Winner- 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for English-Language
NonfictionMembers of Eli Baxter's generation are the last of the hunting
and gathering societies living on Turtle Island. They are also among the
last fluent speakers of the Anishinaabay language known as
Anishinaabaymowin.Aki-wayn-zih is a story about the land and its
spiritual relationship with the Anishinaabayg, from the beginning of
their life on Miss-koh-tay-sih Minis (Turtle Island) to the present day.
Baxter writes about Anishinaabay life before European contact, his
childhood memories of trapping, hunting, and fishing with his family on
traditional lands in Treaty 9 territory, and his personal experience
surviving the residential school system. Examining how Anishinaabay
Kih-kayn-daa-soh-win (knowledge) is an elemental concept embedded in the
Anishinaabay language, Aki-wayn-zih explores history, science, math,
education, philosophy, law, and spiritual teachings, outlining the
cultural significance of language to Anishinaabay identity. Recounting
traditional Ojibway legends in their original language, fables in which
moral virtues double as survival techniques, and detailed guidelines for
expertly trapping or ensnaring animals, Baxter reveals how the
residential school system shaped him as an individual, transformed his
family, and forever disrupted his reserve community and those like
it.Through spiritual teachings, historical accounts, and
autobiographical anecdotes, Aki-wayn-zih offers a new form of
storytelling from the Anishinaabay point of view.
