We need better educated and positioned allies, and literature is one way to make this happen. - Cherie Dimaline

There must always be connection to nation when we tell stories. Taking a pan-Indigenous approach doesn’t work. Taking a colonial viewpoint doesn’t work. This changes the narrative of specific nations and is highly problematic. It leads to misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and stereotypes.

We go to the schools and they leach the dreams from where our ancestors hid them, in the honeycombs of slushy marrow buried in our bones. And us? Well, we join our ancestors, hoping we left enough dreams behind for the next generation to stumble across. (p90)

"Sometimes you risk everything for a life worth living, even if you're not the one that'll be alive to see it." (p152)