Books
For the Gallery, migration speaks of movement, the essence of the migratory process. We don’t frame migration by ethnicity or historical periods, but by its universality: migration is the eternal movement at the core of human nature.
Movement is the act of being born, of coming into the world. Movement is the creative spark that generates an idea. Each of us, therefore, carries a migration story to tell—woven from dreams, departure, acceptance, and belonging.
Without these stories, we leave behind only fragments for strangers to interpret. Ruins, census forms, a surname on a ship’s manifest. What they can’t recover is the soul of the journey—the why, the how, the cost, and the joy.
This is why we must write, speak, and read.
College Street, Little Italy: Toronto’s Renaissance Strip
$35.00 + HST & Shipping
“In this book, Toronto’s “renaissance strip” comes alive, thanks to editors Denis De Klerck and Corrado Paina, by showing us how often College street has been reborn and reinvented. The essays gathered here are scholarly, yet personal. This is a history of a place influenced by immigration cycles set off by world events, but it is also the story of the individuals who are too often left out of history books. In the wonderful photographs that accompany the essays, we can see vivid proof that the buildings and streetscapes of the city are always changing, yet what has remained constant is the evolving creativity and commitment of the people who have made their lives here. For every story that is told, there are countless others that have not been told, because the life of College Street has been so rich and various. This book is the reflection of this richness – it shows us as we were and as we are. It is a gift that will allow future generations to know a little bit more about ourselves”.
Joe Pantalone, Deputy Mayor of the City of Toronto 2003-2010 – Introduction
Recommended Readings & Resources
In the spirit of sharing stories that matter, the Gallery highlights these readings and honours Indigenous voices—without any financial exchange.
Readings on Indigenous Literature
Beyond the Gallery’s own book, we invite you to explore a selection of recommended readings on Indigenous stories.What can we learn when these narratives meet—sometimes in dialogue, sometimes in tension?
This way of thinking—history as layered, plural, and relational—lies at the heart of what we present at the Gallery. Each migration story we share echoes with others: the enduring voice of Indigenous presence, the resilience of displaced communities, and the courage of newcomers. It is a list of must-read titles written by Indigenous authors, writers, illustrators, and Knowledge Keepers. These are books that inspire reflection and create space for healing.
We all have stories. These stories teach us history, morality, identity, connection, empathy, understanding, and self-awareness. We hear the stories of our ancestors, and they tell us who we are. We hear the stories of our heroes, and they tell us what we can be.
Indigenous Toronto
Stories that Carry this Place
by Denise Bolduc
A collection of perspectives by and about Indigenous Toronto, past, present, and future.
Beneath many major North American cities rests a deep foundation of Indigenous history that has been colonized, paved over, and, too often, silenced. Few of its current inhabitants know that Toronto has seen twelve thousand years of uninterrupted Indigenous presence and nationhood in this region, along with a vibrant culture and history that thrives to this day.
With contributions by Indigenous Elders, scholars, journalists, artists, and historians, this unique anthology explores the poles of cultural continuity and settler colonialism that have come to define Toronto as a significant cultural hub and intersection that was also known as a Meeting Place long before European settlers arrived.
“This book is a reflection of endurance and a helpful corrective to settler fantasies. It tells a more balanced account of our communities, then and now. It offers the space for us to reclaim our ancestors’ language and legacy, rewriting ourselves back into a landscape from which non Indigenous historians have worked hard to erase us. But we are there in the skyline and throughout the GTA, along the coast and in all directions.” – from the introduction by Hayden King
Five Little Indians
by Michelle Good
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.
Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.
Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.
With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.
Stories of Métis Women
Tales My Kookum Told Me
by Marilyn Lizee & Bailey Oster
This book, and accompanying Vimeo documentary link, is a collection of stories about culture, history, and nationhood as told by Métis women. The Métis are known by many names — Otipemisiwak, “the people who own ourselves;” Bois Brules, “Burnt Wood;” Apeetogosan, “half brother” by the Cree; “half-breed,” historically; and are also known as “rebels” and “traitors to Canada.” They are also known as the “Forgotten People.” Few really know their story.
