6 Reader’s Guide to Moon of the Crusted SNOW by WAUBGESHIG RICE
Introduction
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice is a fictional novel that looks at how an Anishinaabe First Nation, in northern Ontario, deals with an unknown event that leaves the community isolated, without power or phone service, and limited food sources as winter sets in.
This open educational resource (OER) was created at York University’s Teaching Commons in 2018 as a response to the lack of OERs available for books with Indigenous themes in Canada. The resource was updated at Ontario Tech University’s Teaching and Learning Centre in 2021. As part of this update, themes from the original resource have been expanded and a new theme which explores connections between the novel and the global pandemic of 2020 has been added.
The current resource is divided into six themes, with each containing passages from the novel, discussion questions, resources and activities. Each section also has relevant quotes from the author along with additional reading suggestions that link back to the theme.
In December 2018, Waubgeshig Rice sat down with Shelagh Rogers from The Next Chapter to discuss his recently published book, Moon on the Crusted Snow. The Next Chapter is a Canadian Broadcast Corporation radio program focussed on Canadian writers and songwriters.
Author’s Bio
Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay. His first short story collection, Midnight Sweatlodge, was inspired by his experiences growing up in an Anishinaabe community and won an Independent Publishers Book Award in 2012. His debut novel,
Legacy, followed in 2014, with a French translation published in 2017. His latest novel,
Moon of the Crusted Snow, became a national bestseller and received widespread critical acclaim, including the Evergreen Award in 2019. His short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies.
His journalism experience began in 1996 as an exchange student in northern Germany, writing articles about being an Indigenous youth in a foreign country for newspapers back in Canada. He graduated from Ryerson University’s journalism program in 2002. He spent most of his journalism career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a video journalist, web writer, producer and radio host. In 2014, he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling. His final role with CBC was host of Up North, the afternoon radio program for northern Ontario. He left daily journalism in 2020 to focus on his literary career.
He currently lives in Sudbury, Ontario with his wife and two sons, where he’s working on the sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow.
Theme: Land
Curriculum Connections
Environmental Studies, Indigenous Studies, History, Law Studies, and Literature Studies
Introduction
From the novel
In the coming weeks, the temperature would drop and the snow would come. Soon after, the lake would freeze over and the snow and ice would be with them for six months. Like people in many other northern reserves, they would be isolated by the long, unforgiving season, confined to a small radius around the village that extended only as far as a snowmobile’s half tank of gas. (page 11)
Despite the hardship and tragedy that made up a significant part of this First Nation’s legacy, the Anishnaabe spirit of community generally prevailed. There was no panic on the night of this first blizzard, although there had been confusion in the days leading up to it. Survival had always been an integral part of their culture. It was their history. The skills they needed to persevere in this northern terrain, far from their original homeland farther south, were proud knowledge held close through the decades of imposed adversity. They were handed down to those in the next generation willing to learn. Each winter marked another milestone. (page 48)
Discussion Questions
1. Before reading the book, reflect on what land-based knowledge means to you. Ask this question again after reading the book.
How has your understanding of land-based knowledge changed?
2. How do you feel connected to the land around you? How does the environment sustain you (mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually)?
3. In your current context, how is your daily life shaped by the land and/or your environment, in big ways and small?
Treaties
From the novel
Resources
We Are All Treaty People is a comprehensive module developed by Jean Paul Restoule. It shares about treaties from pre-contact to contemporary times and contains reflective questions and activities.
The Government of Canada offers information about treaties as well as original treaty texts. These can be used as primary sources.
The Government of Ontario offers an interactive resource that allows you to click onto different treaty areas in the province. Type in your address and find what treaty land you live on.
Discussion Questions
- a) How have Indigenous peoples been impacted by historic and modern treaties? How is this evident in the book?
b) How have non-Indigenous peoples been impacted by historic and modern treaties? How do non-Indigenous peoples benefit as Treaty peoples?
Activities
Find a First Nations community in northern Ontario, like where the book is based (hint: you can use the Ontario interactive treaty map shared above). Research the treaty negotiations for this community. Investigate the journey the community has taken from their ancestral grounds to where their reserve is now located. In what ways has their community been impacted?
Ask students if they know the name of the traditional territory that they live on. This website can help students find that information, along with the traditional languages spoken in the area: Native-Land.ca
Land as Provider
Relevant quotes from the author
From the interview: When things start to fall apart: Andrew Wilmot in Conversation with Waubgeshig Rice
But in just a couple of generations, a lot of people have moved away from winter preparations like hunting and gathering wood, and have become more reliant on the amenities that bring them closer to the world to the south. So when they lose many of these conveniences, it’s a sobering wake-up call to re-examine their roles and responsibilities to the land and their community as Anishinaabeg.
Part of it goes back to what I mentioned earlier about putting a different lens on post-apocalyptic experiences and why an Indigenous perspective is crucial to consider. Nations and cultures have survived since time immemorial on this land without the fragile luxuries we’re so dependent on today. If and when those things disappear, the answer to survival will be in the land, as it has always been. Also, a personal reason for driving this message home was to remind myself to reconnect with the land. I grew up on the rez with lots of land-based knowledge, but I’ve lost a lot of that since I’ve lived in cities for two decades now.
From the novel
Resources
The Assembly of First Nations is the national advocacy group for First Nations in Canada. They are also interested in Honouring the Earth.
The United Nations plays a role in supporting Indigenous peoples around the world in their pursuit of self-determination and land rights.
This source from Trent University’s Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences programs shares other relevant links about Indigenous connection to the land.
This short doc by Ryan McMahon from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Stories from the Land series shares about the last commercial net fishermen in Rainy Lake, found in northwestern Ontario. This short doc from the same series shares about the significance of corn soup to the Haudenosaunee.
Discussion Questions
- The novel begins with Evan hunting a moose. In what ways is Evan connecting with his Anishinaabe identity when harvesting the moose?
- On page 107, Justin Scott says that he knows how to live on the land. On page 124, Justin goes hunting with Evan, Dan, Isaiah, and Jeff. Compare and contrast Justin’s way of living on the land with Evan’s.
- Identify examples of the ways in which characters use their land-based knowledge?
Activities
Evan remarks how hunting for meat is harder than buying it but it is more economical and rewarding (p. 6). Elsewhere in the book, Dan and Evan tan a moose hide (p. 21). This video shows the traditional way of harvesting deer by a member of the Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Reflect on the ways that the characters in the book and person in this video provide for their family and community. Compare this to the ways that small-scale farmers approach agriculture, and then to large-scale farming.
Reflect on the cost of groceries in your own community. Identify the general cost of some produce, dairy, meat, canned goods, and household products. Conduct internet research on the cost of food in northern Ontario and into the far north. Compare the cost of living in each place. How do you think this impacts Indigenous well-being in northern communities?
Aileen urges Evan to learn about the medicines found on the land (p.147). In this video, Joseph Pitawanakwat discusses traditional medicines. Find examples of modern medicines that come from the traditions of Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world.
Additional Reading
Youth
The Water Walker – Joanne Robertson
The Elders Are Watching – David Bouchard
Adult
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants– Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock –Dina Gilio-Whitaker
No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous – Sheldon Krasowski