Restoring the Balance: First Nations Women, Community, and Culture contains 12 essays by 15 Aboriginal scholars about the roles First Nations, Metis, and Inuit women continue to play in their communities as they work to restore the necessary balance in their individual lives, their families and their larger communities. Editors Gail Valaskakis, Madeleine Dion Stout, and Eric Guimond have organized the collection into 4 main themes that address Historic Trauma; Intellectual and Social Movements; Arts, Culture, and Language; and Health and Healing. Contributors include: Kim Anderson, Jo-ann Archibald, Cleo Big Eagle, Yvonne Boyer, Marlene Brant Castellano, Viviane Gray, Gaye Hanson, Anita Olsen Harper, Emma Larocque, Mary Jane Norris, Sherry Farrell Racette, and Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux. Essays cover the important contributions made by First Nations women and the law; female political leadership; the personal stories of five female academics; women's contributions to community health; profiles of First Nations female artists; and the role of First Nations women in Language education. This volume is an important contribution to understanding the historical trauma Aboriginal women in Canada faced and their ongoing roles in sustaining cultural continuity and community building.