Many people may also think that Métis simply means “mixed,” but it does not. They are a people with a unique and proud history and Nation. In this era of reconciliation, Stories of Métis Women explains the story of the Métis Nation from their own perspective. The UN has declared this “The Decade of Indigenous Languages,” and Stories of Métis Women is one of the few books available in English and Michif, which is an endangered language.
Wayi Wah!
Indigenous Pedagogies
by Jo Chrona
Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies an Act for Reconciliation and Anti-Racist Educationis grounded in the First Peoples Principles of Learning, this comprehensive guide builds on Chrona’s own experiences in British Columbia’s education system to explore how to shape anti-racist and equitable education systems for all. How can Indigenous knowledge systems inform our teaching practices and enhance education? How do we create an education system that embodies an anti-racist approach and equity for all learners? This powerful and engaging resource is for non-Indigenous educators who want to learn more, are new to these conversations, or want to deepen their learning. With over two decades in Indigenous education, author Jo Chrona encourages readers to acknowledge and challenge assumptions, reflect on their own experiences, and envision a more equitable education system for all.
REDress
Art, Action, and the Power of Presence
Edited by Jaime Black-Morsette
REDress: Art, Action, and the Power of Presenceis a love offering to MMIWG2S. A powerful anthology uniting the voices of Indigenous women, Elders, grassroots community activists, artists, academics, and family members affected by the tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people from across Turtle Island.
In 2010, Métis artist Jaime Black-Morsette created the REDress Project—an art installation consisting of placing red dresses in public spaces as a call for justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S). Symbolizing both absence and presence, the red dresses ignite a reclamation of voice and place for MMIWG2S. Fifteen years later, the symbol of the empty red dress endures as families continue to call for action.
In this anthology, Jaime Black-Morsette shares her own intimate stories and memories of the REDress Project along with the voices of Indigenous women, Elders, grassroots community activists, artists, academics, and family members affected by this tragedy. Together they use the power of their collective voice to not only call for justice for MMIWG2S, but honour Indigenous women as keepers and protectors of land, culture, and community across Turtle Island.
Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Schools
by Pamela Rose Toulouse
Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Schools helps to fine-tune about Indigenous peoples, residential schools, and contemporary issues. In this book, author Pamela Rose Toulouse provides current information, personal insights, authentic resources, interactive strategies and lesson plans that support Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners in the classroom. This book is for all teachers that are looking for ways to respectfully infuse residential school history, treaty education, Indigenous contributions, First Nations/Métis/Inuit perspectives and sacred circle teachings into their subjects and courses. The author presents a culturally relevant and holistic approach that facilitates relationship building and promotes ways to engage in reconciliation activities.
Indigenous Writes
A Guide to First Nations, Metis & Inuit Issues in Canada
by Chelsea Vowel
Delgamuukw. Sixties Scoop. Bill C-31. Blood quantum. Appropriation. Two-Spirit. Tsilhqot’in. Status. TRC. RCAP. FNPOA. Pass and permit. Numbered Treaties. Terra nullius. The Great Peace…
Are you familiar with the terms listed above? In Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel, legal scholar, teacher, and intellectual, opens an important dialogue about these (and more) concepts and the wider social beliefs associated with the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada. In 31 essays, Chelsea explores the Indigenous experience from the time of contact to the present, through five categories—Terminology of Relationships; Culture and Identity; Myth-Busting; State Violence; and Land, Learning, Law, and Treaties. She answers the questions that many people have on these topics to spark further conversations at home, in the classroom, and in the larger community.
Indigenous Writes is one title in The Debwe Series.
52 Ways to Reconcile
How to Walk With Indigenous Peoples on the Path to Healing
by David A. Robertson
From bestselling author of the Misewa Saga series David A. Robertson, this is the essential guide for all Canadians to understand how small and attainable acts towards reconciliation can make an enormous difference in our collective efforts to build a reconciled country.
52 Ways to Reconcile is an accessible, friendly guide for non-Indigenous people eager to learn, or Indigenous people eager to do more in our collective effort towards reconciliation, as people, and as a country. As much as non-Indigenous people want to walk the path of reconciliation, they often aren’t quite sure what to do, and they’re afraid of making mistakes. This book is the answer and the long overdue guide.
