Dear Reader,
I began the journey that became Eliza Sunshine out of a deep need to tell the story of the struggle Indigenous women face in reaching for even the most modest of lives. When my mother knew she’d lost her fight with cancer, she and I were sitting alone together. Looking away, she said to no-one, to everyone, to me, “Someone tell my story.” As I entered the third act of my life, my mother’s story became the one I needed to tell next – before time ran out.
While the novel is inspired by my mother’s life, it is not only the story of my mother, but also of every indigenous woman touched by the dehumanizing influence of colonialism. What a huge story that is, posing and equally big challenge in how to tell it in a way that fully embraces not only the historical context, but how colonial forces still frame the modern-day reality we face. Yes, today, there are many brilliant Indigenous in every stratum of Canadian society. But, this is due, almost entirely, to our determination and unyielding will to rise as we so choose. At the same time, despite intense effort, the many forms of violence against Indigenous women depicted in the novel continue, almost unchecked.
Questions rest at the heart of Eliza Sunshine that call on the conscience of this country. How did Indigenous women become disposable and why do they remain that way? How is it that Indigenous women are still ending up in garbage dumps? How and when will this brutality end?
Those are the urgent questions that haunt this book, along with the ghosts of my ancestors. I hope you will find beauty, strength and resilience here too. It is what sustained me through this reckoning and what sustains my life as a writer.
Thank you,
Michelle Good