TORONTO — Renowned journalist Tanya Talaga is writing a non-fiction book about residential schools and the national reckoning surrounding them.
HarperCollins Canada says it plans to publish the work from the Toronto-based Ojibwe reporter in 2023.
The publishing house says the book will explore "why the discovery of unmarked graves on residential school grounds has finally resonated with Canadians as well as rest of the world."
The project is part of a new three-book deal between HarperCollins Canada and Talaga, author of the award-winning 2017 book "Seven Fallen Feathers," which explored the deaths of Indigenous teens in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Talaga is also an Indigenous rights activist who looks at contemporary stories that highlight the fight for human rights among Canada's First Nation peoples in the Audible.ca project "Seven Truths."
Other books from the Anishinaabe and Polish-Canadian writer include "All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward."
"The Indian Residential School was a pillar of Canada's genocidal policies against Indigenous Peoples," Talaga said in a statement.
"Every Indigenous family is touched by the trauma of the 'schools.' Those places did the opposite of nurturing and educating. They tormented and tortured. Canada hoped the world wouldn’t notice — but it has. All of our communities, our families, know the stories of the lost, those stolen from us. It is time the children are honoured and their voices heard.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
The Canadian Press