The idea of this book is simple: 52 small acts of reconciliation to consider, one per week, for an entire year. They’re all doable, and they’re all meaningful. All 52 steps take readers in the right direction, towards a healthier relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and a time when we are past trauma. By following these steps, we can live in stronger and healthier communities equally, and respectfully, together.
The Circle
by Katherena Vermette
From the award-winning and #1 bestselling author of The Break and The Strangers comes a poignant and unwavering epic told from a constellation of Métis voices that consider the fallout when the person who connects them all goes missing.
Fierce, heartbreaking, and profound, Vermette’s The Circle is the third and final companion novel to her bestsellers The Breakand The Strangers. Told from various perspectives, with an unforgettable voice for each chapter, the novel is masterfully structured as a Restorative Justice Circle where all gather—both the victimized and the accused—to take account of a crime that has altered the course of their lives. It considers what it means to be abandoned by the very systems that claim to offer support, how it feels to gain a sense of belonging, and the unanticipated cost of protecting those you love most.
Sugar Falls
A Residential School Story
by David A. Robertson
Sugar Falls: A Residential School Storyis inspired by true events.
This story of strength, family, and culture shares the awe-inspiring resilience of Elder Betty Ross.
Abandoned as a young child, Betsy is adopted into a loving family. A few short years later, at the age of 8, everything changes. Betsy is taken away to a residential school. There she is forced to endure abuse and indignity, but Betsy recalls the words her father spoke to her at Sugar Falls—words that give her the resilience, strength, and determination to survive.
Sugar Falls is based on the true story of Betty Ross, Elder from Cross Lake First Nation. We wish to acknowledge, with the utmost gratitude, Betty’s generosity in sharing her story. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Sugar Falls goes to support the bursary program for The Helen Betty Osborne Memorial Foundation.
Turtle Island
The Story of North America’s First People
by E. Yellowhorn and K. Lowinger
Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First Peopleis a book that goes back to the Ice Age to give young readers a glimpse of what life was like pre-contact. The title, Turtle Island, refers to a Native story that explains how North and Central America were formed on the back of a turtle.
Based on archeological finds and scientific research, interspersed are myths that give a sense of the storytelling voice of each culture. Using that knowledge, the authors take the reader back as far as 14,000 years ago to imagine moments in time. Their choices give a clear sense of Indigenous intelligence and inventiveness. For example, we learn how the Haida Gwaii built cedar canoes and harvested the sea; how the Plains People of Alberta used buffalo jumps such as the one at Head-Smashed-In to ensure their supply of meat, bone, hide and sinew; and how the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes region cultivated wild rice. We also learn how the Olmec people of San Lorenzo, Mexico, combined latex from the rubber trees with sap from morning glory plants to create rubber; how the Anasazi of Colorado built “apartment buildings” of sandstone; and the Hohokam of Arizona constructed canals to irrigate corn and cotton crops. The importance of story-telling among the Native peoples is always present to shed light on how they explained their world. The end of the book takes us to modern times when the story of the Native peoples is both tragic and hopeful.
Nishga
Kanata Classics Edition
by Jordan Abel
Nishgais a groundbreaking, deeply personal, and devastating autobiographical meditation that attempts to address the complicated legacies of Canada’s residential school system and contemporary Indigenous existence.
As a Nisga’a writer, Jordan Abel often finds himself in a position where he is asked to explain his relationship to Nisga’a language, Nisga’a community, and Nisga’a cultural knowledge. However, as an intergenerational survivor of residential school–both of his grandparents attended the same residential school–his relationship to his own Indigenous identity is complicated to say the least.
NISHGA explores those complications and is invested in understanding how the colonial violence originating at the Coqualeetza Indian Residential School impacted his grandparents’ generation, then his father’s generation, and ultimately his own. The project is rooted in a desire to illuminate the realities of intergenerational survivors of residential school, but sheds light on Indigenous experiences that may not seem to be immediately (or inherently) Indigenous.
