Memories. Some memories are elusive, fleeting, like a butterfly that touches down and is free until it is caught. Others are haunting. You’d rather forget them, but they won’t be forgotten. And some are always there. No matter where you are, they are there, too.
In this moving story of legacy and reclamation, two young sisters are taken from their home and family. Powerless in a broken system, April and Cheryl are separated and placed in different foster homes. Despite the distance, they remain close, even as their decisions threaten to divide them emotionally, culturally, and geographically. As one sister embraces her Métis identity, the other tries to leave it behind.
Will the sisters’ bond survive as they struggle to make their way in a society that is often indifferent, hostile, and violent?
The first edition of In Search of April Raintree, published in 1984, has since touched many generations of readers, becoming a Canadian school classic. In this edition, ten critical essays accompany one of the best-known texts by an Indigenous author in Canada.
Tabela de Conteúdo
Introduction
In Search of April Raintree
Critical Essays
Deploying Identity in the Face of Racism
- Margery Fee
The Problem of “Searching” For April Raintree
- Janice Acoose
Abuse and Violence: April Raintree’s Human Rights (if she had any)
- Agnes Grant
The Special Time
- Beatrice Culleton Mosionier
“What Constitutes a Meaningful Life?”: Identity Quest(ion)s in In Search of April Raintree
- Michael Creal
In Search of Cheryl Raintree, and Her Mother
- Jeanne Perreault
“Nothing But the Truth”: Discursive Transparency in Beatrice Culleton
- Helen Hoy
The Effect of Readers’ Responses on the Development of Aboriginal Literature in Canada: A Study of Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed, Beatrice Culleton’s In Search of April Raintree, and Richard Wagamese’s Keeper’n Me
- Jo-Ann Thom
“The Only Dirty Book”: The Rape of April Raintree
- Peter Cumming
The Limits of Sisterhood
- Heather Zwicker
Contributors
Sobre o autor
Heather Zwicker is associate professor of English at the University of Alberta. She locates her work at the crossroads of postcolonialism and cultural studies, with a particular focus on queer theory and feminisms. Her teaching interests include postcolonial theory and fiction, queer theory, feminist studies, and contemporary African, Canadian, and Northern Irish literature. Some of her recent publications include “Between Mater and Matter: Radical Novels by Republican Women” (Reclaiming Gender: Transgressive Identities in Modern Ireland. ed. Marilyn Cohen and Nancy Curtin, St. Martin’s Press, 1999), “Homosexuality in Zimbabwe” (Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. ed. George Haggerty, Garland Publishing, forthcoming), and “Gendered Troubles: Refiguring ‘Woman’ in Northern Ireland” (Genders, 1994).