Maria Campbell

The author discusses her experiences growing up in a mixed race family in Canada

Halfbreed

Sarah Sammis

The narrative is monotonous. It reads like a book report, leaving very little sense of any of the people in the author's life, nor of the author herself.

A new, fully restored edition of the essential Canadian classic. An unflinchingly honest memoir of her experience as a Métis woman in Canada, Maria Campbell's Halfbreed depicts the realities that she endured and, above all, overcame. Maria was born in Northern Saskatchewan, her father the grandson of a Scottish businessman and Métis woman--a niece of Gabriel Dumont whose family fought alongside Riel and Dumont in the 1885 Rebellion; her mother the daughter of a Cree woman and French-American man. This extraordinary account, originally published in 1973, bravely explores the poverty, oppression, alcoholism, addiction, and tragedy Maria endured throughout her childhood and into her early adult life, underscored by living in the margins of a country pervaded by hatred, discrimination, and mistrust. Laced with spare moments of love and joy, this is a memoir of family ties and finding an identity in a heritage that is neither wholly Indigenous or Anglo; of strength and resilience; of indominatable spirit. This edition of Halfbreed includes a new introduction written by Indigenous (Métis) scholar Dr. Kim Anderson detailing the extraordinary work that Maria has been doing since its original publication 46 years ago, and an afterword by the author looking at what has changed, and also what has not, for Indigenous people in Canada today. Restored are the recently discovered missing pages from the original text of this groundbreaking and significant work.

Fraser Simons

A valuable and unflinching recounting of a Métis life. Effective in its communication of just how hard it is to be “alright” in poverty, let alone also navigating outright racism. Canada similarly shares the delusion of success by picking yourself up by your bootstraps, completely ignoring systemic issues. To say Campbell pushed through adverse circumstances would be a gross minimization of the obstacles. 

Even more infuriating is that things haven’t changed all that much. Especially when she talks about Lethbridge, a town that benefits from indigenous money, yet condemns the population. Absolutely still the case. The country and certainly Alberta has not done better, nor even educated people on these matters such that people understand any of the issues central to indigenous people, but probably even more so with the Métis. 

The only reason this wasn’t five stars from me was because the authors delivery of her book was actually not great on audio, and only accented the repetitive sentence construction and robbed the recounting of emotion, ironically; a sadly very common thing that occurs when authors narrate their own work. On the one hand, I am obviously glad they’ve been paid (they better have been) to perform the narration. On the other, oratory is a skill most people do not have.

Halfbreed

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