This Place - (Paperback)

About the Book

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

Book Synopsis

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

Each story includes a timeline of related historical events and a personal note from the author. Find cited sources and a select bibliography for further reading in the back of the book. The accompanying teacher guide includes curriculum charts and 12 lesson plans to help educators use the book with their students.

This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts' New Chapter initiative. With this $35M initiative, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Review Quotes

this collection provides invaluable opportunity to hear voices that are featured all too rarely in literature and is a worthwhile addition to collections.--Summer Hayes "Booklist"

Ambitious in scope and strong in execution, this collection succeeds in prompting readers to remember (or learn) Indigenous history --Elisa Gall "The Horn Book Magazine"

An illuminating, self-assured graphic novel anthology in which every panel reads like a radical act.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

This is the power of storytelling. It's going deeper and truer than the history books and the newspaper accounts. It's bringing the stories to the people for the people and doing it for the right reasons: to teach and to illuminate. This Place: 150 Years Retold is the dawn to a new storytelling tradition that doesn't need to be held back. It should be shouted forward from now on.--Helen Kubiw "CanLit for LittleCanadians"

a solid addition to....curriculum...as it specifically addresses social, political, economic and cultural challenges in Indigenous communities. Most importantly, the collection points Indigenous students toward seeing themselves, hearing their own voices and stories, and reading about the perspectives of their ancestors and their communities.

--Jennifer Wyatt "Professionally Speaking Magazine, Ontario College of Teachers"

This Place is the graphic novel I've waited for my whole life, and the graphic novel Canada has needed for 150 years.

The stories contained within its pages are both beautifully rendered and vitally necessary. They represent a history not only largely untold and unknown, but one obscured, hidden from sight, so that other stories may occupy a privileged place in defining a national story. Their importance is exquisitely captured on these pages, told by some of the leading artists working today. This is an essential book, for comic fans, teachers, and anyone who wants to learn the stories of this place we now share.

--Jesse Wente, broadcaster and film critic

[A] breathtaking comics anthology...this mix of powerful storytelling and memorable illustrations is a place to begin a dialogue with Indigenous peoples in Canada.--Jeffrey Canton "The Globe and Mail"

Selected for School Library Journal's Best Books 2019, Best Graphic Novels-- "School Library Journal"

Selected for AICL's Best Books of 2019--Debbie Reese "American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL)"

About the Author

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (she/her/hers) is a writer, poet, spoken-word performer, librettist, and activist from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, as well as an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions at the University of Toronto. She is the founder and Managing Editor of Kegedonce Press which was established in 1993 to publish the work of Indigenous creators. Kateri has written two books of poetry, was a contributor to the graphic novel anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold, was editor of the award-winning Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing, and has also released two poetry and music CDs. Kateri's work has been published internationally, and she has performed and spoken around the world. (Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, a book of collected poems, edited by Dallas Hunt, will be released this year by Wilfrid Laurier Press.