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(Fort McMurray, AB – Sept. 1, 2022) – Join the It’s Time to Read Book Club in September as it explores Black Water, a memoir about intergenerational trauma and healing by David A. Robertson.
In this Governor General Award-Winning bestselling account, a son who grew up away from his Indigenous culture takes his Cree father on a trip to the family trapline and finds that revisiting the past not only heals old wounds but creates a new future.
Join the club and read Black Water in the lead up to National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. Sign up for an in-person opportunity to learn to bead an orange shirt pin with other book club members.
About the Book Club
Featuring the works and voices of Indigenous authors, the book club is a partnership of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) and the Wood Buffalo Regional Library (WBRL) and is part of ongoing efforts to build more understanding and awareness of Indigenous culture, history, and current issues.
Book club members regularly explore and discuss story themes and share thoughts through discussion forums, polls, and other methods. All are welcome to join; however, it is important to note that books may contain adult content, including but not limited to adult language and themes, and violence.
Interested in joining the book club? Visit participate.rmwb.ca/it-s-time-to-read for more information and to subscribe. Anyone can subscribe for updates.
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About Author David A. Robertson - Black Water
The son of a Cree father and a white mother, David A. Robertson grew up with virtually no awareness of his Indigenous roots. His father, Dulas—or Don, as he became known—lived on the trapline in the bush in Manitoba, only to be transplanted permanently to a house on the reserve, where he couldn't speak his language, Swampy Cree, in school with his friends unless in secret. David's mother, Beverly, grew up in a small Manitoba town that had no Indigenous people until Don arrived as the new United Church minister. They married and had three sons, whom they raised unconnected to their Indigenous history.
David grew up without his father's teachings or any knowledge of his early experiences. All he had was “blood memory": the pieces of his identity ingrained in the fabric of his DNA, pieces that he has spent a lifetime putting together. It has been the journey of a young man becoming closer to who he is, who his father is and who they are together, culminating in a trip back to the trapline to reclaim their connection to the land.
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