National Indigenous History Month
June is National Indigenous History Month in Canada. We invite you to explore our curated booklist for reads that celebrate unique stories, cultures and lived experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.
Bead Talk
Indigenous beadwork has taken the art world by storm, but it is still sometimes misunderstood as static, anthropological artifact. Today’s prairie artists defy this categorization, demonstrating how beads tell stories and reclaim cultural identity. This book presents beading as a living, evolving practice rooted in connection and community.
Permanent Astonishment: A Memoir
Tomson Highway reflects on his Cree childhood in the North, shaped by family, storytelling, music and the land. With warmth and honesty, Permanent Astonishment explores joy, loss, resilience, and Tomson's extravagant embrace of his younger brother's final words "Don't mourn me, be joyful". His memoir offers insights, both hilarious and profound, into the Cree experience of culture, conquest and survival.
21 Things You Need to Know About Indigenous Self-Government
Can we get rid of the Indian Act? What would that look like? Would self-government work? Bob Joseph addresses these questions and shows a way forward in which Indigenous self-governance is already happening and not to be feared, proposing that negotiating more such arrangements, sooner rather than later, is an absolute necessity.
Ways of Being in the World
Ways of Being in the World introduces us to the Indigenous philosophical thought of communities across Turtle Island, offering readings on a variety of topics spanning many times and geographic locations. This collection is an invitation to instructors and students to embark on a relationship with Indigenous peoples through the introduction of their unique philosophies.
The Art of Making: Rediscovering the Blackfoot Legacy
Accompanied by his family and loyal dogs, Jared Tailfeathers delves into his Indigenous heritage through hands-on, land-based exploration. He uncovers hidden historical sites, weaves together community ties, and fosters collaborations with scholars across various disciplines. The book is a vibrant fusion of modern artistry, music, and narrative, deeply rooted in the ancestral Blackfoot traditional methods of making.
Métis Pioneers
Doris Jeanne MacKinnon compares the survival strategies of two Métis women born during the fur trade, one from the French-speaking free trade tradition and one from the English-speaking Hudson’s Bay Company tradition, who settled in southern Alberta as the Canadian West transitioned to a sedentary agricultural and industrial economy. MacKinnon provides rare insight into their lives, demonstrating the contributions Métis women made to the building of the Prairie West.
Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation
Judge, senator, and activist. Father, grandfather, and friend. This is Murray Sinclair’s story—and the story of a nation—in his own words, an oral history that forgoes the trappings of the traditionally written memoir to center Indigenous ways of knowledge and storytelling. As Canada moves forward into the future of Reconciliation, one of its greatest leaders guides us to ask the most important and difficult question we can ask of ourselves: Who are we?
Stitching Our Stories Together
A collection of graduate research by Indigenous social work scholars, this book showcases emerging scholars who centre their own nations, communities and individual realities, demonstrating how Indigenous knowledges can challenge settler ideas and myths around pan-Indigeity. It points towards a future where Indigenous ways of knowing and being take their rightful place in spaces of higher learning and social work practice.
Plants, People and Places
For millennia, plants and their habitats have been fundamental to the lives of Indigenous Peoples as sources of food , medicines, and technological materials, and central to ceremonial traditions, spiritual beliefs, narratives, and language. First Peoples of Canada and other parts of the world have developed deep cultural understandings of plants and their environments, but this knowledge is often underrecognized in debates about land rights and title, reconciliation, treaty negotiations, and traditional territories.
Winipek: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre
In his debut collection of stories, observations, and thoughts about Winnipeg, the place he calls "ground zero" of Canada's future, Niigaan Sinclair looks at the complex history and contributions of this place alongside the radical solutions to injustice and violence found here, presenting solutions for a country that has forgotten principles of treaty and inclusivity.
Teaching Where You Are
A guide for non-Indigenous educators to work in good ways with Indigenous students, providing resources across curricular areas to support all students. Two seasoned educators, one Indigenous and one settler, bring to bear their years of experience teaching in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary contexts to explore the ways in which Indigenous and Slow approaches to teaching and learning mirror and complement one another.
Updates
🖼️ ReconciliACTIONS: TREX Art Exhibit Coming Soon
Pop into the library between June 25 and July 10, 2026, to view ReconciliACTIONS, an art exhibition on tour through the Travelling Exhibition Program (TREX). TREX helps bring art exhibitions to schools, libraries and small venues across Alberta at low cost, making them more accessible to communities throughout the province.
“ReconciliACTIONS invites viewers to contemplate how they can show up with care both individually and collectively in actively carrying reconciliation forward. All persons have the agency to create ripples of change, and the Indigenous artists who are included in this exhibition are contributing to this change by educating the public and sharing their knowledge and experiences through visual forms. As you look at each artwork, consider its story, consider the artist, and consider how your own actions can be instruments of change in the ongoing process of reconciliation.” – Ashley Slemming, Curator.
🤔 Critical Thinking and Information Skills
Hilary Wallis, Information Literacy Librarian, started some lively discussions in her Critical Thinking and Information Skills sessions for Celebrate SAIT Day.
We were introduced to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Framework and went through some interesting case studies of epistemic critical thinking failures. The session showed how literacy frameworks can help us critically evaluate information in the digital age, and sparked discussion about post-secondary education’s role in graduating students with strong critical thinking skills and a solid understanding of digital information systems.
View Hilary’s How We Stop Thinking webpage to see some real-world failures of critical thinking.
🥕 Food for Thought
Whether you’re a culinary student or you just love food, explore these foodie resources this summer.
1️⃣ Find food inspiration with our new resource, ckbk - A digital collection of cookbooks where you can search ingredients, dishes, authors and more.
2️⃣ Discover Food Story - Created by SAIT faculty, this open access resource will help you deepen your knowledge about local Alberta foods and their cultural significance. You can find local producers on the food map, watch short videos to meet the people behind locally produced food, explore local ingredients and link to mouth-watering recipes.
3️⃣ Explore local recipes
Calgary Eats: Signature Recipes from the City's Best Restaurants and Bars
Food Artisans of Alberta: Your Trail Guide to the Best of our Locally Crafted Fare
Eat Alberta First: A Year of Local Recipes From Where the Prairies Meet the Mountains
4️⃣ Do delicious research with Food Science Source. You can access articles from journals, magazines and trade publications covering issues relating to the food industry.
5️⃣ Flick through the pages of a magazine: Bake from Scratch, Cook's Illustrated, So Good.
Still hungry for more? Search our catalogue for thousands of food-related resources.
Oki, Âba wathtech, Danit'ada, Tawnshi, Hello.
SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.
We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.