Documenting undocumented motherhood
In this issue's cover story, a mother compiles a baby book for her son, documenting the ups and downs of pregnancy and parenthood while living as a migrant in Canada. The winners of our 2020 Writing in the Margins prize showcase photography, creative non-fiction, and poetry about decolonial direct action, the fallout of the Vietnam war, and diaspora blues. Plus: stories about Ducks Unlimited's control of the largest freshwater delta in North America; building internationalism from below amid a U.S.-China trade war; Land Back beyond borders; and Métis feminism.
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MagazineStitching together a movement
At its best, Briarpatch stitches together the fragments of a progressive community across so-called Canada, quilting a powerful movement for collective liberation.
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MagazineWe are the boat’s people
Without the war, we would still be the boat’s people, Má. We try to find land, where the joyful people are, but we only surround ourselves with water.
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MagazineLand Back Camp: Our Voices
Portraits of the Indigenous people and settlers of O:se Kenhionhata:tie, the camp that reclaimed land in Victoria Park and Waterloo Park for six months of 2020.
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MagazineAgainst the Duck Factory
The largest freshwater delta in North America is under threat from a charity whose goal is seemingly to generate more ducks, no matter the cost to local Indigenous residents and wildlife.
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MagazineBaby book: Documenting undocumented motherhood
A note from Briarpatch’s editor, clarifying four factual inaccuracies that existed in the baby book, and how they came to be published.
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MagazineChina, the Canadian left, and countering state capitalist apologia
Amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Chinese governments, a troubling campist discourse has been growing in the Canadian left. Socialists should side with neither the American nor the Chinese state – instead, we need to build internationalism from below.
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MagazineLand Back beyond borders
What does it mean for Indigenous people to be good guests on each other’s land?
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MagazineFinding kin and connection through “Halfbreed”
This year, I read Maria Campbell’s foundational memoir in a book club of Métis women. Nearly 50 years since it was published, “Halfbreed” still holds important teachings for those of us on the journey of understanding what it means to be Métis.
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MagazineSpirits
Deeper than oceans, channels twice removed / from their native basins. This blood is thicker / than the St. Lawrence, quicker / than the Demerara, sicker / than the Ganges.
