Sean Bala reviewed All Our Relations by Tanya Talaga
Review of 'All Our Relations' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
"All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward" by Tanya Talaga is a deeply moving work. Based on the 2018 CBC Massey Lectures, Talaga (an indigenous journalist for the Toronto Star) looks at the brokenness of indigenous communities around the world. She argues that these communities lack the basic determinants of health and have gone through a violent process of dislocation and genocide of various degrees. I will admit that, as a white American, I did not have a deep grasp of indigenous issues before reading this book. But many of the themes discussed here (i.e., loss of community and culture, the effect of trauma, preservation of cultural memory, the importance of stories to identity) are ones that I have been thinking about for many years.
The first strength of these lectures is that they effectively connect the experience of Indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, …
"All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward" by Tanya Talaga is a deeply moving work. Based on the 2018 CBC Massey Lectures, Talaga (an indigenous journalist for the Toronto Star) looks at the brokenness of indigenous communities around the world. She argues that these communities lack the basic determinants of health and have gone through a violent process of dislocation and genocide of various degrees. I will admit that, as a white American, I did not have a deep grasp of indigenous issues before reading this book. But many of the themes discussed here (i.e., loss of community and culture, the effect of trauma, preservation of cultural memory, the importance of stories to identity) are ones that I have been thinking about for many years.
The first strength of these lectures is that they effectively connect the experience of Indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Scandinavia. This is insightful because it shows that the abominable treatment of indigenous peoples is not necessarily unique to one place but may be an inherent feature of modern, Western-style civilization and economy. The second strength is that the lectures lay out in stark, uncompromising terms the immense trauma of these communities. Though centered on Canada primarily, one cannot read this book or hear the lectures and turn a blind eye or close your ears. I still find myself struggling to process the level of dehumanization and violence in all forms.
While the book is excellent at describing the situation of Indigenous peoples, I think I would have like Talaga to describe a bit more about potential solutions. It could be the constraints of the Massey Lectures that limits this exploration. And perhaps the purpose is not necessarily to describe potential paths forward but to describe the problem and provide the overall route that needs to be taken. I recommend this highly as a gateway into thinking more about indigenous issues and the violence at the root of many societies towards their indigenous peoples. It definitely opened my eyes and has encouraged me to learn more about the topic.
