Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Reason You Walk
The Reason You Walk: A Memoir | Wab Kinew
10 posts | 8 read | 13 to read
A moving story of father-son reconciliation told by a charismatic aboriginal star When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant aboriginal man whod raised him. The Reason You Walk spans that 2012 year, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on a reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school. An intriguing doubleness marks The Reason You Walk, itself a reference to an Anishinaabe ceremonial song. Born to an Anishinaabe father and a non-native mother, he has a foot in both cultures. He is a Sundancer, an academic, a former rapper, a hereditary chief and an urban activist. His father, Tobasonakwut, was both a beloved traditional chief and a respected elected leader who engaged directly with Ottawa. Internally divided, his father embraced both traditional native religion and Catholicism, the religion that was inculcated into him at the residential school where he was physically and sexually abused. In a grand gesture of reconciliation, Kinew's father invited the Roman Catholic bishop of Winnipeg to a Sundance ceremony in which he adopted him as his brother. Kinew writes affectingly of his own struggles in his twenties to find the right path, eventually giving up a self-destructive lifestyle to passionately pursue music and martial arts. From his unique vantage point, he offers an inside view of what it means to be an educated aboriginal living in a country that is just beginning to wake up to its aboriginal history and living presence. Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and for a wider conversation about the future of aboriginal peoples.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
Singout
post image
Pickpick

Now Manitoba Premier, Kinew shares a rich story of his journey, as well as that of his father who survived residential school, through pain, racism, and substance abuse to healing and leadership. He honestly covers key elements in Canada‘s Indigenous history, insights into spiritual and cultural practices, and his own path towards being a writer and commentator with his father becoming a key national leader.
#Nonfiction2024 AbsolutelyTrue

13 likes2 stack adds
review
DieAReader
post image
Pickpick

#Challenge2021

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CoverToCoverGirl Another book removed from that mountainous TBR pile(s) 🤓👏 (edited) 3y
DieAReader @CoverToCoverGirl Actually, this was an “Available Now” option🤣🤪 3y
28 likes2 comments
review
Lindy
post image
Pickpick

Wab Kinew performing his own work, incl long passages in Anishnaabemowin, is what made this a 5-star, rather than 4-star, #audiobook. In print, I would have skipped on to the translations. A moving memoir that affords insight into overcoming challenges—such as racism, addictions, mental health issues—facing contemporary #Indigenous individuals, particularly in the context of fatherhood, spirituality & the legacy of residential schools in Canada.

Singout Thank you for the audiobook description! Putting it on my to-read list. 4y
Lindy @Singout My pleasure! If you listen to this audiobook, I would love to be tagged when you review it. 4y
41 likes2 comments
blurb
Lindy
post image

#audiogardening in the rain... which mostly involves wandering and pulling a few weeds. #bloomingLitsy

mhillis Beautiful 💕 4y
LauraBrook A lovey photo. And I‘ve really enjoyed your chats with Shawn on his YouTube channel! I get really excited when I see your face over there, and I hope to see more in future! 💖 4y
Lindy @mhillis Thanks! 4y
Lindy @LauraBrook Thank you! I have fun chatting with @shawnmooney 😊 4y
52 likes1 stack add4 comments
blurb
Lindy
post image

It‘s the 5th anniversary of the release of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada‘s final report. I learned from the tagged memoir that the CBC had issued a memo to all of their staff in early TRCC days, that they must use official federal govt terminology: call individuals “former students of residential schools” instead of “residential school survivors.” Journalist Wab Kinew fought hard & successfully overturned that policy. #Indigenous

33 likes1 stack add
blurb
runswithscissors007
post image

#lastfirst
The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew finished the year off with some serious introspection. Beginning the year with Deadwood by Pete Dexter; lush story telling and characters.
Hope I am doing this right! @BookNAround

Nute I like when a story or writing is described as “lush.” That is such a cool word! I stacked that book simply because you used that word to describe it!😁 5y
runswithscissors007 @nute I definitely plan to find another Pete Dexter book to sink in to!
5y
5 likes2 comments
blurb
Chaggarty
post image

"On that day, the Creator spoke to us all, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, and reminded us of the reasons we walk."

blurb
kendrastephaniekaryn
post image

#marchintoreading #canadianauthors
A few more from my Kobo, for good measure. Wab Kinew is one of my favourite Canadians; check out his work if you aren't familiar!

LisaJo Gretzky 🏒 ❤️ 8y
11 likes1 comment
blurb
Stephtck
post image

The perfect snack for a sleepover at the Red Cross (don't worry I'm just here for training). As for the book I'm getting a head start on book club reading for January, I'm liking it so far.

review
strikingthirteen
post image
Pickpick

Fantastic memoir about a father, his father, Indigenous people and Canada, and the constant learning, loving, and reaching toward the future by acknowledging the past is the reason you walk.

6 likes3 stack adds