Brock University will welcome critically acclaimed Anishinaabe author and journalist Tanya Talaga to campus later this month for two events that highlight her newest book, The Knowing.

The Hadiya’dagénhahs First Nations, Métis and Inuit Student Centre — in collaboration with the Office of Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement and the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences (FAHS) — will first host Talaga in a free student-focused event at Brock’s Residence 8 Atrium on Friday, March 21.

A ticketed community event hosted by Associate Professor Robyn Bourgeois, Brock’s Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement, will follow that evening at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Thorold.

Talaga’s book documents the decades-long search to locate the gravesite of her great-great grandmother. Circumstances of her life and death were virtually unknown to Talaga’s family, and the author chronicles her work sifting through treaty payments as well as residential school-and-government-correspondence to learn about her family’s matriarch, unravelling larger truths about the colonization of Indigenous people in Canada in the process.

“Although people are starting to learn about the enfranchisement and oppression of Indigenous People throughout Canada’s history — in residential and day schools, the ‘Sixties Scoop’ or government-mandated relocations of Inuit families, for example — they don’t really know all the details,” said Hadiya’dagénhahs Director Cindy Biancaniello. “Some of the stories are shocking to people when they read them for the first time, but it’s a book you read with your eyes wide open that is hard to put down.”

FAHS Associate Dean, Teaching and Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of Sport Management Kirsty Spence said Talaga is an “extremely compelling storyteller and investigative researcher.” She is looking forward to welcoming the author to campus to engage with the Brock community.

“Her book is the thorough and solid textbook about the history of Canada that we didn’t get in school — and should have,” she said.

The Knowing was named as CBC’s Nonfiction Book of the Year and a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, among other accolades. It was also adapted into a four-part miniseries on CBC Gem.

Biancaniello is also encouraged by the opportunity that students will have to learn from and connect with the author.

“Her story isn’t all that different from that of our own students, most of which are on their own journey of finding out who they and who their ancestors are,” Biancaniello said.

Students interested in attending the free on-campus event, which begins at 10 a.m., are encouraged to register in advance on Eventbrite. Tickets for the off-campus community event, beginning at 6 p.m., can be purchased on Brock’s University Tickets platform. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the events.