Founded in 1967, the University of Manitoba Press is the oldest university press in Western Canada, located on the original lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, and Dakota Oyate peoples and on the Homeland of the Red River Métis Nation. The press publishes critical scholarship that engages with the issues and events affecting the lives of Canadians and is recognized as a leading publisher of books on Indigenous history, Indigenous studies, and Canadian history. It also publishes works on environmental history, human rights and social justice, food security, ethnic and immigration studies, and Canadian literary studies, as well as on the culture and history of the Canadian prairies.
The small team is proud of how closely they work with scholars, both to develop their work for publication and in the ensuing production, sales, and marketing processes. “Authors’ works are read and engaged with at every stage of the publication process,” says director David Larsen. “We publish 10–12 titles per year, so every book on our list is important to us.” The press is dedicated to learning from its authors and publishing books “that highlight Indigenous voices and methodologies with respect, relationality, and reciprocity.”
Among the press’s most successful publications are A National Crime by John S. Milloy, one of the first texts to offer a definitive account of the residential school system in Canada, and Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine by Kim Anderson, an inspiring guide to the health and well-being of Indigenous women and their communities that shares the teachings of Elders to illustrate how different life stages were experienced by Métis, Cree, and Anishinaabe girls and women during the mid-twentieth century.
There are also the award-winning titles Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Métis Ancestry and Anishinaabe Spirituality and Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities by Chantal Fiola, which feature Fiola’s groundbreaking research and examine the historical origins and contemporary practices of Métis spirituality. The press’s First Voices, First Texts series “reconnects contemporary readers with some of the most important Indigenous literature of the past, most of which has been unavailable for decades due to colonial publishing practices,” the press says. The most recent addition to the series is Brown Tom’s Schooldays by Enos T. Montour, an ironic play on the school-novel drawn from Montour’s own experiences at Mount Elgin Residential School between 1910 and 1915. With a new foreword by historian Mary Jane Logan McCallum, the novel opens a unique window into Canada’s residential school history.
The press notes that, in line with this year’s theme of #StepUP, many of its titles explore “deep and often challenging truths about Canada and its place in the world.” These include Reclaiming Anishinaabe Law by Leo Baskatawang and the forthcoming Living Language Rights by Lorena Fontaine, which “challenge policy makers to step up and fulfill the UNDRIP commitments that the Canadian government has made on the international stage.” Manomin: Caring for Ecosystems and Each Other, edited by Brittany Luby et al. in collaboration with Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation, is a model of community-engaged Indigenous research ethics, sharing lessons and offering wisdom drawn from efforts to restore traditional manomin fields.
Looking ahead to 2025, the press is set to release a collection of exciting titles: Beyond the Rink by Janice Forsyth et al. reexamines photos of the Sioux Lookout Black Hawks, a residential school’s hockey team, that were used as government propaganda during their championship tour in 1951; In the Footsteps of the Traveller by Chris M. Cannon offers the first in-depth study of Northern Dene astronomy, the press says, and combines interviews, photographs of the northern night sky, illustrations, and more as it “leads the way to deeper understandings of Northern Dene astronomical knowledge, perceptions, and practices.” Finally, Founding Folks by Kevin Nikkel explores the story of the internationally renowned Winnipeg Folk Festival and provides “fascinating insight into the lifelong friendships that developed among some of folk music’s most defining figures on Winnipeg stages.”
