The Anishinaabe are guided by the Seven Grandfather Teachings - Love, Bravery, Humility, Wisdom, Honesty, Respect and Truth. In Seven Truths, we explore each teaching through my eyes, Anishinaabe storyteller, Tanya Talaga, and through the lives and experiences of people I’m proud to know. These truths, told through contemporary stories, help us find common ground here on Turtle Island, so that we can live together, justly.
The hummingbirds represent resilience. They go to each flower and take out the sweetness, much like how we take the sweetness from each Teaching. What’s special about this is that it’s not about trauma (regarding resilience) but it’s about thriving and connecting.
The dusky blue sky with stars represents our ancestors and the star people, with seven flowers for the Seven Teachings, and thirteen berries to represent the thirteen moons.
Tanya Talaga is an Anishinaabe author and journalist. Her first book, Seven Fallen Feathers, is a national bestseller, winning the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and the First Nation Communities Read Award: Young Adult/Adult. It was also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award for Nonfiction.
