Book Launch - Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Sterritt

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the Ottawa International Writers Festival invite you to a conversation between Adrian Harewood and Angela Sterritt about her national bestseller, Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls. It is an extraordinary work of memoir and investigative journalism written by an award-winning Gitxsan journalist who survived life on the streets against all odds.

As a Gitxsan teenager navigating life on the streets, Angela Sterritt wrote in her journal to help her survive and find her place in the world. Now an acclaimed journalist, she writes for major news outlets to push for justice and to light a path for Indigenous women, girls and survivors.

In her brilliant debut, Sterritt shares her memoir alongside investigative reporting into cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism led to a society where Sterritt struggled to survive as a young person and where the lives of Indigenous women and girls are ignored and devalued.

Growing up, Sterritt was steeped in the stories of her ancestors: grandparents who carried bentwood boxes of berries, hunted and trapped and later fought for rights and title to that land. But as a vulnerable young woman, kicked out of the family home and living on the street, Sterritt inhabited places that today are infamous for being communities where women have gone missing or been murdered: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and, later on, Northern BC’s Highway of Tears. Sterritt faced darkness: she experienced violence from partners and strangers and saw friends and community members die or go missing. But she navigated the street, group homes and SROs to finally find her place in journalism and academic excellence at university, relying entirely on her own strength, resilience and creativity along with the support of her ancestors and community to find her way.

“She could have been me,” Sterritt acknowledges today, and her empathy for victims, survivors and families drives her present-day investigations into the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women. In the end, Sterritt steps into a place of power, demanding accountability from the media and the public, exposing racism and showing that there is much work to do on the path towards understanding the truth. But most importantly, she proves that the strength and brilliance of Indigenous women is unbroken and that together they can build lives of joy and abundance.

Event details

Date

Monday, October 2, 2023

Time

7:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time)

Event admission

Free admission,
Seating is limited, so please register.

Event location

Library and Archives Canada,
Alfred Pellan Room

Event address

395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON

For more information about this event, email invitation@bac-lac.gc.ca.

Testimonial:

“A remarkable life story … Angela Sterritt is a formidable storyteller and a passionate advocate.”

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