Tales of inspiration: Gord Downie, Standing Rock and the Indigenous Reads book club

Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie is releasing a multi-media project devoted to residential school students who never made it home. The project focuses on one child: Chanie Wenjack.  

The 12-year-old Anishinabe boy died of hunger and exposure after he escaped from a residential school in Kenora, Ont., and tried to find his way home. October marks 50 years since Wenjack died.

CBC Thunder Bay's Jody Porter joins us with more details about the project and the story that inspired it.

It is being called the largest protest by Indigenous Nations in recent history. For weeks, thousands of people from nearly 300 nations have been gathering in the southern part of North Dakota.

They've come to stand with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Sioux are trying to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The pipeline passes right by the reservation and tribal members say if that pipeline breaks, it would be an environmental disaster. 

CBC Aboriginal's Tim Fontaine recently traveled to Standing Rock. He will share stories of some of the people he met.

Plus, we are launching our very own book club: Indigenous Reads. Each month we'll pick a book and invite the author to come on the show and talk about their work. Then we'll all read the book and at the end of the month we'll have a discussion about it.  

To kick off the Indigenous Reads book club, Katherena Vermette talks about her new novel, The Break. 

The story takes us into the lives of the people who live in Winnipeg's North End. Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on The Break — a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house.

This week's playlist:

Tragically Hip - Long Time Running

Indian City - Water Song

Iskwe - Will I See