
They Called Us Savages
By Dominique Rankin, Marie-Josée TardifLength5h 38m
About this audiobook
Born on the banks of the majestic Harricana River, deep inside Quebec’s James Bay territory, young Dominique Rankin was intended to succeed his father as Algonquin Hereditary Chief and Medicine Man. The Government of Canada had other designs. Its policies of Indigenous assimilation would tear the boy away from his family and his native forest, as well as the traditional education he was meant to receive there, and cause him to be handed over to the Saint-Marc-de-Figuery residential school, one of many such establishments operating under the infamous Indian residential school system.
Inside those walls, Dominique would endure a terrible ordeal, a fate he shared with thousands of Indigenous children across North America. Only upon leaving the school years later would the young man finally be free to begin his long journey of healing and self-discovery—a journey that would reunite him with his heritage and his true destiny.
Weaving the venerable teachings of the Prophecy of the Seven Fires with his own powerful narrative, from his dramatic birth and childhood training to his days as the leader of a nation and his accession to full-fledged Medicine Man a half century later, Chief Dominique Rankin delivers a vibrant testimony on respect, forgiveness, and healing. They Called Us Savages is more relevant now than ever, and contemplates our changing relationships with the environment, leadership, racism, reconciliation, and spirituality. In this poignant memoir, the residential school Survivor, Elder, Medicine Man, and former Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation bares all—the dark and the light alike—to unshroud a chapter of our sombre collective past and to illuminate a path to a better, brighter future.
Audiobook details
GenreYoung Adult, Biography and Memoir
Length5 hrs 38 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
10Fourth Fire - The Bible and The Land
2A Note on the Algonquin Alphabet
11Fifth Fire - The Great Tear
3Foreword
12Sixth Fire - Be Proud of Who You Are
4A Word from Marie-Josée Tardif
13Seventh Fire - Healed of Politics, Reconverted to Nature
5Prologue
14Eighth Fire - The Light that Rests Upon our Choices
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6Ickote Kitcipison - The Beads that Tell Our Story
15Acknowledgments
7First Fire - Anicinape: The Human being in Harmony with Nature
16Works Cited
8Second Fire - Kapiteotak: The One whose Crying is Heard from Afar
17About the Authors
9Third Fire - My First Eagle Feather