Biography & Autobiography Native Americans
Mi'sel Joe
An Aboriginal Chief�s Journey
- Publisher
- Flanker Press
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2009
- Category
- Native Americans
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781897317426
- Publish Date
- Jun 2009
- List Price
- $19.95
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 13
- Grade: 8
Description
Mi’sel Joe: An Aboriginal Chief’s Journey chronicles both the life of an individual and that of his people. Mi’sel Joe is the traditional and administrative chief of Newfoundland’s Conne River Mi’kmaq Reserve. Through a series of taped interviews with Raoul Andersen and John Crellin, Mi’sel Joe tells his life story, including his unorthodox education through the many migratory jobs that took him as far west as Alberta.
Mi’sel Joe also speaks of a community fighting for the right to determine its own future. He tells of the struggle to revitalize traditional values in the face of racial prejudice. He reveals the steps being taken by aboriginal leaders, both in this province and elsewhere, to help their people gain respect in a white man’s world without losing their own identity. Mi’sel Joe’s story is his own, but it is also a window into Mi’kmaq history, culture, and traditions.
About the authors
Raoul Andersen and John Crellin are honorary research professors at Memorial University. Their backgrounds in anthropology, history, and medicine lie behind many collaborative activities. Ever since a Memorial University medical student undertook a project at Conne River in 1993, Andersen and Crellin have been involved with Mi’sel Joe in a variety of conferences and other educational activities.
Raoul R. Andersen's profile page
John K. Crellin holds British qualifications in medicine, in pharmacy, and in the history of science. His career spans three countries, at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in the U.K., at Southern Illinois and Duke Universities in the USA, and at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, where he was John Clinch Professor of Medical History until his official retirement in 2002. He lives in St. Philip’s with his wife, Janet, and continues to teach complementary and alternative medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University. He has written several books, some of which have a Newfoundland focus. Mi’sel Joe: An Aboriginal Chief’s Journey, a book he co-edited with Raoul R. Anderson, was a Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools 2009–2010 Selection; a finalist for the 2010 Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing; and a First Nation Communities Read 2011–2012 “Also Recommended” Title.
Librarian Reviews
Mi’sel Joe: An Aboriginal Chief’s Journey
Mi’sel Joe grew up in the remote Newfoundland Mi’kmaq community of Conne River. He quit school at fifteen and for the first time left his community and got his first job cutting pulp. Emboldened to leave Newfoundland, Mi’sel Joe traveled across Canada as far west as Alberta and as far north as Churchill Falls, finally returning to Conne River to work to bring his community back to its traditional values and beliefs and forward into the 21st century. His experiences working in the woods, on the railroad, on a ranch, in the mines, on a fishing boat and living on the streets or in a boarding house, have informed his approach to dealing with government and working through his band council to bring his community cultural revitalization and economic stability.Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2009-2010.
