Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

A compassionate and accessible primer for beginning to do the work of decolonization. If you are a white settler on Turtle Island, this book is for you. Krawec guides us through learning — unforgetting — the real histories of this land and it’s people, and shares stories from her own life, her Anishinaabe people, and others. Each chapter ends with an action that settlers can take and the chapters build on each other so that by the end of the book a reader will have done quite a bit. For the reader for whom this book’s subject is not new, there is still plenty to learn, as Krawec guides a shift in settler colonial modes of thinking and names concepts that are sometimes hard to pin down. Thank you, Patty Krawec, for this book!

This is a challenging book. Not because of the readability, but because it challenges the reader to take a hard look at the history most of us have come to accept as truth in the United States and see the centuries of damage it has wrought. There is hard love in this book, and love in abundance. The invitation is to love back, to acknowledge the systems still in power that continue to divide us as harmful and to change our minds and actions to dismantle them so that we all become kin.

This is a very powerful book, and I greatly appreciated the way Krawec combined some of the darker history of the Americas with more inspiring stories and action items, instead of just focusing on the evil that was done. While we can't ignore the horrible things that happened, dwelling on them without breaks to look at what we can do now won't help us move forward. This is a very well thought-out book, and should be part of everyone's library so that we can start to heal this land together.

Side note: I loved hearing this as an audiobook. Having the Native stories told to me in this way felt more real and appropriate. I also appreciated hearing the Native words spoken. But I've also now ordered the hardback copy of the book, because the show more action items and resources are something I need to see in print in order to properly work with them. show less

Krawec calls us to review the treatment of the Indigenous peoples (North America specifically, but equally applicable elsewhere, e.g., Australia) “discovered” and colonized since the 15th century and the Doctrine of Discovery by European Christians. Rather than concentrating on broken treaties and promises, though, she speaks of broken relationships and the need to acknowledge the break and reestablish the relationships. By weaving her own story as an Anishinaabe and Ukrainian woman into the history of North America, she makes it personal. Not as a memoir, but rather to legitimize her credentials for telling the story and proposing a solution. This is not a theoretical academic treatise, nor is it a radical rant for justice. Rather, show more it is a heartfelt examination of where we have been, and the better future we could all have, if we reestablish our relationships with the land, one another, and Indigenous peoples. show less

*The participation of people with good intentions doesn't change a system that exists to cause harm."
Both an advance and beginner primer on understanding and repairing the harms of colonialism. This book complements, deepens, and is in the lineage of such books as Red Earth, White Lies; A People's History of the United States, and Lies My Teacher Told Me.
At a time when it is so easy to Other each other, Krawec invites and challenges a different response: to bring each other into connection and understanding, while retaining that which is culturally our own. To do that she reaches deep into her own kinship narratives and broadly across webs of knowledge to share how we got to the place of such division, and what we might do about it. show more
Krawec connects through language, history, and her own heritage and superbly links them together in an understanding of colonialism that is harrowing, yet also ultimately hopeful. We may not yet be doomed to despair and a world inflamed. To get there we must understand how we got here, and that journey, as she challenges us, is not one to take alone, nor is the reading of, and response to this book. show less

Anishinaabe author Patty Krawec writes with conviction, compassion, and clarity about the history of relations between Indigenous peoples and White settlers of Canada and the United States. Her impactful writing makes clear the impact of colonialism on past and present Native populations. She then outlines what can be done to build kinship between peoples and the land. Krawec demythologizes North American history so all peoples may join together to nurture relationships based on kinship. This is a book to be read by all those who are willing to open their minds and hearts to the pain of the past and the possibilities for the future.

Fantastic book. Krawec uses Indigenous languages and their words to explain Indigenous people's approach to and outlook on important topics like relationships, community building, reconciliation. She goes into great detail explaining how and why our modern Canadian society is failing to pursue meaningful reconciliation and then, at the end of each chapter, suggests to the reader how they can, in their own life, do better to understand and become kin.