BLANKET TOSS UNDER MIDNIGHT SUN

A unique and outstanding photo project on Native Indians, honouring the resilience, resourcefulness and determination of indigenous peoples.

Blanket Toss under Midnight Sun consists of approximately eighty archival black-and-white and colour photographs of indigenous family life from 1925 to 1985, a period of sixty years. The images portray the resilience and resourcefulness of indigenous communities across Canada, and illustrate a way of life that has been diminished or lost in modern times and is little known today.
The book focuses on eight communities and includes high-resolution photos from the work of twelve photographers who spent significant time in one region. Each photo was carefully selected for its relevance to the geography and history of the region. The communities are:
Chapter 1: Cape Dorset (Kinngait)
Chapter 2: Nunavik
Chapter 3: James Bay
Chapter 4: Hudson Bay Watershed
Chapter 5: Saskatchewan
Chapter 6: Montana and Alberta
Chapter 7: Northwest Territories
Chapter 8: Yukon
A narrative essay for each community focuses on its history, its families, and its cultural characteristics, including anecdotal stories, profiles of significant individuals, and analysis of how the community adapted to change. The essays concentrate on the human dimension and allow the sensual aspects of the photographs (the stories within) to speak for themselves. That sensuality captures the beauty and humanity of the subjects through the hardest of times and through tumultuous changes, while retaining their optimism and the resilience of the human spirit. To counter the preponderance of stories about oppression and misery, this collection presents positive stories celebrating indigenous experience, as well as the stories of the photographers themselves.

Paul Seesequasis is a writer, editor, cultural activist and journalist. He was a founding editor of the award-winning Aboriginal Voices magazine, and was editor-in-chief at Theytus Books. He was the recipient of a MacLean-Hunter journalism award, and was a program officer for a number of years at The Canada Council for the Arts. His short stories and feature writings have been published in Canada and abroad. His novel, Tobacco Wars, was published by Quattro Books and his latest book, a collaboration with Mayan artist, Jesu Mora, pop wuj: An Illustrated Narrative of the Mayan Sacred Book, was launched in Mexico City in 2015. He lives in Saskatoon.