Born in a log cabin during a raging blizzard on Indian Brook Reserve in
1938, Mi'kmaw elder Daniel N. Paul rose to the top of a Canadian society
that denied his people's civilization. When he was named to the Order of
Canada, his citation called him a "powerful and passionate advocate for
social justice and the eradication of racial discrimination." His Order
of Nova Scotia honour said he "gives a voice to his people by revealing
a past that the standard histories have chosen to ignore."
But long before the acclaim, there was the Indian Agent denying food to
his begging mother. There was the education system that taught him his
people were savages. There was the Department of Indian Affairs that
frustrated his work to bring justice to his people.
His landmark book We Were Not the Savages exposed the brutalities of the
collision between European and Native American civilizations from a
Mi'kmaq perspective. The book sold tens of thousands of copies around
the world and inspired others to learn history from an indigenous point
of view.
He shone a light on Halifax founder Edward Cornwallis through newspaper
columns and public debates over two decades, calling on Nova Scotia to
stop honouring the man whose scalping proclamations were an act of
genocide against the Mi'kmaq.
Now, for the first time, here is the full story of his personal journey
of transformation, a story that will inspire Canadians to recognize and
respect their First Nations as equal and enlightened civilizations.
