Dr. Kim Anderson's book Life Stages and Native Women: Memories, Teachings and Story Medicine launched into Turtle Island and the world beyond this year.  It is a book many of us wish our parental figures would have read us growing up.
 
This fall, Dr. Anderson graced us with her presence for a book reading at the University of Guelph.  Throughout the hour, she stressed the importance of having reverence for women and the different things women bring at different points along the life stage continuum, as taught through Métis, Cree and Ojibway stories - also known as medicines that remind us of our strength.
 
Dr. Anderson's book is based on the oral histories of fourteen northern Algonquian elders from the prairies and Ontario, who generously passed on stories about the girls and women of their childhood communities during the mid-twentieth century.

On a larger scale, her book imparts theories from Ojibway life stage teachings, emphasizing that health and well-being are dependent on how well community members fulfill life stage roles and responsibilities, and that the Sacred Feminine, connecting with nature, and story are powerful healing forces in the decolonization and recovery of Aboriginal communities.
 
Dr. Kim Anderson is a Cree/Métis writer and educator.  She is recognized as an advocate of Indigenous women and has devoted her career to researching and writing about the health and well-being of Indigenous families.   Along with other published scholarly works, fiction and poetry, Dr.Anderson has authored the book A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood, and is the co-editor, with Bonita Lawrence, of Strong Women Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival.  She is currently an Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford.

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migrantmatters@cfru.ca