A vision shared. A manifesto. This remarkable work draws on Ojibway-, Ota’wa-, and Ishkodawatomi-Anishinabe world views, history, and lived experience to develop a wholly Ojibway-Anishinabe interpretation of the role of leadership and governance today.

Arguing that Anishinabeg need to reconnect with non-colonized modes of thinking, social organization, and decision-making in order to achieve genuine sovereignty, Jerry Fontaine (makwa ogimaa) looks to historically significant models. He tells of three Ota’wa, Shawnee, and Ojibway-Anishinabe leaders who challenged aggressive colonial expansion into Manitou Aki (Creator's Land) – Obwandiac, Tecumtha, and Shingwauk. In Our Hearts Are as One Fire, Fontaine recounts their stories from an Ojibway-Anishinabe perspective using Ojibwaymowin language and knowledge woven together with conversations with elders and descendants of the three leaders.

The result is a book that reframes the history of Manitou Aki and shares a vision of how Anishinabe spiritual, cultural, legal, and political principles will support the leaders of today and tomorrow.

Makwa Ogimaa (Jerry Fontaine) is Ojibway-Anishinabe from the Ojibway-Anishinabe community of Sagkeeng in Manitoba. He was (indian act) Chief during the period 1987 to 1998 and has been an adviser to Anishinabe communities and industry. Jerry currently teaches in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Winnipeg. He lives in Traverse Bay, Manitoba.

Jerry Fontaine's profile page

Our Hearts Are as One Fire shines when taken as a teaching text... This book is a powerful reminder that Anishinabe resistance has been ongoing for hundreds of years and continues to this day.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Fontaine locates the context for the reader before introducing his own personal narrative and this lends even more credence to the book… This account deserves to be read carefully and particularly by those who may not wish to know its truths.

Celtic Junction Arts Review