A local author is weaving personal experience together with fiction to create a tale highlighting the need for governments to improve living conditions while empowering remote First Nations communities.
Robert Sanderson Trudeau, who has four decades of economic development experience working in Canada’s Arctic and sub-Arctic, has written Shuniah-Ogama, a gripping, revelatory parable shining a light on long-standing government neglect.
Trudeau says the novel is based to a large extent on actual and historical events.
“Even though this is set in Northwestern Ontario, albeit 50 years ago, it is the story that applies to many places across Canada,” Trudeau said.
“The story is in many, many ways based on what I experienced many, many years ago and also what I went through as a person trooping around this country.”
The novel is an attempt to explain the history of colonization, residential schools in the setting of one Ojibway community in the mid 1970s, telling the story of a public servant new to a government agency, and what he experiences.
The story takes a tragic turn, revolving around the events that lead to that tragedy and its aftermath.
A reviewer from Kirkus Reviews wrote:
“This novel about the White employees of the Nakina Indian Affairs district office and the Indigenous villagers who suffer under them illustrates how “Most Canadians don’t know anything about Indian history… where racist supervisors… “drink, chase women, and take bribes” (and) only emphasizes Trudeau’s point about their dangerous apathy: “Make promises, do as little as possible, just talk and talk and talk until everyone gives up and walks away.” A bleak and damning story of government neglect of Indigenous communities.”
While Trudeau says the novel doesn’t offer solutions, he hopes it can be an eyeopener to the realities and challenges facing remote First Nations.
“This region has been neglected and is forgotten. It deserves much better treatment and deserves much better investment, both from the federal and provincial governments,” he says.
“I hope it does lead to some good changes. I feel ashamed when I see what has happened to some of the First Nations and how they’ve been treated.”
Trudeau will hold a book signing event at the Waverley Resource Library on June 20 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Shuniah-Ogama can be found at Indigo, or ordered online through FriesenPress and Amazon.
