QUOTE: “As Tanya Talaga investigates the story of her great-great grandmother's fate, she lays bare the dark history of a nation. This is about a Canada that you do not know, but one we all must confront. The Knowing is harrowing, illuminating and necessary reading.” — Carol Off

Presented in partnership with the Ottawa International Writers Festival and Library and Archives Canada.

We are honoured to present an evening with Tanya Talaga, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers. Her new book, The Knowing, is a riveting exploration of her family’s story and a retelling of the history of the country we now call Canada.

For generations, Indigenous People have known that their family members disappeared, many of them after being sent to residential schools, “Indian hospitals” and asylums through a coordinated system designed to destroy who the First Nations, Métis and Inuit people are. This is one of Canada’s greatest open secrets, an unhealed wound that until recently lay hidden by shame and abandonment.

Deeply personal and meticulously researched, The Knowing is a seminal unravelling of the centuries-long oppression of Indigenous People that continues to reverberate in these communities today. 

Hosted by Joy SpearChief-Morris.