Aboriginal Peoples

Anyone living on reserve lands within the GVPL service area is eligible for full service at no charge. This applies to the following bands: Beecher Bay, Esquimalt, Songhees, Tsartlip (South Saanich Indian Reserve) and Tsawout (East Saanich Indian Reserve).

First Nations Communities Read

First Nation Communities Read is an annual reading program that encourages family literacy, storytelling, and information sharing. The program highlights books written and/or illustrated by a First Nation, Métis, or Inuit creator; or that contains First Nation, Métis, or Inuit content. For the 2011-2012 year, the program will focus on titles for children. In 2013, titles will be chosen from books for young adults and adults.

The 2011-2012 selection:

Fatty Legs: A True Story  written by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak Fenton, illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes, and published by Annick .

Fatty Legs: A True Story is a memoir based on a 60-year-old secret. The book introduces eight-year-old Olemaun (later known as Margaret) Pokiak, an Inuit girl from Banks Island, Northwest Territories. Desperate to learn to read, she excitedly embraces the idea of going to a distant residential school, even in the face of her family’s strong reluctance to send her. Fatty Legs deftly interweaves themes of independence and human dignity with those of oppression and bullying. The result is a rich, spirited, and inspirational account of Olemaun/Margaret’s two years in Aklavik.

Jury members commended Fatty Legs: A True Story for adding an Inuit voice and experience to the residential school record in a text that is easily accessible to readers across generations. The selection was made from 29 titles submitted by 13 publishers from across Canada.

For more information and to see a listing of titles from previous years, please visit First Nation Communities Read.

First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast

Staff Picks in Our Catalogue

Aboriginal Artists on the web

20th Century

Norval Morrisseau (Anishinaabe)
Bill Reid (Haida)
Mungo Martin (Kwakwaka’wakw)
Charles Edenshaw (Haida)
Willie Seaweed (Kwakwaka’wakw)
Pitseolak Ashoona (Inuit)
Gerald Tailfeathers (Blood)