An Update from Shannon Webb-Campbell and the Team at Book*hug
It has been a little over two months since we made the very difficult decision to halt sales and promotion of Who Took My Sister? At this time, we wish to provide an update, to let everyone know of the steps we have taken together in beginning our process of making amends and our plans to issue a revised and corrected edition of the book.
We would like to acknowledge the complexities involved in pulling this book from circulation. And we continue to acknowledge the importance of taking ownership and accountability for the mistakes that we made leading up to the publication of the book. We have written and sent letters of apology to the four families whose loved ones appeared in the book, and we are grateful for the responses we have received. To these families, and anyone who experienced pain or trauma because of the sensitive nature of material included in Who Took My Sister? we remain deeply sorry, and continue to offer our most sincere apologies.
We express our appreciation and gratitude to Delilah Saunders for her willingness to speak with us and for her guidance toward beginning larger, much needed conversations about the issues involved. In consultation with her, we have donated revenues from the publication to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, requesting that they be used to help families of MMIWGs, if possible. We also appreciate the wisdom shared with us by Lee Maracle, who encouraged us to do the difficult work necessary to be responsible and to make amends while continuing to work with the rest of the book. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge Rosanna Deerchild, host of CBC Radio’s program Unreserved, for a recent episode, “Who Gets to Tell Indigenous Stories,” that tackled the subject with great care and sensitivity; we found the episode insightful and helpful.
As a Mi’kmaq author, as an editor, and as publishers, we are learning from and working to bring Indigenous knowledge systems into our various practices. These knowledge systems will guide our collective work on a revised edition of the book, which will be released in the coming months. We will provide further updates regarding these developments.
Shannon Webb-Campbell, Author
Julie Joosten, Editor
Jay Millar and Hazel Millar, Co-publishers, Book*hug
