Wînipêk
Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $33.80
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Niigaan Sinclair
-
Written by:
-
Niigaan Sinclair
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Winner of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction • Named a Best Book of 2024 by Audible, Spotify, and Winnipeg Free Press • One of CBC's Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2024
From ground zero of this country's most important project: reconciliation.
Niigaan Sinclair has been called provocative, revolutionary, and one of this country's most influential thinkers on the issues impacting Indigenous cultures, communities, and reconciliation in Canada. In his debut collection of stories, observations, and thoughts about Winnipeg, the place he calls "ground zero" of Canada's future, read about the complex history and contributions of this place alongside the radical solutions to injustice and violence found here, presenting solutions for a country that has forgotten principles of treaty and inclusivity. It is here, in the place where Canada began—where the land, water, people, and animals meet— that a path "from the centre" is happening for all to see.
At a crucial and fragile moment in Canada's long history with Indigenous peoples, one of our most essential writers begins at the centre, capturing a web spanning centuries of community, art, and resistance.
Based on years' worth of columns, Niigaan Sinclair delivers a defining essay collection on the resilience of Indigenous peoples. Here, we meet the creators, leaders, and everyday people preserving the beauty of their heritage one day at a time. But we also meet the ugliest side of colonialism, the Indian Act, and the communities who suffer most from its atrocities.
Sinclair uses the story of Winnipeg to illuminate the reality of Indigenous life all over what is called Canada. This is a book that demands change and celebrates those fighting for it, that reminds us of what must be reconciled and holds accountable those who must do the work. It's a book that reminds us of the power that comes from loving a place, even as that place is violently taken away from you, and the magic of fighting your way back to it.
You may also enjoy...
-
Who We Are
- Four Questions For a Life and a Nation
- Written by: Murray Sinclair, Sara Sinclair, Niigaan Sinclair
- Narrated by: Murray Sinclair, Niigaan Sinclair, Shelagh Rogers
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judge, senator, and activist. Father, grandfather, and friend. This is Murray Sinclair’s story—and the story of a nation—in his own words, an oral history that forgoes the trappings of the traditionally written memoir to center Indigenous ways of knowledge and storytelling. As Canada moves forward into the future of Reconciliation, one of its greatest leaders guides us to ask the most important and difficult question we can ask of ourselves: Who are we?
-
-
Hidden gem
- By vj on 2024-11-04
Written by: Murray Sinclair, and others
-
Canada's Indigenous Constitution
- Written by: John Borrows
- Narrated by: John Borrows
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Canada's Indigenous Constitution reflects on the nature and sources of law in Canada, beginning with the conviction that the Canadian legal system has helped to engender the high level of wealth and security enjoyed by people across the country. However, longstanding disputes about the origins, legitimacy, and applicability of certain aspects of the legal system have led John Borrows to argue that Canada's constitution is incomplete without a broader acceptance of Indigenous legal traditions.
Written by: John Borrows
-
Becoming Kin
- An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future
- Written by: Patty Krawec, Nick Estes - foreword
- Narrated by: Patty Krawec
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home." Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps listeners see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer.
-
-
A Wise Author, Wisdom Filled Book
- By Amazon Customer on 2024-10-13
Written by: Patty Krawec, and others
-
Seven Fallen Feathers
- Written by: Tanya Talaga
- Narrated by: Michaela Washburn
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1966, 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack froze to death on the railway tracks after running away from residential school. An inquest was called, and four recommendations were made to prevent another tragedy. None of those recommendations were applied. More than a quarter of a century later, from 2000 to 2011, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave home and live in a foreign and unwelcoming city.
-
-
Essential reading for Canadians
- By Blayne Beacham on 2018-09-13
Written by: Tanya Talaga
-
True Reconciliation
- How to Be a Force for Change
- Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Narrated by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within business communities, and when having conversations with people. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step.
-
-
A must read for Canadians
- By Vicky Wilson on 2023-05-24
Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
-
Reclaiming Two-Spirits
- Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America
- Written by: Gregory Smithers, Raven E. Heavy Runner - foreword
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reclaiming Two-Spirits decolonizes the history of gender and sexuality in Native North America. It honors the generations of Indigenous people who had the foresight to take essential aspects of their cultural life and spiritual beliefs underground in order to save them.
