An Anti-Colonial / Decolonial Collection by Samir Shaheen-Hussain
Two dates this month highlight the very tangible—and ongoing—impacts of settler colonialism in Canada: September 28 will mark the 5-year anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s avoidable death, and September 30 is Orange Shirt Day (also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation). The collection that follows, while not exhaustive by any means, is meant to be a continuation of the anti-colonial reading list that I was invited to compile for 49th Shelf in 2021. Some are works I have read, while others are works that I want to read; all of them expose coloniality writ large, for the most part in the Canadian context. During these morose times marked by a rabid capitalist world order where the violence of authoritarian, fascist and genocidal regimes are spreading like wildfire on this burning planet in ways we have not witnessed in decades, these works from across genres importantly shine light on prospects for decolonizing futures that are more necessary than ever … if we want to build a just and caring world.
—Samir Shaheen-Hussain, Collection Curator
Samir Shaheen-Hussain is a racialized second-generation settler based in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal). He is a regular contributor for the “Point de Vue” series at Le Devoir and is the author of the book Fighting for A Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism against Indigenous Children in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), with a foreword by Cindy Blackstock and afterword by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, which was awarded both the Concordia University First Book Prize and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2021 QWF Literary Awards. The translation of the book by Nicolas Calvé, Plus aucun enfant autochtone arraché: Pour en finir avec le colonialisme médical canadien (Lux Éditeur, 2021), was awarded the Cole Foundation Prize for Translation at the 2022 QWF Literary Awards. Samir works as a pediatric emergency physician and is an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University. He is currently enrolled as an MA candidate in the Department of History at Université de Montréal.
Samir would like to thank David Moffette, Dror Warschawski, Josée Lavallée, Nazila Bettache, and Norma Rantisi for their input in the development of this collection.
The 16 entries appear in alphabetical order (by title) over two pages.
