I tried. I really tried, but I can't finish this audiobook. Maybe it would make a great beginner text for an introduction to Indigenous information, but I was honestly bored to tears.

This is a book that is intended to help educate readers on indigenous issues and culture. It's told in a format that is meant to be conversational. It comes across a little cheesy in its writing, but it still gets its point across. It also seems to be targeting audiences who are not themselves indigenous. It assumes the reader, like me, knows virtually nothing about the Canadian ingenious peoples and the issues they must deal with.

Honestly, a lot of this feels very basic. Of course, I am very grateful for that because I have a lot to learn, and this book was a great starting point. If you're interested in understanding indigenous issues, particularly in Canada, I think this is a great book to pick up, especially if you are looking for an introduction on the topic. That said, I think there's plenty to learn even for those who have spent more time studying indigenous issues.

I was granted the audio book to review by NetGalley. And unfortunately, that's where this book really fails. The narrator was fine. My problem with the audio book is that it stops to read every end note. Honestly, I don't mind notes in my audiobooks being narrated, but the problem is when it’s a full reference that the narrator breaks down, including every point of a URL. This is what a PDF should be for. This book is nearly 300 pages roughly , but it is 16 hours long. The average 300-page book is 12 hours long. I suspect the reason it is ~33% longer is that at the end of each essay, the narrator will take you through all the references from the main text. First, it is already separated from the main text, so it is difficult to connect one reference to its exact point via audio. Second, it’s disconcerting because it is easy to get distracted via audio. Even wanting to listen to every URL, it is difficult not to zone out. Then, when the narrator moves on to the next point, it is difficult to make sure you’re not zoned out before missing important details.
It is already difficult to stay focused in an audiobook, especially with such an academic work as this, but it feels impossible to retain because of the literal technical details that take you out of the. Again, this is what PDFs are for. I'm not quite sure why they felt necessary to include the references in the audio format in the way they did. Even if they were going to, having an endnotes conclusion section would have been just as effective than having them at the end of each essay. Granted, it'll make it hard to recall what point it referred to, but it already means so little at the end of the essay.

So big picture, I think this is a book about every Canadian should read and likely every American. It introduces the reader to indigenous life and issues and the role of indigenous law. You're likely to be better off having a physical copy, but I think if you had the physical copy with the audio book that would the best approach. An audio book will help get through the denser material while still having to text to study more closely.

4/5 for the book. 3/5 for the audio.

Check out my brief discussion of this on my YouTube channel, https://youtu.be/mE7BbExXIso

I always hate saying “I enjoyed this” when a book is so full of trauma and information that needs to be addressed and unpacked. I loved Chelsea’s narration. She brought herself to the audio and the wit, no bull and sarcasm were effective in keeping me listening.

I would say this book needs to be read widely and talked about regularly. It was such a hinge info dump with information and resources it’s probably the most resourceful book on Indigenous peoples and what Canada has done to them that I’ve seen. I highly recommend to pair the audio WITH a physical copy to take notes, highlight, see the endnotes and be able to further access more information.

Hello,

I am sorry for any inconvenience, but I did not get a chance to listen to this audiobook before it was archived. I didn't know audiobooks had archive dates. Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this one.

I got an ARC of this audiobook.

This book is sixteen hours long. This is just the beginning. This book only can cover so much, but it covers SO MUCH. I was often overwhelmed with how little I knew. This book should be mandatory reading. This book changed my entire view of a country and made me question more about history and current politics. Did Charles Dickens do that? No.

The author is wonderful. Her personality shows through and she is the sort of person I could listen to forever, especially if she sounded just like the narrator. The narrator really gave life to the jokes and gave me so much by being able to pronounce anything that wasn’t in English. The idea that I would be able to hear oral languages is one of the reasons I wanted to get this as an audiobook instead of reading it myself. The combination of author and narrator made this incredibly enjoyable, even when the topics were incredibly difficult.

My biggest issue with this is every single endnote and citation is read out loud. I can understand why this was done, but it was a lot. Every single web link was read in entirety. HHTPS backslash backslash…it grated on my nerves. I finally realized I could skip that part of the chapter which drastically cut down on the time of the book. Some chapters were more endnotes than chapter. So if you are daunted by the sixteen hours, it really is not sixteen hours. Even the images were described, which also was a bit weird, but most of the time it was worth it.

There was just so much here that I can’t even really get started on this book. It is the best book I have read/listened to about indigenous history and modern issues with settler government. It helped me learn so much and realize that I held biases that I hadn’t even considered. Please read this book. If you have access to Hoopla, it is on there.