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Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City Paperback – Sept. 30 2017
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The groundbreaking and multiple award-winning national bestseller work about systemic racism, education, the failure of the policing and justice systems, and Indigenous rights by Tanya Talaga.
Over the span of eleven years, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They were hundreds of kilometres away from their families, forced to leave home because there was no adequate high school on their reserves. Five were found dead in the rivers surrounding Lake Superior, below a sacred Indigenous site. Using a sweeping narrative focusing on the lives of the students, award-winning author Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest Canada’s long struggle with human rights violations against Indigenous communities.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHouse of Anansi Press
- Publication dateSept. 30 2017
- Dimensions13.97 x 2.54 x 21.59 cm
- ISBN-101487002262
- ISBN-13978-1487002268
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Review
Talaga’s research is meticulous and her journalistic style is crisp and uncompromising. . . . The book is heartbreaking and infuriating, both an important testament to the need for change and a call to action. ― Publisher's Weekly
What is happening in Thunder Bay is particularly destructive, but Talaga makes clear how Thunder Bay is symptomatic, not the problem itself. Recently shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, Talaga’s is a book to be justly infuriated by. ― Globe and Mail
Tanya Talaga investigates the deaths of seven Indigenous teens in Thunder Bay — Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Robyn Harper, Paul Panacheese, Reggie Bushie, Kyle Morrisseau, and Jordan Wabasse — searching for answers and offering a deserved censure to the authorities who haven’t investigated, or considered the contributing factors, nearly enough. ― National Post
[W]here Seven Fallen Feathers truly shines is in Talaga’s intimate retellings of what families experience when a loved one goes missing, from filing a missing-persons report with police, to the long and brutal investigation process, to the final visit in the coroner’s office. It’s a heartbreaking portrait of an indifferent and often callous system . . . Seven Fallen Feathers is a must-read for all Canadians. It shows us where we came from, where we’re at, and what we need to do to make the country a better place for us all. ― The Walrus
This story is hard and harrowing, but Talaga tells it with the care of a storyteller and the factual attention of a journalist. She makes the difficult connections between this national tragedy and the greater colonial systems that have endangered our most vulnerable for over a century, and she does it all with a keen, compassionate eye for all involved, especially the families who are too often overlooked. These stories need to be heard. These young people deserve nothing less than to be honoured everywhere. -- Katherena Vermette
Seven Fallen Feathers may prove to be the most important book published in Canada in 2017. Tanya Talaga offers well-researched, difficult truths that expose the systemic racism, poverty, and powerlessness that contribute to the ongoing issues facing Indigenous youth, their families, and their communities. It is a call to action that deeply honours the lives of the seven young people; our entire nation should feel their loss profoundly. -- Patti LaBoucane-Benson
You simply must read this book. Tanya Talaga has done the hard work for us. She sat with the families, heard their stories. Now, with the keen eye and meticulous research of an uncompromising journalist, she is sharing their truths. We have to start listening. Parents are sending their children to school in Thunder Bay to watch them die. Racism, police indifference, bureaucratic ineptitude, lateral violence — it doesn’t have to be this way. Let this book enrage you — and then demand that Canada act now. -- Duncan McCue
About the Author
TANYA TALAGA is the acclaimed author of Seven Fallen Feathers, which was the winner of the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and the First Nation Communities READ: Young Adult/Adult Award; a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award for Nonfiction; CBC’s Nonfiction Book of the Year, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, and a national bestseller. Talaga was the 2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, the 2018 CBC Massey Lecturer, and author of the national bestseller All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward. For more than twenty years she has been a journalist at the Toronto Star and is now a columnist at the newspaper. She has been nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism. Talaga is of Polish and Indigenous descent. Her great-grandmother, Liz Gauthier, was a residential school survivor. Her great-grandfather, Russell Bowen, was an Ojibwe trapper and labourer. Her grandmother is a member of Fort William First Nation. Her mother was raised in Raith and Graham, Ontario. She lives in Toronto with her two teenage children.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It’s early April and the 2011 federal election is in full swing. All over Canada, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are duking it out with Jack Layton’s New Democrats and the struggling Liberals in a bid to win a majority government.
I’m in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to see Stan Beardy, the Nishawbe-Aski Nation’s grand chief, to interview him for a story on why it is indigenous people never seem to vote.
The receptionist at the NAN’s office greets me and ushers me into a large, common meeting room to wait for Stan. Everything in the room is grey — the walls, the tubular plastic tables, the carpets. The only splash of colour is a large white flag with a bear on it that has been tacked to the wall.
The Great White Bear stands in the centre of a red circle, in the middle of the flag. The white bear is the traditional symbol of the life of the North American Indian. The red circle background is symbolic of the Red Man. His feet are standing, planted firmly on the bottom line, representing the Earth while his head touches the top line, symbolic to his relationship to the Great Spirit in the sky. The bear is stretched out, arms and feet open wide, to show he has nothing to hide.
There are circles joining the bear’s rib cage. They are the souls of the people, indigenous songs, and legends. The circles are the ties that bind all the clans together.
These circles also offer protection. Without them, the ribcage would expose the great bear’s beating heart and leave it open to harm.
Stan walks in and greets me warmly, his brown eyes twinkling as he takes a seat.
Stan is pensive, quiet, and patient. He says nothing as he wearily leans back in his chair and waits for me to explain why exactly I flew 2,400 km north from Toronto to see him and talk about the federal election.
