Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing by and about Indigenous Peoples

Cited in the Chicago Manual of Style

The groundbreaking Indigenous style guide every writer needs

A new editorial team continues the paradigm-shifting conversation started by the late Gregory Younging in his foundational Elements of Indigenous Style. Trusted by writers, editors, publishers, researchers, scholars, journalists, and communications professionals around the world, the second edition of Elements continues to offer crucial guidance to everyone who works with words on how to accurately, collaboratively, and ethically participate in projects involving Indigenous Peoples.

This second conversation updates and annotates Younging’s twenty-two succinct style principles and recommendations to reflect up-to-date, Indigenous-led best practices. The new edition also includes:

• Advice on culturally appropriate writing and publishing practices, and guidance on specific editorial issues such as spelling and terminology.
• Five new chapters covering author–editor relationships, identity and community affiliation, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer identities, Indigenous citation practices, sensitivity reading, the representation of Indigenous languages and oral narratives in print, emerging issues in the digital world, and more.
• Examples of projects and institutions that demonstrate best practices.
• An expanded table of contents and full index for easy navigation.

Gregory Younging, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was the publisher of Theytus Books, the first Indigenous-owned publishing house in Canada. Elements of Indigenous Style began as the house style Gregory developed at Theytus. Gregory also taught in the Indigenous Studies Program of the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, and he served as assistant director of research to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Warren Cariou is a writer, scholar, and artist of Red River Métis and European heritage based at the University of Manitoba. He has edited numerous books and anthologies of Indigenous Literature, and he is General Editor of the First Voices, First Text series at the University of Manitoba Press. He has published works of fiction, criticism, and memoir about Indigenous cultures and environmental issues, and his photography examines oil extraction activities in Treaty 8 territory.