Written by: Gregory Smithers, and others
-
Who We Are
- Four Questions For a Life and a Nation
- Written by: Murray Sinclair, Sara Sinclair, Niigaan Sinclair
- Narrated by: Murray Sinclair, Niigaan Sinclair, Shelagh Rogers
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judge, senator, and activist. Father, grandfather, and friend. This is Murray Sinclair’s story—and the story of a nation—in his own words, an oral history that forgoes the trappings of the traditionally written memoir to center Indigenous ways of knowledge and storytelling. As Canada moves forward into the future of Reconciliation, one of its greatest leaders guides us to ask the most important and difficult question we can ask of ourselves: Who are we?
-
-
Hidden gem
- By vj on 2024-11-04
Written by: Murray Sinclair, and others
-
Canada's Indigenous Constitution
- Written by: John Borrows
- Narrated by: John Borrows
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Canada's Indigenous Constitution reflects on the nature and sources of law in Canada, beginning with the conviction that the Canadian legal system has helped to engender the high level of wealth and security enjoyed by people across the country. However, longstanding disputes about the origins, legitimacy, and applicability of certain aspects of the legal system have led John Borrows to argue that Canada's constitution is incomplete without a broader acceptance of Indigenous legal traditions.
Written by: John Borrows
-
Becoming Kin
- An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future
- Written by: Patty Krawec, Nick Estes - foreword
- Narrated by: Patty Krawec
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home." Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps listeners see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer.
-
-
A Wise Author, Wisdom Filled Book
- By Amazon Customer on 2024-10-13
Written by: Patty Krawec, and others
-
Seven Fallen Feathers
- Written by: Tanya Talaga
- Narrated by: Michaela Washburn
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1966, 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack froze to death on the railway tracks after running away from residential school. An inquest was called, and four recommendations were made to prevent another tragedy. None of those recommendations were applied. More than a quarter of a century later, from 2000 to 2011, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave home and live in a foreign and unwelcoming city.
-
-
Essential reading for Canadians
- By Blayne Beacham on 2018-09-13
Written by: Tanya Talaga
-
True Reconciliation
- How to Be a Force for Change
- Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Narrated by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within business communities, and when having conversations with people. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step.
-
-
A must read for Canadians
- By Vicky Wilson on 2023-05-24
Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
-
Reclaiming Two-Spirits
- Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America
- Written by: Gregory Smithers, Raven E. Heavy Runner - foreword
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reclaiming Two-Spirits decolonizes the history of gender and sexuality in Native North America. It honors the generations of Indigenous people who had the foresight to take essential aspects of their cultural life and spiritual beliefs underground in order to save them.
Written by: Gregory Smithers, and others
-
Indigenous Writes
- A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada
- Written by: Chelsea Vowel
- Narrated by: Brianne Tucker
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are you familiar with the terms listed above? In Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel, legal scholar, teacher, and intellectual, opens an important dialogue about these (and more) concepts and the wider social beliefs associated with the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. In 31 essays, Chelsea explores the Indigenous experience from the time of contact to the present, through five categories - Terminology of Relationships; Culture and Identity; Myth-Busting; State Violence; and Land, Learning, Law, and Treaties.
-
-
MUCH Better as a hard copy!
- By Julie Rose on 2021-08-15
Written by: Chelsea Vowel
-
The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings
- Written by: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
- Narrated by: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover indigenous wisdom for a life well lived in "The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings." Based on ancient teachings from the Anishinaabe / Ojibwe people, this spiritual translation of the sacred laws guides us toward Mino-bimaadiziwin, "the good life" – a life of harmony, free from contradiction or conflict.
-
-
Absolutely loved this audible!
- By Jaclyn on 2024-06-20
Written by: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
-
The North-West Is Our Mother
- The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Metis Nation
- Written by: Jean Teillet
- Narrated by: Jean Teillet
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a missing chapter in the narrative of Canada’s Indigenous peoples - the story of the Métis Nation, a new Indigenous people descended from both First Nations and Europeans. Their story begins in the last decade of the 18th century in the Canadian North-West. Within 20 years the Métis proclaimed themselves a nation and won their first battle. Within 40 years they were famous throughout North America for their military skills, their nomadic life and their buffalo hunts.
-
-
Fantastic historical account that all Canadians should be acquainted with.
