Reading and reconciling together

Athabasca University Press partnered with RISE (Reconciliation and Solidarity Edmonton) to launch the citywide book club. Together, they’re offering Edmontonians a chance to read Arthur Bear Chief’s residential school memoir “My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell“. The book, published just at the end of 2016, is an honest account of Arthur’s time at Old Sun Residential School, which was just outside of Calgary. The book details the abuse he suffered at the school and his re-connection with his Blackfoot heritage later in life, which helped him to write the memoir.

The ebook is free for you to download, an encouragement to read it and join the club. You can discuss the book online and at real-life events. The next event is Saturday, April 29 at the Castledowns Library.

If you want to read the book along with others, you can download the book for free (you can also purchase it from Athabasca University Press or bookstores in Edmonton), sign up for the RISE Book Club and join the discussion.

The next book is announced too. RISE Book Club members can purchase “In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth and Reconciliation” from Brindle and Glass Publishing to be ready for more conversations about reconciliation.

Previously, the group read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, which was produced after cross-country hearings into Canada’s residential school system.