Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

Tanya Talaga

Book cover for Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City
Book cover for Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

Tanya Talaga

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Description

The groundbreaking and multiple award-winning national bestseller work about systemic racism, education, the failure of the policing and justice systems, and Indigenous rights by Tanya Talaga.

Over the span of eleven years, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They were hundreds of kilometres away from their families, forced to leave home because there was no adequate high school on their reserves. Five were found dead in the rivers surrounding Lake Superior, below a sacred Indigenous site. Using a sweeping narrative focusing on the lives of the students, award-winning author Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest Canada's long struggle with human rights violations against Indigenous communities.

Critical Reviews

[A]n urgent and unshakable portrait of the horrors faced by Indigenous teens going to school in Thunder Bay, Ontario, far from their homes and families. . . . Talaga's incisive research and breathtaking storytelling could bring this community one step closer to the healing it deserves.-- "Booklist"

Talaga's research is meticulous and her journalistic style is crisp and uncompromising. . . . The book is heartbreaking and infuriating, both an important testament to the need for change and a call to action.-- "Publisher's Weekly"

What is happening in Thunder Bay is particularly destructive, but Talaga makes clear how Thunder Bay is symptomatic, not the problem itself. Recently shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, Talaga's is a book to be justly infuriated by.-- "Globe and Mail"

Tanya Talaga investigates the deaths of seven Indigenous teens in Thunder Bay -- Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Robyn Harper, Paul Panacheese, Reggie Bushie, Kyle Morrisseau, and Jordan Wabasse -- searching for answers and offering a deserved censure to the authorities who haven't investigated, or considered the contributing factors, nearly enough.-- "National Post"

[W]here Seven Fallen Feathers truly shines is in Talaga's intimate retellings of what families experience when a loved one goes missing, from filing a missing-persons report with police, to the long and brutal investigation process, to the final visit in the coroner's office. It's a heartbreaking portrait of an indifferent and often callous system . . . Seven Fallen Feathers is a must-read for all Canadians. It shows us where we came from, where we're at, and what we need to do to make the country a better place for us all.-- "The Walrus"

Publishing Information

Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Pub date: 2017-09-30
Length: 384 pages

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