Drawing on autobiography and a series of interconnected documents (including pieces of memoir, transcriptions of talks, and photography), NISHGA is a book about confronting difficult truths and it is about how both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples engage with a history of colonial violence that is quite often rendered invisible.
Coexistence
Stories
by Billy-Ray Belcourt
A collection of intersecting stories about Indigenous love and loneliness from one of contemporary literature’s most boundless minds.
Across the prairies and Canada’s west coast, on reserves and university campuses, at literary festivals and existential crossroads, the characters in Coexistence are searching for connection. They’re learning to live with and understand one another, to see beauty and terror side by side, and to accept that the past, present, and future can inhabit a single moment.
An aging mother confides in her son about an intimate friendship from her distant girlhood. A middling poet is haunted by the cliché his life has become. A chorus of anonymous gay men dispense unvarnished truths about their sex lives. A man freshly released from prison finds that life on the outside has sinister strictures of its own. A PhD student dog-sits for his parents at what was once a lodging for nuns operating a residential school—a house where the spectre of Catholicism comes to feel eerily literal.
Bearing the compression, crystalline sentences, and emotional potency that have characterized his earlier books, Coexistence is a testament to Belcourt’s mastery of and playfulness in any literary form. A vital addition to an already rich catalogue, this is a must-read collection and the work of an author at the height of his powers.
The Knowing
by Tanya Talaga
From Tanya Talaga, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers, comes 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.
The Knowing is the unfolding of Canadian history unlike anything we have ever read before. Award-winning and bestselling Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga retells the history of this country as only she can—through an Indigenous lens, beginning with the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and her family as they experienced decades of government- and Church-sanctioned enfranchisement and genocide.
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.
Elements
by Jamesie Fournier
In this complex, at times dark, poetry collection from Inuk author Jamesie Fournier, readers are taken through the recesses of a character struggling with inner demons whispering into his mind.
As he attempts to overcome his inner turmoil within a Colonial and contemporary system that oppresses him, the speaker guides readers through verse both ethereal and imagistic. Echoing artists as varied as Margaret Laurence and The Velvet Underground, this sweeping collection of bilingual verse deals with erasure, resilience, and—above all—resistance through the voice of one complex protagonist.
First Nations 101 - 2nd edition
Tons of Stuff You Need to Know
by Linda Gray
Updated and expanded 2nd edition of the national best seller!
First Nations 101 provides a broad overview of the day-to-day lives of Indigenous people, traditional Indigenous communities, colonial interventions used in an attempt to assimilate Indigenous people into mainstream society, the impacts those interventions had on Indigenous families and communities, and how Indigenous people are working towards holistic health and wellness today.
This 2nd edition has over 75 chapters, including new ones on rematriation, water for life, governance ‘options’, Indigenous feminisms, decolonization, (mis)appropriation, Indigenous Knowledge, and how to become a great ally.
21 Things
You Need to Know About Indigenous Self-Government: A Conversation About Dismantling the Indian Act
by Bob Joseph
From the bestselling author of 21 Things™ You May Not Know About the Indian Act comes a powerful new book on dismantling the Indian Act and advancing Indigenous self-governance.
Bob Joseph’s 21 Things™You May Not Know About the Indian Act captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of Canadians by shining a light on the Indian Act and the problems associated with it. In that book, readers learned that the Consolidated Indian Act of 1876 has controlled the lives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada for generations, and despite its objective to assimilate Indians into the economic and political mainstream, it has had the opposite effect: segregation. They live under different laws and on different lands.
People came away from that book with questions such as “Can we get rid of the Indian Act?” and “What would that look like? Would self-government work?” These are timely questions, given that 2026 will mark 150 years since the Consolidated Indian Act of 1876. The short answer to these questions is, yes, we can dismantle the Act, and there are current examples of self-government arrangements that are working.
With his trademark wisdom, humility, and deep understanding, Bob Joseph shows us the path forward in 21 Things™ You Need to Know About Indigenous Self-Government: A Conversation About Dismantling the Indian Act, in which Indigenous self-governance is already happening and not to be feared—and negotiating more such arrangements, sooner rather than later, is an absolute necessity.
