Unreconciled is one hell of a good book.
Wente was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts in 2020, the only First Nations person to ever hold the position..
In February 2018 he was named the first Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen Office.
Best known for more than two decades spent as a columnist for CBC Radio\'s Metro Morning , he also worked at the Toronto International Film Festival for eleven years.
Born and raised in Toronto, his Family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is a member of the Serpent River First Nation.
About author(s): JESSE Wente is an Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster, and arts leader.
Peace between First Nations and the state of Canada can\'t be recovered through reconciliation--because no such relationship ever existed.
Wente explores and exposes the lies that Canada tells itself, unravels the two founding nations myth, and insists that the notion of reconciliation is not a realistic path forward.
Indeed, he argues that storytelling in all its forms is one of Indigenous peoples\' best weapons in the fight to reclaim their rightful place.
Through the lens of art, pop culture, and personal stories, and with disarming humour, he links his love of baseball and movies to such issues as cultural appropriation, Indigenous representation and identity, and Indigenous narrative sovereignty.
Wente analyzes and gives voice to the differences between Hollywood portrayals of Indigenous peoples and lived culture.
By exploring his family\'s history, including his grandmother\'s experience in residential school, and citing his own frequent incidents of racial profiling by police who\'d stop him on the streets, Wente unpacks the discrepancies between his personal identity and how non-Indigenous people view him.
As the child of an American father and an Anishinaabe mother, Wente grew up in Toronto with frequent visits to the reserve where his maternal relations lived.
It was just one of many incidents that formed Wente\'s understanding of what it means to be a modern Indigenous person in a society still overwhelmingly colonial in its attitudes and institutions.
He was playing softball as a child when the opposing team began to war-whoop when he was at bat.
Jesse Wente remembers the exact moment he realized that he was a certain kind of Indian--a stereotypical cartoon Indian.
Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put Truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples. --Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian and Sufferance A prominent Indigenous voice uncovers the lies and myths that affect relations between white and Indigenous peoples and the power of narrative to emphasize Truth over comfort.
Very powerful, and a joy to read.
Jesse Wente \'s narrative moves effortlessly from the personal to the historical to the contemporary.
Unreconciled is one hell of a good book
