The Berry Pickers

Content Warning: The source text contains descriptions of violence, domestic violence, racism, substance use disorder, miscarriage, and outdated terminology for Indigenous and First Nations peoples.

Canada’s history of assimilationist policies toward its Indigenous populations has resulted in the loss of homelands, cultural knowledge and cohesion, language, and traditional ways of interacting with nature and natural food systems. Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous youth is, now that it has been thoroughly investigated and revealed to be systemically abusive, perhaps the most widely talked about pillar of Canadian assimilationist policy, but the bulk of the Canadian government’s dealings with its Indigenous populations have had assimilation as their core goal.

During the introductory chapters of The Berry Pickers, readers learn that two of Ruthie’s siblings were students in a residential school until their father withdrew them. He no doubt objected to the school’s cruel treatment of its students, but the family depicted in this narrative is closely bonded, and part of his objection was to the children growing up so far from their parents and without the ability to participate in their Indigenous culture. Mae, Ben, Charlie, and Joe grow up steeped in Mi’kmaq ways of being in the world, which sharply contrasts with the white assimilation of