Paying the Land

Fantastic documentary graphic novel giving voice to the Dene people of Canada's Northwest. A history of stealing land, of stealing kids, of erasing culture, of damaging a people and a people's resilience, which once was their ultimate strength. There's hope in here too. But it always feels so hard to hold onto that, when confronted with the downward spiral that yesterday's colonization and today's resource extraction have inflicted upon the original inhabitants.

This graphic novel is just excellent. Truly, I haven't read a book by Joe Sacco that isn't. This book is both a chronology and issue based overview of the Dene People of the Northwest Territories in Canada. I'd recommend it if you're interested in First Nations issues or discussions surrounding environmentalism. It has deeply grim moments, particularly outlining the Residential School period in Canada. But there's hope too. There is a very large cast of characters in this book, and I did have trouble keeping track of them at times, but the author is great about labeling and mentioning when a person previously popped up in the book.