Ruth DyckFehderau

Ruth's books



The Sweet Bloods of Eeyou Istchee: Stories of Diabetes and the James Bay Cree is written in collaboration with James Bay Cree storytellers. Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay (the public health arm of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee) commissioned and published it (distrib WLUP), and they hold copyright. 

Sweet Bloods contains twenty-six stories that offer a rich and timely accounting of contemporary life in Eeyou Istchee, the territory of the James Bay Cree of Northern Quebec. The stories are connected by diabetes, but they are not records of illness as much as they are deeply personal accounts of life in the North: the fine, swaying balances of living both in town and on the land, of family and work and studies, of healing from relocations and residential school histories while building communities of safety and challenge and joy, of hunting and hockey, and much more. It's essential reading for anyone who knows anyone with diabetes, and for anyone interested in a contemporary rendering of one of Canada’s vibrant, thriving, and highly adaptive Indigenous communities. 

Sweet Bloods is designed and printed with accessibility in mind. 

The Second Edition (with epilogue) and audiobook (narrated by Matthew Iserhoff) are now available.


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