Try free for 30 days

  • Unreconciled

  • Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance
  • By: Jesse Wente
  • Narrated by: Jesse Wente
  • Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Unreconciled cover art

Unreconciled

By: Jesse Wente
Narrated by: Jesse Wente
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

WINNER of the 2022 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Non-Fiction
SHORTLISTED for the 2023 Speaker's Book Award

A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Unreconciled is one hell of a good book. Jesse Wente’s narrative moves effortlessly from the personal to the historical to the contemporary. Very powerful, and a joy to read."
—Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian and Sufferance

A prominent Indigenous voice uncovers the lies and myths that affect relations between white and Indigenous peoples and the power of narrative to emphasize truth over comfort.


Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples.

Jesse Wente remembers the exact moment he realized that he was a certain kind of Indian--a stereotypical cartoon Indian. He was playing softball as a child when the opposing team began to war-whoop when he was at bat. It was just one of many incidents that formed Wente's understanding of what it means to be a modern Indigenous person in a society still overwhelmingly colonial in its attitudes and institutions.

As the child of an American father and an Anishinaabe mother, Wente grew up in Toronto with frequent visits to the reserve where his maternal relations lived. By exploring his family's history, including his grandmother's experience in residential school, and citing his own frequent incidents of racial profiling by police who'd stop him on the streets, Wente unpacks the discrepancies between his personal identity and how non-Indigenous people view him.

Wente analyzes and gives voice to the differences between Hollywood portrayals of Indigenous peoples and lived culture. Through the lens of art, pop culture, and personal stories, and with disarming humour, he links his love of baseball and movies to such issues as cultural appropriation, Indigenous representation and identity, and Indigenous narrative sovereignty. Indeed, he argues that storytelling in all its forms is one of Indigenous peoples' best weapons in the fight to reclaim their rightful place.

Wente explores and exposes the lies that Canada tells itself, unravels "the two founding nations" myth, and insists that the notion of "reconciliation" is not a realistic path forward. Peace between First Nations and the state of Canada can't be recovered through reconciliation--because no such relationship ever existed.

©2021 Jesse Wente (P)2021 Penguin Canada

Critic Reviews

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

2023, Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker's Book Award, Short-listed

2022, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, Winner

A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Unreconciled is one hell of a good book. Jesse Wente’s narrative moves effortlessly from the personal to the historical to the contemporary. Very powerful, and a joy to read." (Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian and Sufferance)

“With Unreconciled, Jesse Wente proves himself to be one of the most influential Anishinaabe thinkers of our time. By telling his own story, Jesse provides Canada with an essential roadmap of how to move forward through the myth of reconciliation towards the possibility of a just country. There is much work to be done but reading Jesse’s words, soaking them in and letting them settle in your mind, will set us all on the right path.” (Tanya Talaga, bestselling author of Seven Fallen Feathers)

What listeners say about Unreconciled

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Remarkable story telling

Jesse Wente is a complelling storyteller and narrator. His story was touching, intertwining historical fact with his personal experiences. It made me laugh and cry and reflect on my own story albeit as a First Nations person in a different settler-colonial country.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.