Stolen from Our Embrace

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

This study of the many problems faced by aboriginal children—the
result of a collaboration between a journalist and a Native activist
social worker—is intended for general readers; the emphasis is on
description rather than on analysis.

The main chapters deal with the residential school system, the
“out-adoption” of aboriginal children to nonaboriginal families,
sexual abuse, and fetal alcohol syndrome. The authors have made very
effective use of personal interviews. In keeping with the current trend
of going beyond an emphasis on victimization, they have attempted to
balance the problems of their subjects with examples of their
achievements.

There is a list of sources at the end of the book, but no footnote
references in the text. As a result, many quotations are not attributed
and there is no clear indication of the sources for the statistics
provided. Some readers may find the lack of footnotes a virtue, but
those seeking to verify sources or be directed to additional ones will
be frustrated.

No fundamentally new solutions are suggested. The authors propose a
return to traditional values, along with governmental provision of the
financial resources necessary to fund self-government and to compensate
for past wrongs.