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Fiction Native American & Aboriginal

Bearskin Diary

by (author) Carol Daniels

Publisher
Nightwood Editions
Initial publish date
Nov 2015
Category
Native American & Aboriginal
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780889713116
    Publish Date
    Nov 2015
    List Price
    $21.95
  • Audio

    ISBN
    9780889714229
    Publish Date
    Oct 2021
    List Price
    $21.95

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Description

Raw and honest, Bearskin Diary gives voice to a generation of First Nations women who have always been silenced, at a time when movements like Idle No More call for a national inquiry into the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Carol Daniels adds an important perspective to the Canadian literary landscape.

 

Taken from the arms of her mother as soon as she was born, Sandy was only one of over twenty thousand Aboriginal children scooped up by the federal government between the 1960s and 1980s. Sandy was adopted by a Ukrainian family and grew up as the only First Nations child in a town of white people. Ostracized by everyone around her and tired of being different, at the early age of five she tried to scrub the brown off her skin. But she was never sent back into the foster system, and for that she considers herself lucky.

 

From this tragic period in her personal life and in Canadian history, Sandy does not emerge unscathed, but she emerges strong--finding her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties Scoop had tried to deny. Those very roots allow Sandy to overcome the discriminations that she suffers every day from her co-workers, from strangers and sometimes even from herself.

About the author

Carol Rose Daniels is Cree and Chipewyan with roots in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan. She is a published novelist, poet, playwright, visual artist, and musician. She is the author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary (2015). A second novel, Narrows of Fear, is forthcoming in 2018. As a visual artist, her work has been exhibited in art galleries across Saskatchewan and Northern Canada. As a musician, a CD of women's drum songs, in which Carol is featured, was recently nominated for a Prairie Music Award. Before pursuing her art on a full-time basis, Carol worked as a journalist for more than 30 years in television and radio at APTN, CTV, and CBC. She lives in Regina.

Carol Daniels' profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Aboriginal Literature Award
  • Winner, First Nation Communities READ Award
  • Short-listed, Saskatchewan Book Awards - Fiction Award

Editorial Reviews

“Bearskin Diary is a humane, unflinching portrayal of a woman asserting her voice and claiming space in an often hostile nation.”

Alissa McArthur, Room Magazine

"In this timely presentation of key issues in the Canadian Aboriginal experience, Daniels's background as a journalist shows, both in the depth of detail and in the writing style. A solid pick for readers interested in native and/or women's issues, as well as admirers of Canadian fiction."
--Melanie Kindrachuk, The Library Journal

Bearskin Diary reviewed in <i>The Library Journal</i>

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