Back on the Rez: Finding the Way Home

FINALIST FOR THE GORDON MONTADOR AWARD FOR THE BEST BOOK ON SOCIAL ISSUES
A GLOBE AND MAIL EDITOR'S CHOICE

“Highly readable and of extraordinary value.” —The Globe and Mail

A deeply personal journey of Indigenous reclamation, belonging, and the power of language.

More than thirty years after its original publication, Back on the Rez remains a landmark work in Indigenous storytelling and self-reclamation. Brian Maracle—journalist, broadcaster, and Mohawk of the Six Nations of the Grand River—tells the deeply honest story of his return to the community he left decades earlier. Trading his life in downtown Toronto for a home on the reserve, he confronts the divide between urban survival and traditional connection, between English and the revitalizing power of the Mohawk language.

This edition speaks directly to a new generation navigating similar crossroads—between cities and communities, colonial systems and cultural renewal, burnout and belonging. At a time when language preservation, land stewardship, and Indigenous resurgence are urgent national priorities, Maracle’s reflections are more relevant than ever. He writes not as an expert, but as someone walking back into his culture with humility, curiosity, and clarity.

Unflinching and wise, Back on the Rez offers readers a rare glimpse into what it really means to come home—not just geographically, but spiritually and politically. This is a clear-eyed memoir about what it means to belong and a powerful account of returning not just to a place, but to a way of being.

BRIAN MARACLE is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Mohawk Nation, originally from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory near Brantford, Ontario. During the 1970s he worked for Indigenous organizations at the local, provincial, and national levels, and since the early 1980s he has worked as a print and broadcast journalist, specializing in Indigenous issues. He is the former host of CBC’s Our Native Land and a former reporter for The Globe and Mail.