʔkepmxcín language, spíləx̣m are remembered stories, often shared over tea in the quiet hours between Elders. Rooted within the British Columbia landscape, and with an almost tactile representation of being on the land and water, Spíləx̣m explores resilience, reconnection, and narrative memory through stories.

Captivating and deeply moving, this story basket of memories tells one Indigenous woman's journey of overcoming adversity and colonial trauma to find strength through creative works and traditional perspectives of healing, transformation, and resurgence.

Review Quotes

Among The White Ravens' 2022 A Selection of International Children's and Youth Literature

Spílǝxm is a putting away of pain, a letting go of sorrow, a poignant unburdening, and a return to self and community. With it, Campbell establishes herself as a visionary with the capacity to gather what is broken and weave it into a new story.

Among CBC Books Best Books of 2021 Canadian Nonfiction

A powerful memoir.

Highly Recommended!

Among Ms. Magazine's Reads for the Rest of Us list

This is a terrific tale, peppered with some lovely poetry and deep philosophical convictions: raise your arms in strength and humility. The Nations of British Columbia practise this every day. We commit to strength and humility. We are humble before Star Nations and strong for one another. Nicola Campbell gets this. She is descended from two distinct Indigenous peoples: those that hold their arms and those that serve one another. Nicola braids these two cultures together and bequeaths the result to all of us and to the world. Loaded with history, rich in story, and lovely in its poetics.