- By Derek on 2021-08-10
Written by: Jean Teillet
-
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask
- Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings
- Written by: Mary Siisip Geniusz, Wendy Makoons Geniusz - editor
- Narrated by: Wendy Makoons Geniusz
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information, she shares in Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask. Geniusz gained much of the knowledge she writes about from her years as an oshkaabewis, a traditionally trained apprentice, and as friend to the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman from the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan and a scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of native ethnobotany.
-
-
LOVE this book!
- By Jaclyn on 2024-04-26
Written by: Mary Siisip Geniusz, and others
-
Unbroken
- My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
- Written by: Angela Sterritt
- Narrated by: Angela Sterritt
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unbroken is an extraordinary work of memoir and investigative journalism focusing on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, written by an award-winning Gitxsan journalist who survived life on the streets against all odds.
-
-
Informative and powerful
- By Robin Anderson on 2023-09-15
Written by: Angela Sterritt
-
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act
- Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality
- Written by: Bob Joseph
- Narrated by: Sage Isaac
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. The Indian Act, after 141 years, continues to shape, control, and constrain the lives and opportunities of Indigenous peoples, and is at the root of many lasting stereotypes.
-
-
Essentially Canadian - Must Read.
- By Marcel Molin on 2019-08-23
Written by: Bob Joseph
-
Pollution Is Colonialism
- Written by: Max Liboiron
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Liboiron presents a framework for understanding scientific research methods as practices that can align with or against colonialism. Focusing on plastic pollution, the book models an anticolonial scientific practice aligned with Indigenous, particularly Metis, concepts of land, ethics, and relations. Liboiron draws on their work in the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research—an anticolonial science laboratory—to illuminate how pollution is not a symptom of capitalism but a violent enactment of colonial land relations that claim access to Indigenous land.
Written by: Max Liboiron
-
The Serviceberry
- Written by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
-
-
An excellent read!
- By Gardener Phyl on 2024-11-19
Written by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
-
Unreconciled
- Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance
- Written by: Jesse Wente
- Narrated by: Jesse Wente
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Brilliant Must Listen/Read for all Canadians
- By Cass on 2022-02-04
Written by: Jesse Wente
-
Truth Telling
- Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada
- Written by: Michelle Good
- Narrated by: Megan Tooley
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With authority and insight, Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good’s personal experience and knowledge. From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening.
-
-
Excellent information
- By Deborah E Harcus on 2023-06-15
Written by: Michelle Good
-
Mamaskatch
- A Cree Coming of Age
- Written by: Darrel J. McLeod
- Narrated by: William C. Wikcemna Yamni ake Wanzi
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family's history. In shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family, and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. Bertha taught him to be fiercely proud of his heritage and to listen to the birds that would return to watch over and guide him at key junctures of his life. However, in a spiral of events, Darrel's mother turned wild and unstable, and their home life became chaotic.
-
-
Engaging Memoir
- By Trish on 2018-10-10
Written by: Darrel J. McLeod
-
Otherlands
- A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
- Written by: Thomas Halliday
- Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life.
-
-
Amazing and humbling.
- By Geneviève on 2023-02-22
Written by: Thomas Halliday
What the critics say
"A deep dive into the city of Winnipeg through the lives and worlds of its original inhabitants, Wînipêk is a necessary and important book: profound, difficult and expansive. Niigaan Sinclair accomplishes the near impossible by creating a compelling and nuanced whole out of a series of newspaper columns. Wînipêk unearths histories of colonial violence, grounded in the wisdom and experiences of those who survived and survive it."
—Jordan Abel, Roby Maynard, and Mary Soderstrom, the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction peer assessment committee
“Weaving together a quilt of his work in journalism, Wînipêk is at once eloquent, powerful, thematically rich, and a beacon on this path to reconciliation.”
—David A. Robertson, author of The Theory of Crows
“If you want to understand how Canada came to be and how a reconciled future might be charted, you’ve got to understand Winnipeg. To understand Winnipeg, you have to read Niigaan Sinclair.”
—Shawn Micallef, author of Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness and Stroll
What listeners say about Wînipêk
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-08-10
important learning for all Canadians
Niigaan Sinclair presented thought provoking information that sparked important conversation while we listened together. His insights, presented in a frank but non judgemental way, invited us to be reflective and motivated us to become better allies. we will listen, learn, commit and act.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joan Jack
- 2024-06-21
Truth - uncomfortable truth
An absolutely must listen. as an indigenous person myself, my experience was affirmed and I also learned so much!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!