Celebrating Canada's 150th: September

I've watched his 8th Fire series on CBC, so I was excited to read this memoir next on my list. 

Book summary: When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant aboriginal man who'd raised him. The Reason You Walk spans the year 2012, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on a reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school. An intriguing doubleness marks The Reason You Walk, a reference to an Anishinaabe ceremonial song. Born to an Anishinaabe father and a non-native mother, he has a foot in both cultures. He is a Sundancer, an academic, a former rapper, a hereditary chief, and an urban activist. His father, Tobasonakwut, was both a beloved traditional chief and a respected elected leader who engaged directly with Ottawa. Internally divided, his father embraced both traditional native religion and Catholicism, the religion that was inculcated into him at the residential school where he was physically and sexually abused. In a grand gesture of reconciliation, Kinew's father invited the Roman Catholic bishop of Winnipeg to a Sundance ceremony in which he adopted him as his brother. Kinew writes affectingly of his own struggles in his twenties to find the right path, eventually giving up a self-destructive lifestyle to passionately pursue music and martial arts. From his unique vantage point, he offers an inside view of what it means to be an educated aboriginal living in a country that is just beginning to wake up to its aboriginal history and living presence. 
     Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and a wider conversation about the future of aboriginal peoples.- from amazon.ca

My thoughts: Wab openly acknowledges that he and his people are proud and stoic - which makes this open, honest and emotionally intense memoir all the more compelling.  You can hear, at times, in his story-telling that he's reluctant to reveal difficult situations or deep feelings - and sometimes, he pulls back from the reader - but many times, he bravely tells his story, and the story of his father and his sons, as it needs to be told.

I learned so much about Indigenous culture, spirituality, and families; I saw in a very real way how the horrors of residential schools affected the survivors, but also their families - their children and grandchildren.  And I was humbled and amazed to hear how Wab's father worked relentlessly to make peace, reconciliation and forgiveness a very real aspect of his everyday life.  

An important, positive, hopeful and emotional look at how Indigenous people and other Canadians can learn from each other, understand each other and put true reconciliation into action.