Turtle Island Reads: Gage Diabo champions Thomas King's Back of the Turtle

On Wednesday, Sept. 21,CBCco-hosts Turtle Island Reads a live public event at Kahnawake Survival School,highlighting stories written by and about Indigenous Canadians.

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Drawing its inspiration from CBC's Canada Reads, it'san opportunity to talk about and celebrate Indigenous Canadian writers and connect readers with their stories.

Three advocates will each championone book of fiction written by an Indigenous Canadian author and try to persuade you to make that book the next one on your reading list.

Here is a taste of GageKarahkwi:io Diabo'sargument in support of Thomas King'sThe Back of the Turtle.

The most memorable books are the ones that make you laugh, make you angryand make you think in that order.

Thomas King's book The Back of the Turtle does exactly that, and more.

I chose to championThe Back of the Turtlebecause it isunlike anything else I've ever read by a First Nations author or otherwise.

It's a novel about ecological disaster that's as funny, magicaland down-to-earth as it is unsettling.

The threat of environmental ruination is scary, but King manages to scale things back by zeroing in on the individual personalities whose dreams, decisionsand mistakes each affect the bigger picture.

Not to mention, it's a real page-turner.

What makes the novel special is that everyone gets a meaningful voice: There's Gabriel, the scientist whose discoveries led to the disaster; there's Mara, the painter whose home and family were destroyed; there's Dorian, the businessman who profited from it all.

These characters are human beings, not stereotypes, and nobody is an obvious hero or villain.

With this story, King is less concerned with placing blame or creating sweeping change than he is with reminding us of how we're all, Native or non-Native, in this boat together.

For me, the chance to talk about The Back of the Turtle as part of Turtle Island Reads is important because it's the kind of story I wish I had knownabout when I was younger.

Choosing how our stories unfold

It's easy, as a First Nations youth, to look at the big problems in the world and to feel powerless,even voiceless.

Reading this novel, I felt empowered with the knowledge that we alone have control over how our stories unfold and where our choices take us.

Thomas King asks us to look closely at which paths we're on today and where those might bring us.

From the biggest disasters to the smallest victories, it all comes back to ourselves and the changes we're willing to make.

For a young First Nations reader who may not feel especially empowered, I think that's a message worth celebrating.

• Find out more about CBC Montreal's special event: Turtle Island Reads

Co-hosted by CBC's Sonali Karnick andWaubkeshigRice, theevent is a CBC collaboration with community leaders on theKahnawakeMohawk territory, the Quebec Writers' Federation andMcGillUniversity'sInstitute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas.

Let us know you're comingby visiting our CBC Montreal Facebook Events page.