Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

I start my day before sunrise, throwing on running clothes and laying a pinch of semaa at the eastern base of a tree, where sunlight will touch the tobacco first. Prayers begin with offering semaa and sharing my Spirit name, clan, and where I am from. I always add an extra name to make sure Creator knows who I am. A name that connects me to my father — because I began as a secret, and then a scandal. [p. 5]

What makes “Firekeeper’s Daughter” brilliantly unique is the way in which Angeline Boulley weaves the language, philosophy, and traditions of the Anishinaabeg into her narrative. An enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa (one of the tribes within the group referred to as Anishinaabeg), the author’s passion and commitment to the place and people about which she writes guides this beautiful story full of love, humility, respect, honesty, bravery, wisdom, and truth.

Another strength of “Firekeeper’s Daughter” is its main character Daunis Fontaine. Daunis’s mother is the daughter of one of Sault Ste. Marie’s most prominent white (Zhaaganaash) families who chose not to acknowledge Daunis’s father on the birth certificate because he was Anishinaabe. Daunis’s connection to her Anishinaabe (Firekeeper) family is strong, but she feels like everyone questions her belonging. In her words:

We are descendants — rather than enrolled members — of the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe. My father isn’t listed on my birth certificate, and Lily doesn’t meet the minimum blood-quantum requirement for enrollment. We still regard the Tribe as ours, even though our faces are pressed against the glass, looking in from outside. [p. 18]

Daunis is continually exploring her maternal white identity and the complexity of Indigenous identities. Unfortunately, even as Daunis is not regarded as Anishinaabe, she still experiences all the micro-aggressions and racism that the Sault has to offer. She shouldn’t have to make the decisions posed to her and she certainly shouldn’t have to experience the trauma she faces. But this is the way the author shines a light on her strength of character, loyalty, and cleverness. It is through facing generational trauma, femicide, and drug abuse that Daunis brings justice, healing, and love to her community.

To draw attention to the Indigenous oral and experiential storytelling format, “Firekeeper’s Daughter’s” narrative structure uses the Ojibwe medicine wheel, rather than the classical/Western form of the hero’s journey in three acts. The author states: I looked at our medicine wheel, which has four quadrants, and I thought, what if Daunis’s story is the Hero’s Journey in the context of our medicine wheel—what if it mirrored our medicine wheel teachings and also fit into the Hero’s Journey? [Q&A With Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper’s Daughter]

Each of the novel’s four parts are labeled by their cardinal directions: Waabanong (East), Zhaawanong (South), Ningaabii’ An (West), and Kewaadin (North). [Decoloniality in Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter] The story begins in the eastern direction, where all journeys begin, according to the Ojibwe tradition. Part 2 takes place in the south, which is said in the book to be a time when people both wonder and wander. It is in this part of the narrative that the story becomes a crime thriller and the plot’s pace quickens. Part 3 moves into the west, which is a time involving constant change. The last section takes place in the north, which is a “time for resting and reflecting in the place of dreams, stories and truth” [Part 4 title page].

We chose “Firekeeper’s Daughter” to discuss at my ‘Read Like a Kid’ Book Club, but I have to ask: If the main character Daunis hadn’t been a teenager, would this have been categorized as YA?

C.S. Lewis said it best: “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” All ages will enjoy and learn from this novel!

And, terrific news, I just finished the sequel “Warrior Girl Unearthed” and it is just as amazing!

Check Amazon for more on this book I love.