Back on the Rez: Finding the Way Home (Penguin Modern Classics (Canada)) - Softcover

Brian Maracle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1037803434 ISBN 13: 9781037803437

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2026

Synopsis

More than thirty years after its original publication, Back on the Rez remains a landmark work in Indigenous storytelling and self-reclamation. Brian Maracle - journalist, broadcaster, and Mohawk of the Six Nations of the Grand River - tells the deeply honest story of his return to the community he left decades earlier. Trading his life in downtown Toronto for a home on the reserve, he confronts the divide between urban survival and traditional connection, between English and the revitalizing power of the Mohawk language. This edition speaks directly to a new generation navigating similar crossroads - between cities and communities, colonial systems and cultural renewal, burnout and belonging. At a time when language preservation, land stewardship, and Indigenous resurgence are urgent national priorities, Maracle's reflections are more relevant than ever. He writes not as an expert, but as someone walking back into his culture with humility, curiosity, and clarity. Unflinching and wise, Back on the Rez offers readers a rare glimpse into what it really means to come home - not just geographically, but spiritually and politically. This is a clear-eyed memoir about what it means to belong and a powerful account of returning not just to a place, but to a way of being.

About this title

About the Author

BRIAN MARACLE is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Mohawk Nation, originally from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory near Brantford, Ontario. During the 1970s he worked for Indigenous organizations at the local, provincial, and national levels, and since the early 1980s he has worked as a print and broadcast journalist, specializing in Indigenous issues. He is the former host of CBCs Our Native Land and a former reporter for The Globe and Mail.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1037803434
• ISBN 13: 9781037803437
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320