‘Surviving the City Vol 2: From the Roots Up’ is a Heartfelt Reclaiming for Indigenous Youth

Just in time for Women’s History month last year came the release and publishing of Surviving the City from Portage & Main Press centering a group that we rarely see represented anywhere in most media: Indigenous people and especially Indigenous girls and women. It was the first volume of this series centering on two friends: Miikwan who is Anishinaabe and Dez who is Inninew. The first graphic novel introduced them and chronicled their struggles not only being young but Indigenous young women navigating a world that historically hasn’t been kind to those who look like them. What I loved most about that book? It felt like a love letter from Indigenous women to Indigenous girls, letting them know that they are seen and that they are loved. So when I heard about the sequel, of course, I wanted to read more!

Change Ain’t Easy

Best friends Dez and Miikwan’s stories continue in this sequel to the award-winning graphic novel Surviving the City, Vol. 1. The first volume closed on such a perfect note and this volume opens to change, to transition. Dez is going through it, her kokum, her grandmother has finally succumbed to her health problems and has passed. Dez is having serious problems with the change–living in a group home for teens: she’s lonely, grieving, and feeling alone in the world without a true home. She feels cut off, cut away from the person she loved most in this earthly plane of existence, and I could just feel the heartbreak from the pages. She’s not with…