I launch into my spiel, trying not to sound like a salesperson or an interloper into his world, someone who kind of belongs here and kind of does not. This is the curse of my mixed blood. I am the daughter of a half-Anish mom and a Polish father.
I ramble off abysmal voting pattern statistics across Canada, while pointing out that in many ridings indigenous people could act as a swing vote, influencing that riding and hence the trajectory of the election.
Stan stares at me impassively. Non-plussed.
So I start firing off some questions.
It doesn’t go well. Every time I try to engage him, asking him about why indigenous people won’t get in the game and vote, he begins talking about the disappearance of fifteen-year-old Jordan Wabasse.
It was a frustrating exchange, like we were speaking two different languages.
“Indigenous voters could influence fifty seats across the country if they got out and voted but they don’t. Why?” I ask.
“Why aren’t you writing a story on Jordan Wabasse? He has been gone seventy-one days now,” replies Stan.
“Stephen Harper has been no friend to indigenous people yet if everyone voted, they could swing the course of this election,” I continue, hoping he’ll bite at the sound of Harper’s name. The man is no friend of the Indians.
“They found a shoe down by the water. Police think it might have been his,” replies Stan.
This went on for a good fifteen minutes. I was annoyed. I knew a missing Grade 9 indigenous student in Thunder Bay would not make news in urban Toronto at Canada’s largest daily newspaper. I could practically see that election bus rolling away without me.
Then I remembered my manners and where I was.
I was sitting with the elected grand chief of 23,000 people and he was clearly trying to tell me something.
I tried a new tactic. I’d ask about Jordan and then I’d swing around and get him to talk about elections.
Then Stan said: “Jordan is the seventh student to go missing or die while at school.”
Seven.
Stan says their names: “Reggie Bushie. Jethro Anderson. Paul Panacheese. Curran Strang. Robyn Harper. Kyle Morrisseau. And now, Jordan Wabasse.”
He then tells me the seven were hundreds of miles away from their home communities and families.
Each was forced to leave their reserve simply because there was no high school for them to attend.
“Going to high school is the right of every Canadian child,” says Stan, adding that these children are no different.
Product details
- Publisher : House of Anansi Press (Sept. 30 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1487002262
- ISBN-13 : 978-1487002268
- Item weight : 458 g
- Dimensions : 13.97 x 2.54 x 21.59 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Native Canadian Biographies
- #4 in Politics in Government
- #4 in Native American Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Tanya Talaga is the author of Seven Fallen Feathers which was the winner of the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and the First Nation Communities Read Award: Young Adult/Adult; a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award for Nonfiction; CBC’s Nonfiction Book of the Year, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, and a national bestseller.
She was the 2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, the 2018 CBC Massey Lecturer, and author of the national bestseller All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward. She was a columnist at the Toronto Star and nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism.
Tanya is of Indigenous and Polish descent. Her great-grandmother, Liz Gauthier, was a residential school survivor. Her great-grandfather, Russell Bowen, was an Ojibwe trapper and labourer. Her grandmother is a member of Fort William First Nation. Her mother was raised in Raith and Graham, Ontario. She lives in Toronto with her two teenage children.
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There is great disparity in funding for schools in the north, and in many cases the education of young children is well below the standards of other Canadian schools. The buildings are in terrible condition and lack adequate educational resources. To get a high school education the Indigenous teenagers must attend schools hundreds of miles from their small native settlements. There is culture shock, loneliness and prejudice. This book focuses on the death of 7 teenaged young people who died in Thunder Bay, and the lack of investigation by the police who quickly stated that none of the deaths were mysterious. Bodies of young people were found fully clothes and drowned in the river. Even after a couple of young Indigenous men reported being beaten and thrown in the river and escaped death, there was no effort to learn the cause of the drownings. Official word was immediate that each one had been drunk and fell in the river, with little or no communication by police to grieving families.
The book also shows that living conditions are not unique to Ontario. Many northern native settlements have no drinkable water, no indoor toilets and live in abject poverty. Mentioned are the epidemics of suicide by hanging by children, glue and solvent sniffing which causes brain damage in young people who live with depression and despair, the dysfunction of adults in the aftermath of their time in residential schools. Also discussed is the present inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls(MMIW) and the dreadful crimes of Robert Pickton in BC, where many of the 40+ missing women murdered on his farm were Indigenous and ignored by the police for a long time.
I do wish the book had included a map to show the location of the home settlements of the native children who came to Thunder Bay for schooling. I would also have wanted photos of the young people who died there. This was a story in Maclean’s magazine this summer, and photos of each were shown on the cover. Recommended reading for all Canadians who care about our past and its effects on the present, and to see how far we still need to go to address injustices, prejudice and disparities.


We must not look aside anymore.
But don’t read it all in one go, the pain is just too great.
Tanya Talaga has written her book in such a way that the pain of losing a child is felt by the reader. As a mother, I felt it to the core of my being. Negligence by Coroner's and Police in ruling these deaths (of young, healthy teenagers) as accidents is truly shocking and completely deceptive. Add to this the fact that families were not notified of their child's death in a timely, compassionate and respectful manner. Shocking! Unacceptable!
We need more writers and truth tellers like Tanya Talaga. We need more news coverage of injustices inflicted on our Indigenous Peoples by mainstream media. Canada needs to wake up and take the blinders off to rampant racism across our country.
Relevant and uncomfortable
Ontario residents should read this
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