“Valley of the Birdtail” earning awards and nominations

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A book telling the story of two Westman communities — one largely made up of European settler descendants and one First Nation reserve — has been the focus of awards and accolades since it was published in 2022.

“Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation,” written by authors Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii), examines the communities of Rossburn and Waywayseecappo First Nation, located about 150 kilometres northwest of Brandon, and how, despite facing similar socio-economic conditions, the two communities have seen very different outcomes.

Since the book was published, its authors have travelled around Canada speaking about it. A copy has even made it’s way into the hands of King Charles III. More recently, it won two prizes at the 2023 Quebec Writers’ Federaton literary awards.

“We’re also nominated for the Kobzar Prize, run by the Canadian Ukrainian Foundation, and we’re long listed for the First Nation Communities Read Award, which tells me that the book is being widely read by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, which was also once seemed like a naive dream,” Sniderman told the Sun.

Its prizes and awards, which have come in from Manitoba, Quebec, Montana and Nebraska, has led him to believe that the book is achieving what once seemed “wildly optimistic.”

“[The goal was] to tell a story based in Manitoba that would resonate all across North America,” Sniderman said. “We’re all trying to figure out how to face our imperfect histories and find a more hopeful path forward.”

Rossburn, settled by Ukrainians who fled poverty and persecution in their home country, boasts a family income nearing the national average, with university graduates making up more than one-third of its adult population. By contrast, Waywaseecappo’s average family lives below the national poverty line and fewer than one-third of the adults living here have graduated high school.

Sanderson and Sniderman’s book traces the tale of two families in stories that span generations — one white and one Indigenous — and examines how their experiences hold up a mirror to the experiences of other white communities and First Nations in Canada.

But Indigenous-settler relations are just one part of the book, Sanderson is quick to point out, and it focuses on one group of settlers in particular — Ukrainian immigrants.

“Canada is home to more Ukrainian refugees than any other country, except probably Russia itself,” Sanderson said. “The Birdtail [area] charts the course of Ukrainian immigration in Canada.”

In some ways, the Ukrainian migrants who settled in Canada ended up living “very parallel experiences” of discrimination that Indigenous people also faced, Sanderson said. But despite living in what he calls “parallel communities,” neither group ever truly observed the difficulties of the other.

The irony of the fact that the two communities’ shared difficulties never brought them together is a big theme in the book, Sniderman said. From the stories gathered from the people the authors talked to, many Ukrainian immigrants did notice the parallels, but drew different conclusions from them than ones that would foster a sense of kinship with Waywayseecappo.

Sniderman first became interested in the stories of life in Waywayseecappo and Rossburn 10 years ago, when the two communities reached an agreement to “equalize” funding between the reserve school and the Rossburn school so that each student who attended the reserve school would receive the same education as those who attended the Rossburn one.

“The reason this was so exciting and interesting is because this was not happening almost anywhere in the country. There was this dramatic experiment in treating Indigenous children more fairly,” he said.

Although the story is local to the province, Valley of the Birdtail is also a story about Canada, and about the experience of Canadians and their interaction with Indigenous peoples over hundreds of years that is very familiar to many people, Sanderson said.

“It turns out that the geography of a reserve community right next to a small town with a river dividing them is pretty common,” he said. “It’s not particular to Manitoba, and it’s much more universal in that way.”

The Kobzar Award presentations will take place on March 21. Valley of the Birdtail is available in bookstores and online.

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