Subject: You’re Invited to Crystal Fraser’s and Sara Komarnisky’s Book Launch on Mon. Nov. 2, 2026.
The Faculty of Arts Institute for Indigenous Research and Knowledges is pleased to present a book launch for Crystal Fraser’s and Sara Komarnisky’s new book: Talk Treaty to Me
Date & Time: Monday, November 2, 2026 · 16:00–18:00
Location: Leacock 232, 855 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7
Program: Brief remarks · Conversation between Crystal Fraser and Sara Komarnisky
Copies of the book will be available for purchase on site from the Paragraphe bookstore. There will also be appetizers and beverages!
Book Description:
Treaties cover much of Canada. Some were established thousands of years ago, with Land and animals, and others date back to the time when Europeans first arrived in North America. These agreements make it possible for all of us to live, work, play, and profit on these Lands. Additionally, treaties have profoundly shaped the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In Talk Treaty to Me, Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky untangle the complexities of treaties and set forth a path to a greater understanding of all our roles, rights, and responsibilities. In this accessible, clear, and concise book, they discuss:
• Treaties among and between Indigenous Peoples
• The history of treaty-making between Indigenous Peoples and Britain, then Canada, from the very beginning to the present day
• Concepts like Métis scrip, modern Land claims and self-government agreements, Indigenous sovereignty, and unceded territory
• The (dis)honouring of treaties and the role of Canadian settler colonialism
• How the creation of Canadian borders interrupts Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood
• Important insights from gendered and queer perspectives on treaty and Land
• The politics of land acknowledgements
• Reconciliation and Land Back movements
With a quick-reference timeline, maps, and black-and-white photographs throughout, Talk Treaty to Me concludes with a call to action and specific, tangible steps that all of us can take every day to support truth and reconciliation.
Biographies:
CRYSTAL GAIL FRASER is Gwichyà Gwich’in (and of English-Scottish ancestry), originally from Inuvik, Northwest Territories. She holds a PhD in Canadian history and is an associate professor in history and Indigenous studies at the University of Alberta. Crystal is a community-engaged scholar of Indian residential schooling histories and recently published By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, winner of many awards, notably the prestigious Canadian Historical Association’s Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History Prize and the 2025 Governor-General’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research.
SARA KOMARNISKY is a settler of Ukrainian, Irish, and Italian ancestry who grew up in Holden, Alberta. She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of British Columbia, where she was a Vanier Scholar. Sara is a researcher and public scholar based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is also the author of Mexicans in Alaska: An Ethnography of Mobility, Place, and Transnational Life.
Together, Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky authored “150 Acts of Reconciliation” in 2017. Many of these are small, everyday acts that average Canadians can undertake, while others are more provocative and intended to encourage people to think about Indigenous–settler relationships in new ways. Their new book, Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada (2026), expands this public-facing work by offering an accessible and grounded guide to understanding treaties and land in Canada. Since its release, Talk Treaty to Me has become a national bestseller in Canadian non-fiction.
Please register here!
We hope to see you there!
The Faculty of Arts Institute for Indigenous Research and Knowledges is pleased to present a book launch for Jimena Márquez’s new book: The Future of Indigenist Research in Canada: In Conversation with Indigenous Scholars.
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026 · 16:00–18:00
Location: Thompson House Ballroom, 3650 Rue McTavish, Montréal, QC, H3A 1X1
Program: Brief remarks · Discussion between author and Leslie Sabiston with Q&A moderated by Raymond Johnson-Brown.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase on site from the Paragraphe bookstore. There will also be appetizers and beverages!
Book Description:
This timely and engaging volume brings together eight remarkable, leading, and emerging Indigenous scholars from various fields in conversation with author Jimena Márquez to critically assess the state of Indigenist research in a post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission era. Márquez uses an Indigenous dialogical lens to explore what work has been done over the last decades, what shifts are taking place now, what’s in store for the future of the field, and who should take on this valuable work. Topics include the core principles of Indigenist research, intellectual integrity, identity-shifting strategies still present in academia, and the consequences of misguided approaches. Through these candid conversations, students and researchers will get a rare view into the complexities of decolonial scholarship and the responsibilities it entails. Woven together and contextualized by Márquez, the discussions converge on a shared direction forward and offer a tool for critical reflexivity to support readers in decolonizing their own research practices.
