Indigenous Life in Canada: Past, Present, Future, Symbolism in Indigenous Arts and Culture is part of a set of 32-page books produced by Red Line Editorial for Beech Street Books and edited by Marie Pearson. Designed for elementary students from grades 4 to 7 the books offer introductions to the history of Indigenous Peoples in the story of Canada: Symbolism in Indigenous Arts and Culture has six chapters. Chapter one discusses An Ancient Practice focusing on symbolism and human cultures, and why Indigenous art matters.

L’auteur et illustrateur d’origine abénakise Sylvain Rivard poursuit la série jeunesse sur l’anthropologie du vêtement chez les Premières Nations avec un cinquième titre, en s’intéressant cette fois-ci au mocassin. Qu’il soit perlé, orné de poils d’orignal ou de piquants de porc-épic, le mocassin est porté chez tous les Autochtones depuis des siècles. Il est assurément l’élément le plus connu et le plus répandu de la tradition vestimentaire des Premières Nations. Autant porté au quotidien que lors des pow-wow, le mocassin fait partie intégrante de nos vies, de nos mythes.

Le Protecteur d'Ós : John Ramsay par David Alexander Robertson, traduit par Mathieu Arès et ilIlustré par Wai Tien 

Awakening: Our Ancestor's Lines Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing is gathered and compiled by Angela Hovak Johnston. This work is an eight year project, which began as Angela Hovak Johnston's personal journey to permanently ink herself with the ancient symbols that were worn by her Inuit ancestors.  In tattooing knowledge and skills are passed on continue the tradition. The stories shared in this book are personal journeys of modern Inuit women who inherited the right to be tattooed for strength, beauty, and existence, and to reclaim their history.

The Way Home is a memoir and autobiography by Kwakiutl photographer, woodcarver, hand engraver, painter, writer, printmaker, and jewellery maker, by David A. Neel. It is a story of returning to traditions and culture of his father’s and his people, the Kwakwaka’wakw of Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. He had a sense of having a place of origin and reconnects with the people of his father’s work, Dave Neel, Snr and the rich symbolism of his art. He is also influenced by Ellen Neel, Mungo Martin, and Charlie James.

In Nishga, Jordan Abel documents memoir through personal anecdotes, excerpts from audio recordings, legal documentation, photographs, illustrations and poetry - his, but for all of us. Discussing intergenerational trauma, dispossession and displacement, relationships with Indigeneity, language, and truths through a type of research creation, Nishga is about imagining and reconstituting. Abel recognizes this in relationship to land through family, community, Nisga'a language, Nisga'a world views, and Nisga'a knowledge as Indigenous presence.

From Bear Rock Mountain: The Life and Times of a Dene Residential School Survivor, is the four-part memoir of artist and social activist Antoine Mountain, Dene. He endured residential schools as the Roman Catholic Church and the Government of Canada worked to destroy his language, culture and Dene identity. From Bear Rock Mountain is a dedication of Antoine Mountain’s true Dene self to children of future generations. Yet this is also a survivor’s perspective of residential schools and that these schools did not accomplish what they intended, a cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples.

Fluffs and Feathers: An Exhibit on the Symbols of Indianness - A Resource Guide offers an important introduction to the way First Nations and Native Americans are portrayed in popular culture. Written by Mohawk scholar Deborah Doxtator, Fluffs and Feathers details the ways in which Indigenous People have been categorized, displayed, portrayed, and exploited by Western culture and advertising. Fluffs and Feathers offers a sample of the range of images used to portray “Indians” in historical and contemporary North American society.

NDN Trojan Horse: Tracing Postindian Survivance in Indigenous Art in the 1980s & Now, A Manifesto, by Rhéanne Chartrand, is a reflection of her work as resident (now curator) of Indigenous Art at the McMaster Museum of Art. This work of curated art reflects changes in attitudes and collection displays of Indigenous art at a time of the 2017 International Indigenous conference led by the Six Nations of the Grand River Polytechnic; McMaster’s development of the Indigenous Studies program, a Canadian Art Museum directors organization conference on Indigeneity and the Museum.