Unreconciled

Jesse Wente's memoir featured as a Raven Book Club pick

Award-winning writer and broadcaster Jesse Wente's memoir 'Unreconciled' will be featured this month in Raven's Trust second book club event.

Wente considers the book to be part memoir, part manifesto, and is the story of his upbringing in Toronto to his life as a respected journalist and an off-reserve member of the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario.

The child of an American father and an Anishinaabe mother, Wente recounts the vivid memory of the exact moment he realized that he was seen as a certain kind of Indian – a stereotypical cartoon Indian. He was playing softball as a child when the opposing team began to war-whoop when he was at bat.

This was just one of the many incidents of racism he has faced in the still overwhelmingly colonial society that exists in Canada. Looking through the lens of his own lived experience, Wente explores the differences between Hollywood portrayals of Indigenous peoples and the everyday lives of Indigenous people in this country.

As a writer and broadcaster, Wente examines the value of Indigenous narrative sovereignty, and argues that storytelling in all its forms is one of Indigenous peoples' best weapons in the fight to reclaim their rightful place in society.

Wente works to unravel the myth of "the two founding nations", and argues that the notion of "reconciliation" is not a realistic path forward, when no such relationship ever existed between indigenous and settler peoples in the first place.

The Raven Trust book club event will begin online June 5 at 5 p.m. PDT, and is free to join, though pre-registration is required. You can get more information HERE, including a book draw for a free copy of Wente's book 'Unreconciled'.

Donations to Raven Trust can be made HERE.

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