Monique Gray Smith recommends Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betaskamosake Simpson
June was Indigenous Book Club Month. Every day in June, CBC Books published a recommendation from an Indigenous writer for a book by another Indigenous author.
Monique Gray Smith recommends Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
"The book I'd like to recommend is Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betaskamosake Simpson. Each and every story in this collection stirred something deep within me. There is a nuance in Leanne's writing that reminds of sitting by the sea. There is calmness and peace and then out of nowhere that is all disrupted and the waves come crashing in, bringing with them all kinds of debris. Depending on the story, Leanne's words are either like a healing salve gathered and prepared by a loving Auntie or like ocean water slowly dropped on an open wound. Each waking me up to something I hadn't yet been paying attention to. This is only one of my favourite books by this gifted and humble writer and I look forward to introducing my children to her work."
Monique Gray Smith is a writer, consultant and speaker of Cree, Lakota and Scottish descent. She is the author of the novel Tilly, which won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nation, Métis and Inuit Literature.