This Magazine

Progressive politics, ideas & culture

Menu

First Nations

January-February 2021

Prairie

Fiction from our January/February issue

Conor Kerr

There are bed bugs in my apartment building, so we have to flee, fucking posthaste. I pack my roommate’s cat up in her little crate and hop into my inheritance from old Auntie Doreen, a blue ‘98 Chevy Lumina. We barely make it out before they have the white and blue bubble wrap covering the […] More »
January-February 2021

Love alone could not protect us

On connecting, reconnecting, and reflecting

Brittany Penner

“When are they taking me away?” This was a question I frequently asked my mom throughout my childhood. The first time I wondered this aloud I was three years old. My foster brother and sister had lived with us on and off for two years by then and I didn’t remember life without them. The […] More »
March-April 2020

A brief history of Ontario’s First Nations Public Libraries

Ontario is the only province to officially include First Nations Public Libraries (FNPLs) in their public library system—here's how FNPLs came to be the force are

Feather Maracle

The smallest First Nations Public Library (FNPL) I’ve heard of consists of two shelves. Yes, two shelves, not stacks. Michipicoten First Nation has a FNPL and fewer than 75 on-reserve residents. The largest FNPL is the Six Nations Public Library, where I am the CEO and director of library services; it houses a collection of […] More »
September-October 2019

Why I don’t vote in colonial politics

Abstaining is both important and inherent to me; here's why

Andrea Landry

“Indigenous nations are their own sovereign nations.” It’s a rhetoric stated consistently in a variety of arenas, both political and non-political. It is a truthful rhetoric at that. Being Anishinaabe, and also raising an Anishinaabe/Nehiyaw/Nakoda daughter, has further affirmed the truth that we are, 100 percent, our own sovereign nations as Indigenous Peoples. It has […] More »
July-August 2019

Deciding Factors

The decision of whether or not to bring children into the world is always complex. Here, identity, ancestry, age, capitalism and climate change are all part of the considerations.

Thirza Cuthand

Being a Plains Cree non-binary lesbian with a non- functioning uterus makes baby-making hard. And the looming pressure of total environmental and climate collapse has made a lot of my friends choose not to have children at all. Is it selfish to bring a child into the world as it stands now? And can I […] More »
September-October 2018

ACTION SHOT: Camping for justice at Saskatchewan’s Wascana Park

Photo by Eagleclaw Bunnie Thom

This Magazine

At Wascana Park in Regina sits a group of protesters, their teepees erected around them. They are waiting. Camped out just across from the Saskatchewan Legislature, the group wants justice after the deaths of Tina Fontaine and Colten Boushie, two Indigenous youth whose accused killers were acquitted of murder charges. The camp set up in […] More »
September-October 2018

Rework

Poetry by Arielle Twist

Arielle Twist

I am reworking my reality.  How does a tranny coexist    with lust,       being told of an    “unattainable” touch even with the saliva of a man    dripping off of my chest   how he bites at my soft parts       and kissed me    rigid. I think this man    could love me,   fuck me       outside of glory holes       a […] More »
September-October 2018

Celebrating Indigenous writers and artists: A special feature

Featuring Gwen Benaway, Kai Minosh Pyle, Lindsay Nixon, Ziibiwan Rivers, Fallon Simard, Jaye Simpson, and Arielle Twist

This Magazine

EXPLORE THE FEATURE: Editor’s note by Gwen Benaway ● Prose by Kai Minosh Pyle ● Interview with Lindsay Nixon ● Visual art by Fallon Simard ● Interview with Ziibiwan Rivers ● Prose by Jaye Simpson ● Poetry by Arielle Twist A note from the editor: When I was asked to guest edit an Indigenous-specific supplement for This, my first instinct was […] More »
September-October 2018

this woman, nokum

Prose by Jaye Simpson

Jaye Simpson

how do i explain my queerness to the gatekeeper of my blood line when she flushed hers out with communion wine and holy water? how do i explain my ever-shifting body to the woman who prayed for damnation for me, rather than my absolution? my grandmother who held me at birth, has prayed for my […] More »
September-October 2018

Prose

Works by Kai Minosh Pyle

Kai Minosh Pyle

THE MYTH OF THE ATOM i am learning not to be alone. kinship is a practice: it is performed through repeated actions. is it queer to be alone? is not the same question as, is being queer lonely? but i might be forgiven for not knowing the difference. my language has no word for queer; […] More »
September-October 2018

Interview: Ziibiwan Rivers

On music, toxic masculinity in the industry, and the importance of community

Gwen Benaway

Genre hopping from ambient experimental electronics to hip hop, trip hop, R&B, and more, Ziibiwan Rivers is an electronic musician with a no-holds-barred approach to production. Beautiful and tension-filled soundscapes follow dense, calm, trap-inspired epics where land, sky, and deep sea meet. Ziibiwan is Anishinaabe from Wiikwemkoong, based in Tkaronto. When I first heard Ziibiwan […] More »