21 Things™ You Need to Know About Indigenous Self-Government: A Conversation About Dismantling the Indian Act is a call to action. Join the conversation now.
O da gaho de:s
Reflecting on Our Journeys
by Gae Ho Whako & Norma Jacobs
A transformative journey, guided by Elders’ teachings, that prompts reflection on the values that foster good relations.
In the words of Cayuga Elder Gae Ho Hwako Norma Jacobs: “We have forgotten about that sacred meeting space between the Settler ship and the Indigenous canoe, Odagahodhes, where we originally agreed on the Two Row, and where today we need to return to talk about the impacts of its violation.”
Odagahodhes highlights the Indigenous values that brought us to the sacred meeting place in the original treaties of Turtle Island, particularly the Two Row Wampum, and the sharing process that was meant to foster good relations from the beginning of the colonial era. The book follows a series of Indigenous sharing circles, relaying teachings by Gae Ho Hwako and the responses of participants – scholars, authors, and community activists – who bring their diverse experiences and knowledge into reflective relation with the teachings. Through this practice, the book itself resembles a teaching circle and illustrates the important ways tradition and culture are passed down by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. The aim of this process is to bring clarity to the challenges of truth and reconciliation. Each circle ends by inviting the reader into this sacred space of Odagahodhes to reflect on personal experiences, stories, knowledge, gifts, and responsibilities.
By renewing our place in the network of spiritual obligations of these lands, Odagahodhes invites transformations in how we live to enrich our communities, nations, planet, and future generations.
Okanagan Women's Voices
Syilx and Settler Writing and Relations, 1870s to 1960s
by Jeannette Armstrong
Okanagan Women’s Voices Syilx and settler writing and relations, 1870s to 1960s is written by Jeannette Armstrong, Syilx Okanagan, a fluent speaker and teacher of the Nsyilxcn Okanagan language and a traditional knowledge keeper of the Okanagan Nation, and edited by Janet MacArthur and Lally Grauer.
This book is about the writing and relations between Syilx women and settler women, largely of European descent, who came to inhabit the British Columbia southern interior from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.
Who We Are
Four Questions for a Life and a Nation
by the Honourable Murray Sinclair
Judge, senator, and activist. Father, grandfather, and friend. This is Murray Sinclair’s story—and the story of a nation—in his own words, an oral history that forgoes the trappings of the traditional written memoir to center Indigenous ways of knowledge and storytelling. As Canada moves forward into the future of reconciliation, one of its greatest leaders guides us to ask the most important and difficult question we can ask of ourselves: Who are we?
For decades, Senator Sinclair has fearlessly educated Canadians about the painful truths of our history. He was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba, and only the second Indigenous judge in Canadian history. He was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and remains one of the foremost voices on Reconciliation. And now, for the first time, he will share his full story—and his full vision for our nation—with readers across Canada.
Drawing on Senator Sinclair’s unique experiences, and his perspectives regarding Indigenous identity, human rights, and justice in Canada, Who We Are will examine the roles of history, resistance, and resilience in the pursuit of finding that path forward, and healing the damaged relationship between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. And in doing so, it will reveal Senator Sinclair’s life in a new and direct way, exploring how all of these experiences shaped him as an Anishinaabe man, father, and grandfather.
Structured around the four questions that have long shaped Senator Sinclair’s thinking and worldview—Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I?—Who We Are will take readers into the story of his remarkable life as never before, while challenging them to embrace an inclusive vision for our shared future.
How We Go Home
Voices from Indigenous North America
by Sara Sinclair
In myriad ways, each narrator’s life has been shaped by loss, injustice, and resilience—and by the struggle of how to share space with settler nations whose essential aim is to take all that is Indigenous.
Hear from Jasilyn Charger, one of the first five people to set up camp at Standing Rock, which kickstarted a movement of Water Protectors that roused the world; Gladys Radek, a survivor of sexual violence whose niece disappeared along Canada’s Highway of Tears, who became a family advocate for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; and Marian Naranjo, herself the subject of a secret radiation test while in high school, who went on to drive Santa Clara Pueblo toward compiling an environmental impact statement on the consequences of living next to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Theirs are stories among many of the ongoing contemporary struggles to preserve Indigenous lands and lives–and of how we go home.
