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Eatenonha
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Eatenonha

by Georges E. Sioui

Eatenonha is the Wendat word for love and respect for the Earth and Mother Nature. For many Native peoples and newcomers to North America, Canada is a motherland, an Eatenonha - a land where all can and should feel included, valued, and celebrated.

In Eatenonha, Georges Sioui presents the history of a group of Wendat known as the Seawi Clan and reveals the most honoured secrets possessed by his people, by all people who are Indigenous, and by those who understand and respect Indigenous ways of thinking and living. Providing a glimpse into the lives, ideology, and work of his family and ancestors, Sioui weaves a tale of the Wendat's sparsely documented historical trajectory and his family's experiences on a reserve.

Through an original retelling of the Indigenous commercial and social networks that existed in the northeast before European contact, the author explains that the Wendat Confederacy was at the geopolitical centre of a commonwealth based on peace, trade, and reciprocity. This network, he argues, was a true democracy.

Identifying Canada's first civilizations as the originators of modern democracy, Eatenonha represents a continuing quest to heal and educate all peoples through an Indigenous way of comprehending life and the world.

Contributors

Georges E. Sioui, author

Georges Sioui is a Huron-Wendat and a polyglot, poet, songwriter, and world-renowned speaker on the history, philosophy, spirituality, and education of Aboriginal peoples. Sioui is a retired professor at the University of Ottawa and has taught First Nations Studies at universities in Canada and the United States. He is the author of For an Amerindian Autohistory (MQUP, 1992), originally published as Pour une autohistoire amérindienne (Presses de l’Université Laval, 1991), The Hurons-Wendats (UBC Press, 2000), originally published as Les Hurons-Wendats (PUL, 1997), Histoires de Kanataha—Histories of Kanatha: Vues et contees—Seen and Told (U. of Ottawa Press, 2008) and most recently, Eatenonha: Native Roots of Modern Democracy (MQUP, 2019). He has been editor-in-chief of the Kanatha magazine, in Wendake, and of the Tawow magazine, in Ottawa. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Portugese, and he has a conversational level in German, Russian, and a few aboriginal languages.

Reviews

  • This timely contribution deserves serious attention from all researchers and educators interested in indigenous-settler relations. Highly recommended. - Choice
  • "Eatenonha" is a unique interweaving of self, family, First Nation, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas and elsewhere. - John Steckley, Humber College

Awards

  • Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2019

Rights Holder

Rights Holder: McGill-Queen's University Press

email: mqup@mcgill.ca

website: https://www.mqup.ca

rights available: World, excl. French

Additional Information

publication date: 09/12/2019

Original language of pub: English

Materials Available: finished book