Unbroken

Angela Sterritt is angry. Palpably angry. “Unbroken” makes that very clear and her anger is justified. “Unbroken” is part memoir and part investigation into the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls.

Before you finish the preface of this book you should be angry too. It is preceded by 8 pages of “In Memorium”: a list eight pages long of women and girls missing or murdered along B.C.’s infamous “Highway of Tears” (between Prince George and Prince Rupert) and adjoining roads, or from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and listed in Justice Oppal’s “Pickton Inquiry”. Each name on her list represents a story: a heartbroken family, broken systems, unanswered questions.

Drawing on her personal experience, both as a former street kid and drug user and now as a journalist, Ms. Sterritt tells a number of these tragic stories. Along the way, she describes the impacts of our broken systems, and the heartache for so many that has resulted from them.

The author knows firsthand the extreme vulnerability of Indigenous females, a vulnerability reflected in the acronym “MMIWG”: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Sterritt explains how Indigenous women were disempowered by settler legislation (such as Canada’s Indian Act) that failed to recognize matriarchal societies or Indigenous women’s leadership roles, and by colonial attitudes that gave settlers the right to dominate the lands and resources of Indigenous people while subjugating them and treating them as “subhuman”.

“Unbroken” offers examples of ongoing racism and discrimination in Canada today. These include the indifference that many Indigenous families encounter when reporting a missing family member, attitudes of victim blaming, discrepancies in media coverage of a MMIWG compared with that of a white woman or girl, and a justice system that has at times been not just indifferent to abuse of Indigenous women and girls but actually complicit in this abuse.

Sterritt’s personal trauma no doubt allowed her to become a person that other victims could open up to when describing their own “unbelievable” stories of abuse and discrimination. Unlike many others, including some police and social workers, she has actually heard them, believed them, and then, as a journalist, investigated and validated their stories. Sterritt’s writing is most compelling when she is recounting these stories; they are bound to unsettle readers who still want to believe that our social and political institutions protect us all.

Angela Sterritt’s personal and professional journey remains one of transformation and growth; it will be a journey worth following. We’re lucky to have her at this year’s Readers and Writers Festival.