Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott
CBC Books | Posted: August 21, 2023 5:54 AM | Last Updated: October 12, 2023
A chronicle of grief, love, and legacy
Helen Knott's bestselling debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, with her highly anticipated second book, Knott exceeds the highest of expectations with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy. Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was.
Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
(From Knopf Canada)
- Helen Knott explores the connection between violence against Indigenous women and violence against the land
- 46 works of Canadian nonfiction to read in fall 2023
- 35 books to read for National Indigenous History Month
- Dear Mr. Prime Minister: This poet has something to say to you about Indigenous rights
Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Nehiyaw, Métis, and mixed Euro-descent writer from Prophet River First Nations. She is a 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging author and her memoir, My Own Moccasins, is an international bestseller and won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Indigenous Peoples' Publishing.