Name: Surviving the City
ISBN: 9781553797562

Tasha Spillett

Tasha Spillett's graphic novel debut, Surviving the City, is a story about womanhood, friendship, colonialism, and the anguish of a missing loved one. Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape - they're so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez's grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can't stay with her anymore. With the threat of a group home looming, Dez can't bring herself to go home and disappears. Miikwan is devastated, and the wound of her missing mother resurfaces. Will Dez's community find her before it's too late? Will Miikwan be able to cope if they don't?

Surviving the City

Anna Campbell

Such a beautiful and powerful story for my first graphic novel! It should be required reading for everyone. Such a short and sweet book, easily finished it in one sitting. But the story was so poignant and heartbreaking and subtle and beautiful. It almost seemed to take place in a slightly better world than ours — where schools had a “culture room” where you could smudge and talk to an Elder. I loved it.

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

“Little sister
I see you even if you have yet to see yourself…”

This debut graphic novel, the first in a projected series, focuses on the deep friendship of two young First Nations women in Canada who have just completed a full year Berry Fast together, a rite of passage for their respective tribes. Miikwan is Anishinaabe, while Dez is Inninew and growing into her two-spirit gender identity but hasn’t told Milkwan about her truth yet. Both have known painful loss and are facing more in a city that is hostile to Indigenous girls, women, and two-spirit people. As Dez grieves over her grandmother’s deteriorating health and the prospect of being sent to a group home, Milkwan becomes involved in political activism demanding justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women. When Dez runs away, Milkwan grieves and remembers the loss of her own mother. Dez’ return is more than uncertain, it is more than possible that she never will like so many others before her.

What makes this story riveting is that the characters are unknowingly surrounded by unseen, evocative ghosts of dead or missing Indigenous women who accompany and comfort their loved ones as they move through the city streets. In stark juxtaposition are the sinister, malevolent ghosts that hover over and behind men whose intentions are to resurrect and possibly enact old violations and prejudices.

Author Spillet includes statistics for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S) and further reading at the end of this brief but powerful installment.

Surviving the City

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