Up Ghost River

A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History

Author Edmund Metatawabin and Alexandra Shimo

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A powerful, raw and eloquent memoir about the abuse former First Nations chief Edmund Metatawabin endured in residential school in the 1960s, the resulting trauma, and the spirit he rediscovered within himself and his community through traditional spirituality and knowledge.

After being separated from his family at age 7, Metatawabin was assigned a number and stripped of his Indigenous identity. At his residential school--one of the worst in Canada--he was physically and emotionally abused, and was sexually abused by one of the staff. Leaving high school, he turned to alcohol to forget the trauma. He later left behind his wife and family, and fled to Edmonton, where he joined a First Nations support group that helped him come to terms with…

$22.00

May 26, 2015

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EDMUND METATAWABIN is a Cree writer, educator, poet, and activist. Metatawabin grew up as the eldest of eleven siblings. He was brought into the world by four midwives in his village: his grandmothers. The first seven years of his life, he grew up in a natural environment. At seven years old, he was registered at St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany, where he was incarcerated for eight years. As a residential school survivor, he has devoted himself to righting the wrongs of the past and educating Native youth in traditional knowledge. He is the former Chief of Fort Albany First Nation. His first book, Hanaway, is a story about resistance and survival, told through myth and legend. His second…

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Up Ghost River

Edmund Metatawabin with Alexandra Shimo

ALEXANDRA SHIMO is an author, educator, and journalist. She was raised in England, the United States, and Canada, returning to her birth town of Toronto after receiving her Bachelor of Arts at Oxford in politics, philosophy, and economics, and a Master of Arts from Columbia University in journalism. A former radio producer for the CBC and a former editor at Maclean’s, Shimo is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Invisible North and The Environment Equation. Shimo is on the advisory board for Up With Women. She lives in Toronto with her partner and their son.