What We Learned
Two Generations Reflect on Tsimshian Education and the Day Schools
by Helen Raptis
The legacy of residential schools has haunted Canadians, yet little is known about the day and public schools where most Indigenous children were sent to be educated.
In What We Learned, two generations of Tsimshian students – elders born in the 1930s and 1940s and middle-aged adults born in the 1950s and 1960s – add their recollections of attending day schools in northwestern British Columbia to contemporary discussions of Indigenous schooling in Canada. Their stories also invite readers to consider traditional Indigenous views of education that conceive of learning as a lifelong experience that takes place across multiple contexts.
Atiqput
Inuit Oral History and Project Naming
by Carol Payne, Beth Greenhorn, Deborah Kigjugalik Webster, Christina Williamson
A multigenerational discussion of culture, history, and naming centring on archival photographs of Inuit whose names were previously unrecorded.
“Our names—Atiqput—are very meaningful. They are our identification. They are our Spirits. We are named after what’s in the sky for strength, what’s in the water … the land, body parts. Every name is attached to every part of our body and mind. Yes, every name is alive. Every name has a meaning. Much of our names have been misspelled and many of them have lost their meanings forever. Our Project Naming has been about identifying Inuit, who became nameless over the years, just “unidentified eskimos …” With Project Naming, we have put Inuit meanings back in the pictures, back to life.” Piita Irniq
For over two decades, Inuit collaborators living across Inuit Nunangat and in the South have returned names to hundreds of previously anonymous Inuit seen in historical photographs held by Library and Archives Canada as part of Project Naming. This innovative photo-based history research initiative was established by the Inuit school Nunavut Sivuniksavut and the national archive.
Atiqput celebrates Inuit naming practices and through them honours Inuit culture, history, and storytelling. Narratives by Inuit elders, including Sally Kate Webster, Piita Irniq, Manitok Thompson, Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, and David Serkoak, form the heart of the book, as they reflect on naming traditions and the intergenerational conversations spurred by the photographic archive. Other contributions present scholarly insights and research projects that extend Project Naming’s methodology, interspersed with pictorial essays by the artist Barry Pottle and the filmmaker Asinnajaq.
Through oral testimony and photography, Atiqput rewrites the historical record created by settler societies and challenges a legacy of colonial visualization. This book contains 103 photos, duotone throughout.
readings on migration, belonging, and community.
Beyond the Gallery’s own book, we invite you to explore a selection of recommended readings on migration, belonging, and community.These are books that inspire reflection and create space for learning—whether in the classroom, at home, or in your own reading life.Together, they expand the conversation, offering both knowledge and inspiration for those who wish to better understand migration in all its dimensions.
The West End
A Magical Place Created By Giants
by Dr. Frank S. Sarlo
The West End, A Magical Place Created by Giants, is a heartfelt tribute to the vibrant and resilient community of the West End in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. This richly illustrated book, featuring sketches by Gene Ubriaco, delves into the historical, cultural, and personal stories that shaped this unique neighborhood. It highlights the remarkable achievements of its residents, including hockey legends Phil and Tony Esposito, businessman Geno F. Francolini, and author Frank G. Paci. Through vivid memories and personal anecdotes, Sarlo captures the essence of a community built by immigrants who overcame immense challenges to create a thriving, supportive neighbourhood.
Home
A Sense of Belonging
by Dr. Ardavan Eizadirad and Natalie Royer
Home: A Sense of Belonging is a heartwarming and interactive exploration of what home truly means. This beautifully crafted workbook invites readers to reflect on home as more than just a physical place—it is a feeling, a memory, and a connection to people and experiences. With its inclusive and personal approach, Home: A Sense of Belonging reminds readers that home is unique to everyone—it’s shaped by our cultures, our families, and our experiences. The book is both a celebration of diversity and a powerful tool for self-reflection, making it perfect for classrooms, families, and community discussions. Through its thought-provoking questions and affirming message, this book helps readers appreciate their own sense of home while fostering empathy and understanding for others. A must-read for anyone looking to explore the deeper meanings of belonging, identity, and connection.