I hear my Native friends talk about working on healing from generational trauma. This book illustrates it.
A strong, dark, history of a Cree family which is common for many First Nations and Native American peoples. It opens with a suicide attempt. Edwin's mother tells him the family history in an attempt to give him the strength and determination to heal from his emotional scars. The story is not strictly linear, so there were a few times when I had to figure out if there was another child--especially since not all the characters were drawn with enough differentiation that I could be sure if someone at a younger age was the same as a character at an older age. But the despair is well communicated.
The ending is somewhat ambiguous; we are left to interpret meaning of the final picture and what Edwin's future choices will be.
I think this would be a good book for male teens, either because they are experiencing their own traumas and need a model for healing, or because their lives have been smoother and they need to gain some understanding of others.
One phrase stuck with me: when Edwin says "I thought we used to be savages" I felt it shows how our children pick up the dominant culture's beliefs if we don't deliberately counteract them.
This book is told from the point of view of the various males. It leaves me wondering where his mother found the strength to build a good life for herself. One of her sentences points the way (tho without the strong graphics to drive home the point): "Back then family was important. Community."
Since I had first read one of Robertson's stories for primary age children, I had expected it to be similar, but this is definitely beyond what they should be confronted with.
This was read in a print edition, not e-book. ( )

4.5 stars

In this graphic novel, Edwin learns from his mother the history, going back seven generations, of their family and his people, the First Nations Cree. We learn about fighting between the Cree and Blackfoot, then when smallpox hit, then the residential schools in the 1960s, where Edwin’s father and uncle attended.

Wow, this started off with a very powerful chapter, as Edwin tries to kill himself as his mother rushes to him in the hospital. Particularly powerful, again, with Edwin’s father and uncle at the residential school. It was a story of Edwin not only learning about the past, but having to come to terms with all of it and to forgive his father. It is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel, in colour. ( )

Though a little rough around the edges in story and art, this book offers a good overview of some of the hardships the Cree people have seen in the last two centuries and a glimpse of how that trauma is still echoing today. ( )