Description
i-nitotamahk kisik is the Cree Language Edition of Rosanna Deerchild's poetry collection, Calling Down the Sky, describing deep personal experiences and post-generational effects of the First Nations residential school confinements in the 1960s when thousands of First Nations children were placed in these schools against their parents' wishes. Many were forbidden to speak their Language and practice their own Cultures. Rosanna Deerchild exposes how the residential schools systematically undermined First Nation cultures across Canada and disrupted families for generations, severing the ties through which culture is taught and sustained, and contributing to a general loss of Language and Beliefs.
Rosanna Deechild is an award-winning Cree author and broadcaster. She has worked for a variety of Indigenous newspapers and major networks for over 15 years, including APTN, CBC Radio, and Global. This volume contains 38 poems in Cree only expressing Deerchild’s overwhelming loss covering themes such as the loss of family and language, reconciliation, loss of hair, blankets, first day of school, names versus numbers, nuns and priests, limited food, running away, memories, guy hill residential school, and a heart-breaking poem that recounts the poet’s feelings when she recalls her mother’s residential school years.