news | Tuesday June 3, 2025

Indigenous History Month 2025

June is Indigenous History Month! There are no shortage of amazing Indigenous-authored books to enjoy and these long, sunny days are a perfect time to read them. We have a whole Indigenous catalogue for you to check out, but if you’re seeking some fresh-off-the-press new titles to peruse, here are a few recent Talonbooks titles full of wit, wisdom, and wordsmithery (probably not a real word, but we think the occasion calls for it).

Biting new real-estate comedy Open House by Drew Hayden Taylor navigates current conversations about oppression, colonization, and middle-class aspirations. When an African Canadian man, a Chinese Canadian man, and a Jewish/Indigenous lesbian couple show up to an open house run by a white settler real estate agent, each is certain that this is destined to be their home, that they are the most deserving of winning the prize. A police incident traps the prospective buyers inside of the house and in those coveted halls, a riotous debate breaks loose.

Order your copy here.

The winner of the Prix des libraires, the Indigenous Voices award, the Prix littéraire des enseignant.e.s de Français, and the Coup de Cœur Renaud-Bray Uiesh / Somewhere by Innu poet Joséphine Bacon, translated by Jessica Moore is an outstanding dual-language collection of poetry appearing in both Innu-aimun and English. This book has a light and lasting touch, dancing between Bacon’s experiences of moving between the nomadic ways of her Ancestors in the northern wilderness of Nitassinan and the clamour of the city.

An excerpt:

“Short of breath now
but in my dreaming I walk on
tireless

I know how to hear the leaves
I learn the world
my age grows old with me

I haven’t got a hundred words
I haven’t lived a hundred years”

Pick up your copy today!

Brand new book alert! Arriving back from the printer this July is ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another by ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn. In this new text, nêhîyaw educator ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn uses the spirit marker writing system as a foundation for teaching ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. The spirit marker writing system holds forty-four spirit markers and fourteen minor spirit markers. Some people call that system the star chart. Each spirit marker holds a law. These laws are meant to guide us in ways that support us in life.

An excerpt:

“The earth holds us.

We are spinning and yet we do not fall off.

We need to remember.

We need to tell each other stories,
the old stories.

ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok.”

Pre-order your copy here!

Forthcoming this November is comedic drama White Noise by the inimitable, late playwright and storyteller Taran Kootenhayoo. In White Noise, two neighbouring families, one Indigenous and one white, dine together during Truth and Reconciliation Week. As cultural misunderstanding, colonial violence, and racism both covert and overt surface, White Noise asks, “How do we deal with internalized racism? Do we keep pushing it away … or do we make a change?” Taran Kootenhayoo’s answer is both emotionally intense and outrageously hilarious, a blistering comedic exploration of what it means to live in so-called Canada. Pre-order your copy here.

We have absolutely loved working on these projects, and we hope you love reading them. Our gratitude as always to the phenomenal authors who penned them.