Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)

Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)

Douglas Sanderson is the Prichard Wilson Chair in Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and has served as a senior policy advisor to Ontario’s attorney general and minister of Indigenous affairs. He is Swampy Cree, Beaver clan, of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.

Meticulously researched and written with compassion, Valley of the Birdtail draws two parallel lines hopelessly distant, and then shows us a pathway through which they can come together. It’s a work of trauma, of broken relationships, of how we perceive one another, but ultimately, it’s a story of possibility and healing.” –David A. Robertson

FESTIVAL BOOK

Valley of the Birdtail

A heart-rending true story about racism and reconciliation.

Divided by a beautiful valley and 150 years of racism, the town of Rossburn and the Waywayseecappo Indian reserve have been neighbours nearly as long as Canada has been a country. Their story reflects much of what has gone wrong in relations between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. It also offers, in the end, an uncommon measure of hope.

Valley of the Birdtail is about how two communities became separate and unequal – and what it means for the rest of us. In Rossburn, once settled by Ukrainian immigrants who feld poverty and persecution, family income is near the national average and more than a third of adults have graduated from university. In Waywayseecappo, the average family lives below the national poverty line and less than a third of adults have graduated from high school, with many haunted by their time in residential schools.

The book follows multiple generations of two families, one white and one Indigenous and weaves their lives into the larger story of Canada. It is a story of villains and heroes, irony and idealism, racism and reconciliation. Valley of the Birdtail has the ambition to change the way we think about our past and show a path to a better future.

GET THE BOOK

Owl’s Nest Books (Calgary) | Calgary Public Library

ALL EVENTS WITH Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)

7:30 PM
Truth & Reconciliation: One Town’s Story
Sep 30 @ 7:30 PM MT - 8:45 PM MT

Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor

1221 2 St SW