Surviving the City

By Tasha Spillett, Natasha Donovan and Donovan Yaciuk

Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape—they’re so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez’s grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can’t stay with her anymore. With the threat of a group home looming, Dez can’t bring herself to go home and disappears. Miikwan is devastated, and the wound of her missing mother resurfaces. Will Dez’s community find her before it’s too late? Will Miikwan be able to cope if they don’t?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HighWater Press
• Release date: Mar 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781553797845

Tasha Spillett

New York Times–bestselling author Tasha Spillett, PhD, (she/her/hers) draws her strength from both her Inninew and Trinidadian bloodlines. She is a celebrated Afro-Indigenous educator, poet, and emerging scholar. Tasha is most heart-tied to contributing to community-led work that centres on land and water defence, and the protection of Indigenous women and girls. Her books include the award-winning graphic novel series Surviving the City and the celebrated children’s book, I Sang You Down from the Stars. @TashaSpillett

Reviews for Surviving the City

[fionaanne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It ended far too abruptly and I would have liked to see the story more fleshed-out. I've just noticed there's a number 2 so the series will likely remedy these issues but I dislike being given the story piecemeal.

[jessethek-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Colorful loose drawings where most characters are twinned with ghostly relations. Big emotional heft.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

diverse teen/adult graphic novel (First Nations/indigenous women being kidnapped/murdered in Canada)
I'd heard about the Highway of Tears but the problem is even more prevalent than that. Similar to U.S. news outlets not making a fuss when the missing girls are black, the disappearances of indigenous women in Canada also do not get the attention they should, and because of that the cycle continues and worsens.

[eo206 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A friend suggested this for my summer reading BINGO board. I needed a book by an author from Canada and mentioned I've been reading a lot of teen/YA and graphic novels. I'm glad it was suggested, the book tells a delicate and important story that many more people need to know about. I've read a lot of news articles and followed the MMIW movement, and this book brings an important voice to the topic and a way to introduce it to younger people. I shared parts of it with my primary school age kid and he asked thoughtful questions.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Miikwan and Dez are best friends, indigenous girls who practice their traditions and live in the city. Miikwan's mother was among one of the missing and murdered women, girls and two-spirit people, and this dark reality haunts the backdrop of the girls' lives. When Dez doesn't return home after learning she can't live with her sick kokum (grandmother) anymore, Miikwan fears the worst. A welcome publication of a topical work.

[villemezbrown · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An important attempt to draw attention to the missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic in Canada.The writing has some shortcomings, leaving things like berry fasts and smudging unexplained for ignorant readers like myself, ending in an abrupt and muddled manner, and having an afterword that may have been more useful as an introduction. Mostly, at 54 pages it just felt too short to do the subject justice.What I did find effective was the presence of the spirits of female ancestors providing unseen support to the teenage girls at the center fo the story and the personification of the male gaze and sexual harassment as tall grey aliens looming behind the men who watch and approach the girls.And in the end, it did cause me to google a bunch of stuff tonight, so my curiosity has been piqued and my awareness has been raised some.

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great short work shining a spotlight on MMIW. Really well done.