"I start looking around and admiring the
women's beautiful silver and gold West
Coast carved Native jewelry. Some women
wear bracelets practically to their elbows.
I always think that's what I want to look
like when I grow up.
My mom is wearing her gold carved
pendant and gold wolf earrings, which
is our family's crest. I have a silver
carved bracelet, but it's from when I
was a baby so it doesn't fit me anymore."
On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I want to share Mia's first-person narration of life with her mother, grandmother, and extended family members in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The time is 1985, and the short vignettes offer a picture of life for an Indigenous 10-year-old whose best friend Lara lives on the same cul-de-sac. Mia loves fun, is sensitive, looks at life seriously and with astute observations, and accepts her circumstances. This is a story of one Indigenous girl's experience in a small coastal town. It reminds readers that it takes everyone to break down those barriers that show our differences rather than our similarities.
Lara lives a very different life. She and her Mexican-Hungarian family live large in a house that faces the mountains; Mia and her family live in an old wartime house backed onto a retaining wall. Through the years of their friendship, which begin in fifth grade and carry through to the eighth, Mia takes notice of the differences between community members. Mia faces racism and subtle but offensive comments in a variety of ways. She pretends not to hear some of the things Lara's family members say. The contrasts between their lives are consistently evident. Some flashbacks to earlier days are also mentioned in realistic, meaningful remembrances. Topics addressed include not knowing a father, residential schools, and alcoholism.
The differences between them become more apparent as time goes by. The two girls begin to drift apart. As they do, Mia makes new friends and becomes more understanding and aware of the world around her. Her connections to her culture are stronger and more relevant to the life she is living, and she finds identity in what she is learning.
"I don't think either of us expected to part ways like we did. Never would we have envisioned it. High school seemed to carve out two separate paths for us. I was assigned to the basement floor with the headbangers and smokers even though I was neither, and Lara was placed in a prime location outside the library. She went off in one direction, and I in the other. It felt like we had very little control over any of it."
The novel's honest depiction and sensitivity to the challenges Mia faces ensures that the book will find an audience. It is always engaging and never overwhelmed by its issues. It mixes laughter, poignancy, sweet memories and difficult lessons. It invites readers to realize that we are not all that different when it comes to growing up.
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