Acclaimed Gitxsan journalist Angela Sterritt will be stopping in Prince George to speak about her debut memoir Unbroken, which is both her own story and a work of investigative journalism about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Unbroken shows how colonialism and racism led to a society where Sterritt struggled to survive as a young person, and where the lives of Indigenous women and girls are ignored and devalued.
“My story's important for people to read, but I really want people to not let that take away the focus of the main part of the book, which is about those women and girls who didn't survive violence, and who are still missing and whose murders are still unsolved,” explains Sterritt.
She noted that having these conversations is incredibly important, as only two recommendations out of the 230 from the national Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls have been completed.
“That sends a strong message out about how much do we matter as Indigenous women?”
As well as visiting Artspace in Prince George on June 24 for a conversation with CBC journalist Betsy Trumpener, Sterritt will also be visiting her home territory during a stop at the Hazelton Public library on June 21.
Sterritt noted that these are by far the most important stops on her book tour.
“It's incredibly important to bring that story to my own territory, as well as Lheidli T'enneh territory because not only is this an area where there's been a tremendous amount of violence against Indigenous women and girls, and women and girls in general, but there's also been tremendous amounts of oral history, Indigenous law, Gitxsan law and stories of how strong and powerful and adaptive and creative we are as Gitxsan people.”
She said it’s important to shine a light on colonial violence and to hold institutions to account but it’s equally important to shed a light on the incredible value that indigenous people hold.
“A lot of the book is about Gitxsan people, and about my family's history, and where we come from as Gitzsan people where we are today as Gitxsan people,” said Sterritt, adding that her visit to Hazelton will be incredibly emotional.
“My elder and also my cousin, Jane Smith, translated all the chapter titles for me and so she's going to be at the events in Hazleton and then I'm really hoping that the event in Prince George with Betsy Trumpener will shed light on the strength people of Lheidli T'enneh not just on the trauma,” said Sterritt.
“I hope that the conversation is strength based, and people walking away with a sense of hope and an agency and encouragement to do something.”
Sterritt said she wanted her book to dispel the myths that Indigenous people in this region are just filled with trauma and despair.
“I think it's very counter productive for non-Indigenous people to highlight our stories like that, because it paints that stereotype. It paints us in one or two dimensions and it paints us as defeated or unable to to rise against oppression,” she said.
“What people have said about my book is that it does talk about colonial violence and holding some of those institutions to account, but it also is really about optimizing and empowering Indigenous people and settlers to do something about colonial violence, rather than just sit in the pain of it.”
Sterritt and Trumpener will speak about Unbroken at Books & Company's Artspace at 1685 Third Ave, on Saturday June 24 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. with a book singing to follow the conversation.
