Daughters Of The Deer by Danielle Daniel

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BEST BOOK OF 2022.
Yeah, I’m calling it early.

Daughters Of The Deer is a historical novel written by Danielle Daniel. It is written from several different points of view, all based on her ancestry on her maternal side. The novel is written at a time, and within a family, where the traditional ways of the Weskarini Algonquin First Nation and the French colonial settlers converge in marriage and in society.

It explores:
The dangers that existed before colonization and after.
The oppositions of traditional ways and western ways - in life, in marriage, in parenting.
The imposition of religion. 
The control held by religion.
The pain caused by religion.
The imposition of binary understandings of love.
The foundations of the crisis of MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & 2 Spirit people.)

It is raw and honest in its representation of the treatment of women. It is insightful in the way it represents the characters inner struggles. It beautifully captures the clash of core values that was so strong then, and still erupts today. This is a story we can all relate to. In being a story for everyone, it asks you to consider where you see yourself in it. Which ‘side’ are you on? Are you also trapped in the middle? Is the middle really a trap or a place of hope? Can it be both?

As someone with settler ancestry in Canada back to this same time period…I feel called to do some more digging into my own family history.

Reading Journal Questions

• Where would your own family fit into this novel?

• How have you and your ancestors been impacted by colonialism?

• How does the novel demonstrate the ways that LGBTQ2S+ and women's traditional rights changed with colonization?

• How did you feel after reading?