Truth Telling: Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada

This small book is a set of seven essays that packs a powerful punch. It is a book that I took my time with, reflect up and reassess what I was taught in school as a Canadian non-Indigenous person, what I saw in the media and read in books.

Truth Telling should be required reading in high school. Good pulls no punches in describing how Indigenous peoples have been and continue to be treated by the Canadian government and society. From the beginning of colonization and our government's planned pillaging of Indigenous land, intentional starvation and subsequent genocide of Indigenous communities and their culture; to residential schools that resulted in intergenerational trauma, to our government's encouragement of racism and misinformation about Indigenous Peoples.

This is a well-written, often emotional call to action and request for non-Indigenous Canadians to stop viewing history through the colonial lens. It is a time for action, not continued apologies. As Good says 

"Let the age of the apology end. We don't need any more apologies. We need an acknowledgement of the harm that's been done. We need a mea culpa, followed by full and proper restitution". - pg 30 

Readers need to understand and acknowledge:

From those very early days, Canadians bought into the myth of Canada as the benevolent provider to Indigenous Peoples as opposed to the colonial oppressor determined to control the valuable resources on Indigenous lands. - p 52

Truth Telling is a request for non-Indigenous Canadians to do better. To ask questions, to learn more and understand what restitution means. 

Truth Telling is important in that it restores the human dignity of the victims of violence and calls governments and citizens to account. Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada - pg 54

Thought-provoking, emotional and provocative, Truth Telling is a book that will shock many non-Indigenous readers, but will hopefully inspire the much needed action so that we can honestly and truthfully reconcile with Canada's dark colonial past.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Michelle Good

Genre: Nonfiction, Indigenous, Canadian

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: HarperCollins Canada

First Published: May 30, 2023

Book Description from GoodReads: A bold, provocative collection of essays exploring the historical and contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.

With authority and insight, Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good’s personal experience and knowledge.

From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. Truth Telling also demonstrates the myths underlying Canadian history and the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin modern social institutions in Canada.

Passionate and uncompromising, Michelle Good affirms that meaningful and substantive reconciliation hinges on recognition of Indigenous self-determination, the return of lands, and a just redistribution of the wealth that has been taken from those lands without regard for Indigenous peoples.

Truth Telling is essential reading for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward.