Aki-wayn-zih: A Person as Worthy as the Earth (Volume 102) (McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies)

Baxter, Eli

ISBN 10: 0228008077 / ISBN 13: 9780228008071

Published by McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 003281

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Aki-wayn-zih: A Person as Worthy as the Earth (Volume 102) (McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies)
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228008077
• ISBN 13: 9780228008071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Winner- 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for English-Language Nonfiction Members of Eli Baxter’s generation are the last of the hunting and gathering societies living on Turtle Island. They are also among the last fluent speakers of the Anishinaabay language known as Anishinaabaymowin. Aki-wayn-zih is a story about the land and its spiritual relationship with the Anishinaabayg, from the beginning of their life on Miss-koh-tay-sih Minis (Turtle Island) to the present day. Baxter writes about Anishinaabay life before European contact, his childhood memories of trapping, hunting, and fishing with his family on traditional lands in Treaty 9 territory, and his personal experience surviving the residential school system. Examining how Anishinaabay Kih-kayn-daa-soh-win (knowledge) is an elemental concept embedded in the Anishinaabay language, Aki-wayn-zih explores history, science, math, education, philosophy, law, and spiritual teachings, outlining the cultural significance of language to Anishinaabay identity. Recounting traditional Ojibway legends in their original language, fables in which moral virtues double as survival techniques, and detailed guidelines for expertly trapping or ensnaring animals, Baxter reveals how the residential school system shaped him as an individual, transformed his family, and forever disrupted his reserve community and those like it. Through spiritual teachings, historical accounts, and autobiographical anecdotes, Aki-wayn-zih offers a new form of storytelling from the Anishinaabay point of view.

About the Author

Eli Baxter is a fluent Ojibway speaker, a survivor of the residential school system, a knowledge keeper, and a certified Ontario teacher who is married and has two grown children.