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| Genre/Form: | History |
|---|---|
| Additional Physical Format: | Johnson, Harold, 1957- Firewater. (CaOONL)20169047474 |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Harold Johnson |
| ISBN: | 9780889774377 0889774374 9780889774384 0889774382 9780889774391 0889774390 |
| OCLC Number: | 953887500 |
| Awards: | Short-listed for Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction 2016 |
| Description: | xiv, 180 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm |
| Contents: | Part 1. Kayâs : a long time ago: Wîsahkicâhk's lost stories -- Part 2. How alcohol is killing my people: So the story goes ; Who am I to speak? ; The drunken Indian story ; A little bit more history to help put it in perspective ; A time before alcohol killed our people ; Going to the graveyard ; The Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples and the Supreme Court ; Four models ; The trickster in the story ; Being frank : exposing the problem ; Costs of the alcohol story ; Employment ; The story we tell ourselves ; The story kiciwamanawak tell themselves ; Addictions ; The land ; It's all only a story ; Banning alcohol ; Treatment ; Leadership ; The storyteller ; Healing ; Community ; The sober house and the sober community -- Part 3. Letters from our scouts, the artists: A letter from Tracey Lindberg ; A letter from Richard Van Camp -- Part 4. Niyâk : for the future: Wîsahkicâhk returns to find out he is story -- Appendix: Treaty No. 6. |
| Responsibility: | Harold R. Johnson. |
Abstract:
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
"[T]his Crown prosecutor, author, and former miner and logger, who has prematurely buried too many friends and relatives due to alcohol-related deaths, refuses to back away from the difficult challenge of addressing the root causes of alcoholism in First Nations communities. He convincingly argues that reality and all of its constituent elements--borders, corporations, governments, race--are ultimately defined by stories, and that an intentional effort to change the tales First Nations people tell about themselves would clear a path forward where addiction treatment and law enforcement models have failed... Written in the style of a kitchen-table conversation, Johnson's personal anecdotes and perceptive analysis are a call to return to a traditional culture of sobriety." -- Publishers Weekly "This is an extraordinary memoir by a Cree writer who understands the damage alcohol does when used to kill the pain caused by white Canadians stealing and torturing Indigenous children throughout this nation's history. I know many white alcoholics but it's always 'the drunk Indian.' Why? Firewater is a great book; it burns in the hand." - Heather Mallick, Toronto Star "Johnson lays out an alternative narrative from that of the 'lazy, drunken Indian' in order to clear the way to a different conclusion and find and fashion a home-grown fix to a problem that threatens to destroy Indigenous communities. Johnson's suggestions for necessary ways of healing are welcome and tragically overdue. And his suggestion for an alternative narrative is not one of hopelessness. The book should be a bible in the fight for survival and recovery, for a better life for coming generations, and it should somehow be made available to band councils and urban community and friendship centres." - Morgan O'Neil, First Nations Drum Read more...
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Related Subjects:(19)
- Indians of North America -- Alcohol use -- Canada.
- Alcoholism -- Social aspects -- Canada.
- Alcoholism -- Treatment -- Canada.
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- Social aspects -- Canada.
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- History.
- Spiritual healing.
- Native peoples -- Alcohol use -- Canada.
- Indiens d'Amérique -- Consommation d'alcool -- Canada.
- Alcoolisme -- Aspect social -- Canada.
- Alcoolisme -- Traitement -- Canada.
- Consommation d'alcool -- Aspect social -- Canada.
- Consommation d'alcool -- Histoire.
- Guérison par la foi.
- Alcoholism -- Social aspects.
- Alcoholism -- Treatment.
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages.
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- Social aspects.
- Indians of North America -- Alcohol use.
- Canada.
