Wînipêk

Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre

By: Niigaan Sinclair

Narrated by: Niigaan Sinclair

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Winner of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction • Named a Best Book of 2024 by Audible, Spotify, and Winnipeg Free Press • One of CBC's Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2024

From ground zero of this country's most important project: reconciliation.

Niigaan Sinclair has been called provocative, revolutionary, and one of this country's most influential thinkers on the issues impacting Indigenous cultures, communities, and reconciliation in Canada. In his debut collection of stories, observations, and thoughts about Winnipeg, the place he calls "ground zero" of Canada's future, read about the complex history and contributions of this place alongside the radical solutions to injustice and violence found here, presenting solutions for a country that has forgotten principles of treaty and inclusivity. It is here, in the place where Canada began—where the land, water, people, and animals meet— that a path "from the centre" is happening for all to see.

At a crucial and fragile moment in Canada's long history with Indigenous peoples, one of our most essential writers begins at the centre, capturing a web spanning centuries of community, art, and resistance.

Based on years' worth of columns, Niigaan Sinclair delivers a defining essay collection on the resilience of Indigenous peoples. Here, we meet the creators, leaders, and everyday people preserving the beauty of their heritage one day at a time. But we also meet the ugliest side of colonialism, the Indian Act, and the communities who suffer most from its atrocities.

Sinclair uses the story of Winnipeg to illuminate the reality of Indigenous life all over what is called Canada. This is a book that demands change and celebrates those fighting for it, that reminds us of what must be reconciled and holds accountable those who must do the work. It's a book that reminds us of the power that comes from loving a place, even as that place is violently taken away from you, and the magic of fighting your way back to it.

©2024 Niigaan Sinclair (P)2024 McClelland & Stewart

Critic reviews

"A deep dive into the city of Winnipeg through the lives and worlds of its original inhabitants, Wînipêk is a necessary and important book: profound, difficult and expansive. Niigaan Sinclair accomplishes the near impossible by creating a compelling and nuanced whole out of a series of newspaper columns. Wînipêk unearths histories of colonial violence, grounded in the wisdom and experiences of those who survived and survive it."
—Jordan Abel, Roby Maynard, and Mary Soderstrom, the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction peer assessment committee

“Weaving together a quilt of his work in journalism, Wînipêk is at once eloquent, powerful, thematically rich, and a beacon on this path to reconciliation.”
—David A. Robertson, author of The Theory of Crows

“If you want to understand how Canada came to be and how a reconciled future might be charted, you’ve got to understand Winnipeg. To understand Winnipeg, you have to read Niigaan Sinclair.”
—Shawn Micallef, author of Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness and Stroll

Frank yet loving story centred in Winnipeg, yet tracing the indigenous experience from past, to present, and its future.

The author's voice lends warmth and authenticity that easily pops the bubbles of privilege and ignorance.

This book provides a series of short vignettes that factually report on Canada's, Manitoba's and Winnipeg's oppressive history - which, fuelled by racism, continues to the present day. The book also illustrates the amazing strength, intelligence, culture, knowledge and ideas of the peoples who suffered so much intergenerational harm.

Despite thus, and thanks to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and their own patience and beliefs, these peoples can think deeply to protect the future of generations yet to come.

It is time for all Canadian individuals and institutions to recognize, honour and embrace our indigenous brothers and sisters.

My takeaways from this book:

These peoples are Canadians that are worthy of our be admiration and celebration. Indeed, they are All Our Relations.

I personally commit to reconciliation, in words, actions and deeds - and add my voice to demand our governments and institutions do the same.

It's about time - long overdue.