Weaving myriad forms - poetry, family history, personal essay, cultural criticism - Andrea Currie tells her story with mercy and force, revealing the warp and weft of the racist system that codified the robbery of Indigenous children through the Sixties Scoop and the devastating consequences for those children, their families, and their communities. In this rigorous and beautiful debut, Currie's unfaltering pursuit of complicated truths lifts into the light the possibility of healing, as she seeks and finds her own lost family, writing her story into theirs. Finding Otipemisiwak is a necessary, searing, and luminous gift of a book. -Rebecca Silver Slayter, author of The Second History

Finding Otipemisiwak is a stunning, illuminating, and gutting journey through the life of a Sixties Scoop survivor. Page turning, genre bending, personal and political, staggeringly honest, heartbreaking, and glorious, it is a story of resistance, possibility, healing, and hope, of reclamation and reconciliation. With words to stop you in your tracks, Currie braids together heart, soul, and smarts in memoir, poems, threads of her family histories, the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, unflinching questions, and courage, making herself magnificently vulnerable. This book cuts to the heart of the Sixties Scoop crisis, addresses the intergenerational trauma of not only its survivors but its effects on all of us. It gives us all a chance to relearn the history of Canada and to dream of a healing in it. It is part of the truth-telling change this country so desperately needs. -Camille Fouillard, author of Precious Little

Finding Otipemisiwak is a beautifully written story of tragedy and triumph, as well as one of escape from a false family into the embrace of a loving one. Threading through Currie's remarkable tale is a heart-wrenching bond between her and her adoptive brother, Rob. This book contains a story that desperately needs to be told. -Frank Macdonald, author of A Forest for Calum

This book takes on the quality of a great radio documentary, splicing prose, poetry, and actuality as Andrea Currie cross-examines colonization and the story that settler society placed over her like a net. When she comes to know who she and her people are, there is joy and there is sadness, but also truth and belonging, a firm scaffolding as Andrea comes to own herself. Finding Otipemisiwak is a powerful act of resistance and gripping to read. It is a balm. -Shelagh Rogers, founding host and co-creator of The Next Chapter CBC Radio
Honorary Witness, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Finding Otipemisiwak is a poignant story of self-discovery, weaving Red River Metis heritage with personal narrative and ancestral lore and honouring resilience amidst the Sixties Scoop. -Albert G.D. Beck, Director, Manitoba Metis Federation

Finding Otipemisiwak is an at times gut-wrenching but always honest account of a time in this nation's history that for too long has been overlooked. Andrea Currie's beautiful poetry and crisp prose force, in such a meaningful way, the reader to acknowledge the hurt done and the need for healing in this land we now call Canada. Combining fact and personal history, Currie brings us into the story of a country willing to sacrifice the welfare of Indigenous children for reasons we still struggle to understand. We should all pause and sit with Currie and her words and join her in the vulnerability she places on the page. We will be better for it. This book is a remarkable collection of knowledge for those who want to learn. -Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers

Fascinating insight into the work [Currie] has pioneered as a psychotherapist to other Indigenous survivors of the Scoop and of residential schools ... A stirring and hopeful vision of spiritual reconciliation with the ghosts of the past. -Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

With the intimacy of a sharing circle, this story draws in our hearts immediately. Pulsing between difficult observations and skilfully woven into Finding Otipemisiwak are Indigenous teachings and poetry, allowing the narrative to breathe. Even in the very wake of hardship, Andrea Currie encourages us to believe in the enduring powers of culture, earth, and community. -shalan joudry, author of Waking Ground