About the Author

JESSE WENTE is an Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster, and arts leader. Born and raised in Toronto, his family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is a member of the Serpent River First Nation. Best known for more than two decades spent as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, he also worked at the Toronto International Film Festival for eleven years. In February 2018 he was named the first Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen Office. Wente was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts in 2020, the only First Nations person to ever hold the position.

Reviews

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

Praise for Unreconciled:

"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

“Mahsi cho, Jesse Wente, for illuminating the biggest issue facing Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people: Canada fears Indigenous people because Canada is terrified of our power. Each language class, culture camp, graduation ceremony, each Supreme Court Ruling, each Treaty (that wasn't forged), each feast and naming ceremony… is part of the incredible Reclaiming happening right now. Please read this book. It's an infuriating read but a necessary one.”
—Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser Blessed and Moccasin Square Gardens

"With Unreconciled, Jesse Wente proves he's a storyteller through and through—one who is unafraid of telling hard but necessary truths, yes, but also one who knows that vulnerability is the quickest way to the heart. Wente shares so generously with his readers in this book, braiding together his own past with the problems of the present, ultimately offering us a way forward, together."
—Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

“Part biography, part social and cultural manifesto, and part film analysis, Wente’s book tells us of his journey as a mixed blood kid in Toronto facing everyday racism, to becoming the face (actually more like the voice) of Indigenous film appreciation and criticism. A slim book but heavy in what it says, Unreconciled shows how the best journeys in life are derived from the obstacles the hero overcomes.”
—Drew Hayden Taylor, author of Chasing Painted Horses and Take Us to Your Chief and Other Stories

“[A] must-read.”
—The Globe and Mail