What does it mean to be Indigenous?: Two new anthologies answer the question

Two anthologies edited by sisters Stephanie and Sara Sinclair that will hit the bookstores in late July and late August complement each other, although they were conceived at different times.

You Were Made for this World, aimed at youth, was the first project. Six to 12 months later, A Steady Brightness of Being, geared toward adults, became a reality.

“As soon as we knew that there was going to be the adult companion book then we really started to see them as sisters and really tried to both find the right voices to exist in both anthologies, as well as the differing voices to strengthen them and to strengthen who they were speaking to,” said Stephanie, former literary agent and now publisher of McClelland & Stewart. “It gave us the chance to then really carefully consider how the books could speak to one another.”

The youth anthology is meant as an “entry point to conversations we want to have with our children,” write the editors, who are Cree, Ojibwe, and German/Jewish settler. The need for that entry point was something that became clear for Stephanie when her son Cole started kindergarten.

Stephanie recalls she armed Cole with information to make him feel “comfortable and confident with his own ancestry.” He knew that his mosom (grandfather) had been a survivor of Fort Alexander residential school. But Cole didn’t understand. When Stephanie picked him up from school, the teacher told her that Cole had said that he, himself, had attended residential school the previous year and had not liked it.

“And for me it was such an important reality check to see that I am a privileged person and I'm surrounded by really smart, kind, community-minded people, and if I don't know how to have this conversation with my kids, then how are other people managing it? And so that was sort of the initial question that began the kids’ book,” she said.

Both anthologies consist of letters from contributors and are structured as medicine bundles, with each letter representing traditional medicine—tobacco, cedar, sweetgrass, sage and, in the case of the youth anthology, water. 

Almost all the work was created specifically for the anthologies, which includes art for You Were Made for this World. Some writers, such as Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Governor General Literary Award winner David A. Robertson, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Cindy Blackstock, Inuk professor Norma Dunning, and lawyer Pamela Palmater, contributed to both anthologies. National Hockey League player Ethan Bear and water activist Autumn Peltier have letters included in You Were Made for this World.

Instructions to contributors was minimal, says Stephanie, who was not surprised that writers had different thoughts to offer.

“It was really about ‘You're writing to a child about what it means to be Indigenous in today's world’, and in the adult book the frame was slightly more complex as it needed to be and to say, ‘Yes, write a letter about what it means to be Indigenous, but also let's look at Indigenous futurisms. Let's look at some of the conflicts and challenges that our communities have had over the last few years and what is important to you right now. Is it joy? Is it tackling shame? Is it survival?’ (It was) to really provoke different ways of thinking about what people could write about,” she said.

Both anthologies pay tribute to the work undertaken by the late senator, justice and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Indian residential schools, Murray Sinclair, who is also Stephanie and Sara’s uncle.

In You Were Made for this World, Murray Sinclair’s contribution is found in the foreword in the story titled “An Ugly Duckling.” He writes that he identified with the Ugly Duckling and because he was Anishinaabe and the way mainstream society treated Indigenous people meant he would always be an Ugly Duckling.

“Yet in the story of the Ugly Duckling, hope and pride prevail,” he writes. “The Ugly Duckling grows into a beautiful swan and discovers that he was always a swan and never a duck. More importantly, he learns how beautiful he really is. A bird can look ugly as a duck, not because he’s ugly but because he’s not, in fact, a duck — he’s a swan with his own beauty. It is significant that the Ugly Duckling does not discover his beauty from the society of ducks. He learns that from other swans.” 

Said Stephanie of what her children learned from Murray’s telling of “An Ugly Duckling”: “I think it's really helped them understand that sort of internalization and how outside of a norm, how there can be beauty there. And I feel really proud that they're six and seven and that they really understand that. And I think because they knew Murray and lost Murray and really had their own feelings from that for them to then understand his own contribution to this has been a real gift for me.”

In A Steady Brightness of Being Stephanie writes a letter to Murray, stating, “Your wisdom, generosity, and raw empathy have shaped our country immeasurably. And I’m so sorry that your service has come at the cost of your health, of your life. I’m so sorry for all you had to endure yourself, for the trauma you had to carry for so many others. Please know that we are a better country because of you…”

Murray Sinclair passed away Nov. 4, 2024 at the age of 73 years.

The title for each anthology was taken from a line in a letter from two contributors. 

You Were Made for this World comes from Bad Cree author Jessica Johns’ contribution, the last letter in the anthology where she concludes, “You don’t need to cut moose meat, scale fish, pick medicine, or go to sweat lodges to be an Indian. Love your friends and your family. Accept love back. You were made for this world.”

“It became clear from Jessica's letter, it just emerged that this felt right. It felt like it was really reaching all the potential readers for the book. Then it spoke to our own intentions for what we wanted, what we hoped for, what we wanted readers to take away from it,” said Stephanie.

As for A Steady Brightness of Being, it comes from the first letter in the anthology and is part of a phrase used by Heart Berries: A Memoir author Terese Marie Mailhot: “I believe we are a steady brightness of being, like a running wheel of light. Native people carry power. All Indigenous people are bound to something inextricably connected to the land, the sky, and the universe itself. All our teachings will tell you we are one with the stars. That we come from the light…Some people were so exact about our relationship to the universal state of being—we are so transcendent and beautiful, and destined to be.”

Stephanie says she and Sara, who is an oral historian, “just immediately fell in love with” the phrase.

As for the tone of the anthologies, Stephanie says “it is more of a feeling… There are pieces in there that are joyful. And there are pieces in there that are full of grief. And there are pieces in there that are fearful…My greatest pride about both books is in fact that they offer different experiences depending on which contributor you're spending time with.”

Stephanie says she is pleased with the anthologies.

“I feel really proud of them and also so grateful that we have the trust of so many writers who were willing and able to participate. It feels like such a gift,” she said.

Both anthologies are published by imprints of Penguin Random House Canada. You Were Made for this World (Tundra) will be available July 29, while A Steady Brightness of Being (Penguin Canada) will be available Aug. 24. They can be purchased in stores or pre-ordered online at penguinrandomhouse.ca.