George Kenny is an Anishinaabe poet and playwright who learned traditional ways from his parents before being sent to residential school in 1958. When Kenny published his first book, 1982’s Indians Don’t Cry, he joined the ranks of Indigenous writers such as Maria Campbell, Basil Johnston, and Rita Joe whose work melded art and political action. Hailed as a landmark in the history of Indigenous literature in Canada, this new edition is expected to inspire a new generation of Anishinaabe writers with poems and stories that depict the challenges of Indigenous people confronting and finding ways to live within urban settler society. Indians Don’t Cry: Gaawin Mawisiiwag Anishinaabeg is the second book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or underappreciated texts by Indigenous artists. This new bi-lingual edition includes a translation of Kenny’s poems and stories into Anishinaabemowin by Pat Ningewance and an afterword by literary scholar Renate Eigenbrod.

George Kenny is from the Lac Seul First Nations in northwestern Ontario. He is currently completing a Masters degree in Environmental Studies so that he can continue to write about the culture of Anishinaabe people of Lac Seul and the English River, the source of his creativity.

George Kenny's profile page

Renate Eigenbrod teaches Aboriginal Literature in the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. She has taught First Nations literature at Lakehead University and is co-editor of Creating Community: A Roundtable on Canadian Aboriginal Literatures.

Renate Eigenbrod's profile page

Patricia M. Ningewance is Anishinaabe from Lac Seul First Nation. She has more than thirty years experience in language teaching, translation and media work.

Patricia M. Ningewance's profile page

“Indians Don’t Cry ultimately reflects the thoughts and feelings of George Kenny, a man who has lived both on a reserve and in an urban setting – a man possessed some would say – but a man who, more than many, accurately reflects the alienation, frustration, hopes and dreams of urban natives in this small but important book.”

Nick Ternette