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A book cover consisting of three framed images over a tv set. The image on the left is of a man holding onto a boy. The center image is a black-and-white photo of a boy and a girl. The image on the right is of three young children. On the tv screen is a black-and-white image of an Indigenous person in a headdress. The title says "Unreconciled"

Unreconciled

Unreconciled

A book cover consisting of three framed images over a tv set. The image on the left is of a man holding onto a boy. The center image is a black-and-white photo of a boy and a girl. The image on the right is of three young children. On the tv screen is a black-and-white image of an Indigenous person in a headdress. The title says "Unreconciled"

Cover for “Unreconciled”, nominee for the Heritage Toronto Book Awards, 2022. Images by Steven Errico, OlegEvseev, and Mykhailo Polenok.

Author: Jesse Wente

Publisher: Penguin Canada

Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples.

Jesse Wente remembers the exact moment he realized that he was a certain kind of Indian—a stereotypical cartoon Indian. He was playing softball as a child in Toronto when the opposing team began to war-whoop when he was at bat. It was just one of many incidents that formed Wente’s understanding of what it means to be a modern Indigenous person in a society still overwhelmingly colonial in its attitudes and institutions. Through the lens of art, pop culture, and personal stories, and with disarming humour, he links his love of baseball and movies to such issues as cultural appropriation, Indigenous representation and identity, and Indigenous narrative sovereignty.

 

 

 

 

About the Author:

Jesse Wente is an Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster, and arts leader. Born and raised in Toronto, his family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is a member of the Serpent River First Nation. Best known as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, he also worked at the Toronto International Film Festival for eleven years. In February 2018, Wente was named the first Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen Office. Wente was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts in 2020, the only First Nations person to ever hold the position.

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