Halfbreed

by Maria Campbell

THE REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION OF A CANADIAN CLASSIC

This extraordinary account, written by a young Métis woman, opens the door to a little-known world that coexists alongside Canadian society. Maria Campbell shares with the reader the joys, the sorrows, the love and the tragedies of her childhood in northern Saskatchewan.

One of the “Road Allowance People,” Maria was a strong and sensitive child who lived in a community robbed of its pride and dignity by the surrounding white world.

At 15, she tried in vain to escape by marrying a white man, only to find herself trapped in the slums of Vancouver—a drug addict, prone to suicide, close to death. But she survived, inspired by her Cree great-grandmother, Cheechum, who gave her confidence in herself and in her people.

Maria Campbell offers us an understanding of the Métis people and of the racism and hatred they face. Her story cannot be denied and it cannot be forgotten. It stands as a challenge to any Canadian who believes in human rights and human dignity.

Originally published in 1973, Halfbreed took the country by storm and it became a foundational work of indigenous literature. Here it appears with a new introduction revealing what Maria Campbell has been up to since then, and an afterword from Maria looking at what has changed, or not, in the 45 years since publication. Restored are the recently discovered missing pages from the original text of this groundbreaking book.

Kokum Rap

PRAISE FOR HALFBREED BY MARIA CAMPBELL

“The daring account of a strong-willed woman who defeated poverty, racism, alcohol and drug addiction by the age of thirty-three.”— SATURDAY NIGHT

“Here speaks a voice never heard before with such direct frankness, such humour: the voice of the true Canadian woman.”— RUDY WIEBE, author of The Temptations of Big Bear

“You can almost feel this book vibrating in your hands, it is so compelling. You read it with a kind of agonized heart-in-the-mouth sensation, halfway between laughter and tears…. Truth is stronger than fiction.”— VICTORIA TIMES-COLONIST

“Sometimes a book tells us what we have always known but in a way that makes it seem as if we have not heard it before.”— THE TORONTO STAR

“Powerful, simple, direct, and passionate without being bitter.”— CBC RADIO VANCOUVER

• Maria Campbell granted the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence

• The Walrus celebrates 50 years of Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed

• Watch Maria Campbell being interviewed from Barcelona on Zoom about the Catalan and Spanish editions of Halfbreed

• Tanya Talaga, special to The Globe, on Maria Campbell and Lee Maracle: "two of the great matriarchs of Indigenous literature"

• Congratulations to Maria Campbell, the 2021 Lieutenant Governor's Lifetime Achivement Award Recipient

• El Pais writes a moving article about Maria Campbell's Halfbreed—read the translated text, which follows the article

• Halfbreed by Maria Campbell is one of "Five new Indigenous books to learn from, dream to, live by," says the Toronto Star

• CBC radio: Maria Campbell on the pain and relief of re-releasing Halfbreed with uncut account of RCMP rape

• CBC The Next Chapter: What reading and storytelling means to Maria Campbell

• Maria Campbell talks to CBC Radio about the heavily redacted portions of her 1973 memoir

Read an excerpt

66,000 words
Finished books now available

RIGHTS SOLD

North American English: McClelland & Stewart, November 2019
North American French: Éditions Prise de Parole
Catalan: Club Editor, S.L., C
Spain: Club Editor, S.L., C

Photo: Ted Whitecalf

ABOUT MARIA CAMPBELL

Maria Campbell is a Métis writer, playwright, filmmaker, scholar, teacher, community organizer, activist, and elder (born 26 April 1939 in Park Valley, SK). Campbell's memoir Halfbreed (1973) is regarded as a foundational work of Indigenous literature in Canada. She has authored several other books and plays, and has directed and written scripts for a number of films. She has also worked with Indigenous youth in community theatre and advocated for the hiring and recognition of Indigenous people in the arts. She has mentored many Indigenous artists during her career, co-established shelters for Indigenous women and children, and run a writers' camp at the national historical site at Batoche, where she has produced commemorative events related to the famous battle of the 1885 North-West Resistance.

Campbell is the winner of the 2023 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence, was named a fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in 2012, was appointed for Stanley Knowles Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Brandon University, and has served as Cultural Advisor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law and Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching since 2017. She is an officer of the Order of Canada and holds six honorary doctorates.