Skins Book

This book is a collection of stories by indigenous authors of American Indian, Inuit, First Nations, Aboriginal and Maori descent. In includes a variety of stories based on a variety of different indigenous issues. Some stories are based around personal stories such as 'The Letter' written by Sally Morgan. It is a story of an Aboriginal woman trying to make contact with her sister's daughter who was taken away by the Aborigines Protection Board and adopted out to a white family. In contrast other stories/poem are based on traditional folktales. The Abenaki tale written by Joseph Bruchac 'The Hungry One' is a folktale about how a greedy and lazy uncle tries to eat his entire family.
The story which I most enjoyed and found very moving was the story 'Borders' written by Thomas King which is told from the perspective of a child. The story is centred around a child and his mother being stuck between the borders of Canada and America. The reason for this being that the child's mother will only identify herself as Blackfoot and will not claim Canadian or American citizenship when asked to. The story's strength comes from the charm of the naivety and innocence of it's protagonist who does not understand the gravity of the situation.
This collection of short stories are thoughtful, interesting and a great read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read stories that focus on the frailty of human nature or anyone interested in indigenous history and culture.