Fire Keeper's Daughter Last Review

Book: Fire Keeper’s Daughter, #10 Last Book Review.

Author: Angeline Boulley

Publishers: Henry Holt and Company

Reviewed by: Nonqaba waka Msimang

N’Daunis. It means my daughter. That’s what her father, an Ojibwe hockey player said when the storyteller was born.

Daunis keeps fit by running most days and has a routine. “Prayers begin with offering semaa and sharing my Spirit name, clan and where I am from. I always add an extra name to make sure the Creator knows who I am. A name that connects me to my father - because I began as a secret, and then a scandal.” Page 5, Chapter 1.

What’s in a name? A lot. That’s why I’m sad that this is my last book review and I still don’t know what a fire keeper is. Her father’s last name is Fire Keeper. His sister Aunt Teddie, a judge at the Tribal Council is also Fire Keeper.

But that’s where the problem is, regarding Fire Keeper as a surname, a last name, when in fact, it’s the introduction to a family’s origin. I can relate to that because during the British invasion in Africa, we were forced to change our names to biblical names like Mary or Jacob and limit them to first and last names.

The British had forms to record everything about us, and they had spaces for first and last names. For example, if Daunis was born in Africa and somebody said: who are you? She would have given her name, her father’s name, grandfather’s name and her fire keeping community’s name.

IDENTITY

Fire Keeper? I first thought that fire keepers were only women, then I came to the part where Art, Aunt Teddie’s husband always makes the fire. What I understand though, is that fire is very important to Anishinaabe (indigenous people) like the Ojibwe. It is the focal point of many ceremonies.

This is book review #10, a farewell to Fire Keeper’s Daughter. There’s a lot I don’t understand, so I will revisit it periodically. However, I’ll remember Daunis, every time I see parents on the main street lugging huge hockey bags on their way to BellMTS Centre, for their kids’ hockey game.

Indigenous girls on city streets will also remind me of Lily, Daunis’ best friend killed by Travis, her ex boyfriend. They’ll also remind me of Heather Nodin and Robin Bailey, girls in the book murdered because of meth, a hard drug.

As for Daunis, she’s determined to bridge the gap between hockey and mushrooms. “I want to become a doctor and help people heal. And do research that can benefit tribal communities.” P.64.

Miigwech! Thank you in Ojibwe.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang, author of Sweetness, a South African novel.