Porcupines and China Dolls
CBC Books | | Posted: June 6, 2017 6:29 PM | Last Updated: June 14, 2022
Robert Arthur Alexie
Enough alcohol silences the demons for a night; a gun and a single bullet silences demons forever. When a friend commits suicide and a former priest appears on television, the community is shattered. James and Jake confront their childhood abuse and break the silence to begin a journey of healing and rediscovery. (From Theytus Books)
Robert Arthur Alexie was born and raised in Fort McPherson in Canada's Northwest Territories. He became the chief of the Tetlit Gwich'in of Fort McPherson, served two terms as vice-president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council, and was instrumental in obtaining a land claim agreement for the Gwich'in of the Northwest Territories. He died in 2014.
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From the book
Soon after, the first mission boat arrived in Aberdeen, and thirty-five children were herded out of the Blue Mountains and dragged off to mission school. The People have no words in their language for mission school. The closest anyone has come to it is "hellhole", but that's beside the point. The point is that years later twenty-four of the thirty-five would return. More importantly, eleven wouldn't.
It had begun, but no one knew what "it" was. Things were beginning to change; the future was unfolding, as it should.
From Porcupines and China Dolls by Robert Arthur Alexie ©2009. Published by Theytus Books.