Biographies:
Dr. Jimena Márquez is a multidisciplinary Mexican/Canadian scholar. She has over ten years of teaching experience, most recently in the Indigenous Studies program at McGill University. She received her PhD from the University of Ottawa. Her research focused on the use of Indigenous Epistemologies and Methodologies across Canadian Indigenous scholarship. She is currently Assistant Director in charge of culturally relevant post-secondary programs for Nunavik at Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, the Inuit school board in charge of Inuit education in Northern Quebec.
Dr. Leslie Sabiston Leslie Sabiston (Red River Métis) is from Aswahonanihk (Selkirk), Manitoba.
Working at the intersections of political, legal, and medical anthropologies, as well as Indigenous Studies, Les’ work brings together critical social theories of colonialism, race, class, gender and sexuality with the political commitments of decolonization and aspirations of realizing alternative liberatory worlds informed by Indigenous futurities. A guiding principle to his academic work has been to develop a more robust understanding of the ongoing process of encounter with Indigenous peoples in Canada, that is, how the state and its populous interact with and understand themselves in relation to the original peoples of this land.
Raymond Johnson- Brown is a two-spirit ethnic anomaly. They are a former student of the Indigenous Studies program and currently starting a Law degree and a Master of Socia Work at McGill University. With over 15 years working across health, education, child welfare, and food systems from frontline practice to national networks their work sits at the intersection of direct care, research, and systems change, oriented toward collective liberation and centering young people’s sovereignty in their own lives.
To register for the event, please click here.
We hope to see you there!
An accessible, urgent discussion between two friends—an Indigenous man and a settler woman— that not only invites readers to consider what reconciliation could look like in their everyday lives, but also gives them the practical tools to enact essential and meaningful change Derek Aronhie:nens Montour is an Indigenous man who grew up on the Kahnawà:ke Kanien’kehá:ka Territory. Elin Sandberg Miller is a non-Indigenous woman and immigrant to Canada. Here, they share their alternating experiences and perspectives with nuance and vulnerability, providing an accessible and candid discussion that invites readers to consider the power of reconciliation in their everyday lives. The result is a clear and insightful guide for non Indigenous Canadians who want to contribute to the national reconciliation process but don’t know where to start. Through thirteen wide-ranging essays, Montour and Miller imagine what reconciliation would look like on a practical level, driven by people, not governments. Together, they tackle an urgent and compelling range of subjects, including asking tough questions about home, land, culture, language and more. Can non-Indigenous people wear beaded earrings? Should they give their land back? What about land acknowledgements? Is it okay to attend a powwow? The resulting answers are thoughtful, encouraging and considered, providing non-Indigenous people with the practical tools to enact essential and meaningful change. This an empowering call to action—and one that equips all of us to become a part of our own everyday reconciliation.
DEREK ARONHIE:NENS MONTOUR joined the armed services after high school—first the Canadian Royal Montreal Regiment and later the United States Marine Corps. After leaving the services, he moved back to Kahnawà:ke to work with the Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services, and today he is the organization’s executive director. He also serves on the board of directors for the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission and has assisted at the national level on the Child and Family Services Reform National Advisory Committee. He also served on the Minister of National Defence’s Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination, which submitted their final report in December 2021. Derek grew up in Kahnawà:ke and has two children and a grandchild.
ELIN SANDBERG MILLER hosted the podcast Everyday Reconciliation in 2021–2022, which she created and co-produced with the think tank Canada 2020. Her work has been published in various newspapers and magazines, including the Montreal Gazette. She spent most of her working life in the Swedish Foreign Service and more recently at Global Affairs Canada, working on issues of international law, human rights, gender equality, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. She immigrated to Canada in 2008, currently lives in Ottawa, has three children and a grandchild, and is a dual Swedish-Canadian citizen.
Register for the event here!