There's a little character in there, a secondary character Lily who haemorrhages to death from tuberculosis. And that was the first story that my mother told me. I first started giving consideration to residential school trauma as a child because my mother was a survivor. Those kinds of things were cathartic to be able to write about. I represented survivors for many years. Before that, when I aged out of foster care because I was a Sixties Scoop kid, many of my own personal experiences were quite similar to some of the characters in the book - struggling to find a way when you're unceremoniously dumped from the care of some agency.

What has writing creatively about the impact of residential schools done for you over the years? It is entirely about telling a story and being able to convince a decision-maker that your version of the story is the strongest version. You became a lawyer first, but that is a kind of a storytelling job. Observing, considering and recording has been a huge part of my life since I was a child, and that's what we do as writers. I was one of those funny little kids walking around with a little journal under my arm when I was 11, 12 years old. I met my champion Christian Allaire, and he is just a lovely person, somebody who I feel is in tune with the book and feels the essence of the book, which I think is critical for a champion.

Just before the Canada Reads2022 line-up was announced, Good sat down with CBC Books to share more of her insights on stories, truth-telling and writing her first novel. The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan from March 28-31st. They make their way in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, often confronted by systemic racism and always on the run from the trauma of their childhood.įive Little Indianswill be defended on Canada Reads2022 by Ojibway author and Vogue fashion writer Christian Allaire. Kenny, Clara, Howie, Maisie and Lucy are the five characters that comprise Five Little Indians. Released, escaped or rescued from a remote, church-run residential school as teenagers, the five friends enter a hostile world with few life skills or resources. In 2020, she published her first novel, Five Little Indians, a national bestseller and multiple award-winning book that aims to deepen understanding of not just what happened in those schools, but what came after. In her 40s, she started practicing law and telling the stories of residential school survivors in courtrooms. Good is a Cree writer and lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. As a kid, she remembers the horrifying stories her mother would share about residential school, and they'd become the drive for her life's work. Not only does Michelle Good understand the power of storytelling, she knows exactly how she wants to wield it.

Five little indians book