In May of 2021 the public awareness of Canadian history changed. The secrets came forward when remnants of those who never made it home were found at the former Indian Residential Schools. The stark reality of what Residential schools were and the people who suffered through them - and the churches, government, and the colonizers who ran them - became news into the world. In doing so our reading habits have changed; more people are picking books with a more direct purpose. We make sure the stories are not just about Indigenous People but also written by them.
Author Cherie Dimaline brings the discussion forward with the book The Marrow Thieves, a dystopian Young Adult novel addressing the subject of residential schools in a different kind of format. This dystopian novel brings the idealism that if the world had no clean drinking water and vegetation was dying, people ended up losing their ability to dream. Readers follow the story of Frenchie as he ends up alone, to finding his group of people and then to finding his family, all while running from the recruiters. Frenchie is on the run and in hiding, much like the group of people that he travels with because they are indigenous. Indigenous people are the people who still dream, and the treatment for everyone else, can be found in their marrow. It's because of this that they are hunted, and put into new residential schools to be harvested for their marrow.
The group of people that Frenchie travels with act much like a family. They also all have their own stories to share. They have a weekly time together where the character Miigwans shares Story, a time to educate about Indigenous history such as colonialism, treaties, the abuses administered at residential schools, their language and culture, all with the intention that it would not be forgotten. Moments of this book can leave you heartbroken, through their stories, through the abuses they experience within the timeline, and when members of their found family leave.
As much as this book is set in a time that has yet to be, it reverberates into today's world. Our society has yet to learn from the horrors that Indigenous People have experienced or break generational cycles that are seen in their communities. This award winning novel is a worthwhile read for teens and adults.
Cherie Dimaline released a sequel to The Marrow Thieves on October 19th Hunting by Stars.
