On Wholeness is a complex exploration of the Anishinaabe world, the ways in which settler colonialism has attempted to compartmentalize and annihilate it, the agony of the resulting disembodiment, and ultimately, the pathways to reclamation. It is, for a lack of a better term, a living explanation, one which comes to the reader in images and feelings, delivered with a logic that is not static but flowing. For me, it was an exhausting but beautiful reading experience, intense and unforgettable.
For me, it was an exhausting but beautiful reading experience, intense and unforgettable.
Quill Christie-Peters’ rich prose draws us into the Anishinaabe world view with power; we experience the marvel of a dazzling world of interconnection, a universe of eternal presence in which ancestors are among the stars but present, from the distant past but with us. The image of swirling smoke flows through creation; it both touches and is everything.
She tells how we are part of this flow, this swirling smoke, before birth, and when we are born, the smoke swirls through us. “Swirling smoke” describes it all so well: formless, permeating everything, moving freely to expand and circle at will. It is a far cry from the linear, compartmentalized creation view some of us learned as children; it is more natural, and it makes sense. It is also an affirming and positive creation; no one falls from grace here and each particle has meaning.
“Swirling smoke” describes it all so well: formless, permeating everything, moving freely to expand and circle at will.
The term “violence” is used to describe the impact of colonization on this world view. The author does not spare us here, seeing the colonial experience as a violent and deliberate attempt to annihilate a way of life, to destroy a people. We are drawn into the shattering pain of a child torn from an embracing world in which they are part of everything and everyone. They are ripped from their world, isolated, compartmentalized, and violated. Their lives are ruptured, as are the lives of all who come after. As she points out, she herself carries the pain of her parents through her connection. And so it is for all.
Her personal story is candidly shared, her own brokenness and her own healing. This, however, does not occur in isolation, but extends to others, notably in a daring art project for youth. This project turns out not to be a course in art technique, but an experience of learning and deepening in culture and wellness, with an art response developed in the final week. She explains that Anishinaabe creative practice incorporates much more than “art;” it is an overall way of being involving both dream and action.
As part of her own healing, she has discovered connections with other struggles, notably in the suffering of Palestinian children. She has become a strong advocate for Palestine, seeing in their trauma connections with Anishinaabe experience. Healing does not take place in isolation. For when she speaks of embodiment, reclaiming the body, this does not refer to merely the physical form of oneself. It seems to be all aspects of oneself, and all the ways in which these aspects are connected to everything that is. Embodiment is a reclamation of all that one is, and responsibility follows naturally from that.
Embodiment is a reclamation of all that one is, and responsibility follows naturally from that.
Perhaps most special in her personal journey is her connection with her young daughter, whose vision, compassion, and conviction are her strength. I think of what this beautiful child’s ancestors experienced, what she carries and rises beyond, and I am grateful that Giizik is in the world.
Quill Christie-Peters’ writing is strong, concise, and rich in vivid imagery. She sees through the rhetoric typical of reconciliation talks and speaks with conviction on settler colonial violence with particular emphasis on gender. She provides a deep analysis of the colonial experience and offers clear solutions for reclamation.
As one raised in a settler world, I can only catch glimpses of the beauty of a world in which everything we are swirls into one. I can only feel from the edges the horror of settler colonial violence; I can say I understand, but we know that I do not. But through her words, I look at the pathways toward a world in the process of healing; I see the responsibility it demands, and the joy in that responsibility. I want to go forward, and I am grateful to Quill Christie-Peters for this writing.
Quill Christie-Peters is an Anishinaabe educator and self-taught visual artist from Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation located in Treaty 3 territory. She is the creator and director of the Indigenous Youth Residency Program, an artist residency for Indigenous youth that engages land-based creative practices through Anishinaabe artistic methodologies. She holds a master’s degree in Indigenous governance on Anishinaabe art-making as a process of falling in love. She has spoken at Stanford University, the University of Toronto, and California College of the Arts, and her written work can be found in GUTS magazine and Canadian Art. She is also a mother, beadwork artist, and traditional tattoo practitioner following the protocols of her community. All of her work can be found at @raunchykwe.
Publisher: House of Anansi Press (OCtober 28, 2025)
Paperback: 8.5 x 5.5″ | 264 pages
ISBN: 9781487013257
- Anne Smith-Nochasakhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/annesn/
- Anne Smith-Nochasakhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/annesn/
- Anne Smith-Nochasakhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/annesn/
- Anne Smith-Nochasakhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/annesn/
- Anne Smith-Nochasakhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/annesn/
- Anne Smith-Nochasakhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/annesn/
