Katherena Vermette

Makwa's family just moved to the city, and it's his first day at a new school. He doesn't know anybody, he doesn't have any friends, and everything is so new and scary. Can Makwa find the courage to overcome his fears and enjoy his first day? In this relatable story, a young Anishinaabe boy learns that things that seem scary at first are often not so bad after all. A pronunciation guide for the Anishnaabemowin words can be found at the back of the...

Ma'iingan loves to sing and her family loves to hear her beautiful voice. Her little sister wants to sing just like Ma'iingan, but Ma'iingan doesn't want her to. As rivalry erupts between the siblings, can Ma'iingan find the humility to share her talent with her sister? In this relatable story, a young Anishinaabe girl learns to put aside her pride and sibling rivalry to share her love of singing with her sister. A pronunciation guide for the Anishnaabemowin...

Migizi loves Gookom so much. He wants to let her know by giving her the perfect gift to cheer her up while she is in the hospital. The gift should be as sweet as her kisses and as warm as her smiles. He asks his family and friends for help, but none of his ideas are quite right. Can he find her the perfect gift? In this touching story, a young boy tries to find the perfect gift to show his grandmother how much he cares about her. A pronunciation...

Kode's class is learning about the Seven Teachings, but she's still confused about Respect. Kode asks the wisest people she knows for help-her parents, her older siblings, and her grandparents. As each person gives her a different answer, Kode learns about the many different ways we can show respect for other people, for the environment, and for ourselves. In this story for young readers, an Anishinaabe girl explores what respect means and how to...

Governor General's Award–winning Métis poet and acclaimed novelist Katherena Vermette's second work of poetry, river woman, examines and celebrates love as postcolonial action. Here love is defined as a force of reclamation and repair in times of trauma, and trauma is understood to exist within all times. The poems are grounded in what feels like an eternal present, documenting moments of clarity that lift the speaker (and reader) out of our preconceptions...

les indiens, ça disparaît qu'ils disent à la famille des indiens disparaissent tous les jours les flics haussent les épaules ça n'a pas de sens de chercher qu'ils disent il va revenir quand il en aura assez ou sera sans le sou Dans plusieurs cultures autochtones, nous nous révélons en racontant d'o nous venons, alors c'est ce que j'ai fait. J'ai voulu brosser un tableau du lieu o j'ai grandi, de la façon dont j'ai grandi dans ce lieu que...

In the Road Allowance Era, Echo's story picks up again when she travels back in time to 1885. The bison are gone. The Manitoba Act's promise of land for the Métis has gone unfulfilled, and many Métis flee to the Northwest. As part of the fallout from the Northwest Resistance, their advocate and champion Louis Riel is executed. As new legislation corrodes Métis land rights, and unscrupulous land speculators and swindlers take advantage, many Métis...

When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break--a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house--she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime.

"Echo Desjardins, a 13-year-old Métis girl adjusting to a new home and school, is struggling with loneliness while separated from her mother. Then an ordinary day in Mr. Bee's history class turns extraordinary, and Echo's life will never be the same. During Mr. Bee's lecture, Echo finds herself transported to another time and place--a bison hunt on the Saskatchewan prairie--and back again to the present. In the following weeks, Echo slips back and...

"A graphic novel about the Northwest Resistance of 1885. In this book, the protagonist Echo Desjarlais encounters the Metis people of the Northwest Territory, including leaders Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont and Mistahimaskwa, in Batoche and other sites of the Resistance. After victories, then defeat, at the hands of the Canadian Forces, Riel surrenders. Echo travels back to the present, where she discovers her own ties to the M©♭tis who fought there....