Becoming Kin

An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

By: Patty Krawec, Nick Estes - foreword

Narrated by: Patty Krawec

The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home."

Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps listeners see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Settler colonialism tried to force us into one particular way of living, but the old ways of kinship can help us imagine a different future. Krawec asks, What would it look like to remember that we are all related? How might we become better relatives to the land, to one another, and to Indigenous movements for solidarity? Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, Krawec crafts a stunning, forceful call to "unforget" our history.

This remarkable sojourn through Native and settler history, myth, identity, and spirituality helps us retrace our steps and pick up what was lost along the way: chances to honor rather than violate treaties, to see the land as a relative rather than a resource, and to unravel the history we have been taught.

©2022 Patty Krawec (P)2022 Tantor

Fantastic

The content in this book is important to heal ourselves, our nation, and more importantly return to what we threw away in human society.

Best book I’ve read this year!

As an Afro-indigenous person this book spoke to me on so many levels. This book is beneficial for Natives and non-natives alike to show how we can become each others kin and support each other. Beautifully written.

Enlightening!!!

My ancestors were settlers. John Alden and Miles Standish are my 10th and 11th great grandfathers. When I recently learned this through my mothers research of our ancestry, I had to learn more. What I learned has made me very sad! They were awful people!! Why they saw other humans as less than is mind boggling.

What the story shared, the raw and honest truth about what has happened and continues to happen to the native people of America was information I needed to hear.

I love how she shared how we can make a difference. Now I will seek out local native events and volunteer.

I cannot undo the horrific things my ancestors did, but I can make a difference now. In doing so I will continue to learn, grow, and hopefully be able to make a change.

Thank you for writing this book, it’s information we all need to know!

Excellent and enlightening

Beautifully written, well researched and very actionable. The book is a succinct dive into history of how colonial settler culture has systematically subjugated Native Americans and Black Americans. It’s also a great guide for what to do about it. The book also references other interesting books that can help you explore further

Lovely narration, much needed content!

Patty speaks so poetically in such a seemingly effortless and justifiably unapologetic way. I was required to read/listen to this book as a part of a college class, but it's exceeded my expectations of how much I would enjoy it. Patty made me think beyond ways in which even I thought I was advanced and aware of things being a part of the BIPOC community myself. Thank you for this Patty.

Thank you for turning my world upside down!

Without the least bit of self righteousness Krawec remarkably takes the listener on a journey of self-examination and discovery related to what it means to become kin and how to get there. The first step? Stop and listen.
Throughout my AP senior English class fifty years ago, we discussed “man’s inhumanity to man” as exemplified in The Grapes of Wrath, never touching on the inhumanity in the Joad family’s sense of entitlement to the land “because grandpa had killed Indians for it.” I will do better in my listening for ways in which I can do better.

Beautifully written and thoroughly thought provoking

I had been waiting to read this for awhile and I was so engrossed in it I finished it in a couple days! Everyone should read this book!

Unforget The Past?!?

Insightful view on how to understand the past of settler domination of the indigenous lives of North American yet look to the future in a way to be kin to one another.

Well done

Really enjoyed this book. The narration was good and easy to understand. A very moving piece of history.

Connecting to my ancestors to stand up for my kin

This book informed, challenged and entertained me. I have a better understanding of indigenous nations I knew by name alone, and also got action items about how to better advocate and ally for my own tribe and other marginalized communities.