Mary Jane Logan McCallum & Adele Perry

Mary Jane Logan McCallum & Adele Perry, Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City

Structures of Indifference situates the life and death of Brian Sinclair within the complicated settler colonial histories of the geographic area that came to be known as Manitoba. Sinclair was an Anishinaabe man who died after waiting 34 hours unseen and untreated in a hospital emergency room in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In the media coverage that followed and the subsequent inquest, how Sinclair lived his life went largely unexplored and instead racist stereotypes about Indigenous people prevailed. Structures of Indifference serves as a corrective to the erasure of Sinclair and the denial of the violent roles played by racism and settler colonialism in Canada’s so-called universal health care system. Structures of Indifference is an exemplar for all historians. It illustrates the importance of writing collaboratively, speaking back to settler colonialism, and making our work accessible. Mary Jane McCallum and Adele Perry’s monograph serves as an exceptional standard of rigorous research and offers important analytical contributions to the field.

Honourable Mention

Allan Downey, The Creator’s Game: Lacrosse, Identity, and Indigenous Nationhood

In The Creator’s Game, Allan Downey examines the history of colonialism in Canada, from an Indigenous perspective, through the evolution of an Indigenous sport: lacrosse. The unique perspective of the author, a member of the Dakelh Carrier First Nation and a lacrosse player, offers new insight into the complex relationships between identity and colonization. The Creator’s Game is an excellent example of the persistence and vitality of Indigenous communities and cultures. It offers a remarkable combination of rigorous research with an original and innovative narrative structure, illustrating the possibilities of a decolonizing approach to Indigenous history.