Crazywater

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A raw, powerful portrait of Indigenous resilience drawn from stories of pain, survival, and cultural revival that challenge stereotypes and spark an essential conversation on healing and truth.

In a country still reckoning with the legacy of colonialism, Crazywater is more timely and necessary than ever.

Brian Maracle, a Mohawk journalist and former host of CBC’s Our Native Land, offers an unflinching collection of seventy-five voices from across Turtle Island—voices that speak honestly about Indigenous experiences with alcohol, trauma, and healing. Drawn from over 200 interviews, this book is not another government report or academic analysis—it is a national story, told by the people who have lived it.

With Indigenous communities still facing the intergenerational aftershocks of residential schools, systemic racism, land theft, and cultural erasure, these stories resonate deeply in today’s Canada. This is not just a book about addiction—it is a book about survival, resurgence, and the strength of spirit. Maracle complicates degrading stereotypes, revealing the deep roots of pain but also the powerful growth of culture, language, and spiritual revival that has taken hold in communities across the land.

At a time when Indigenous health, mental wellness, and sovereignty are front and centre in national conversations, Crazywater offers a humanizing, clear-eyed contribution. It dares to speak the truth about the costs of colonization, and insists that healing is possible. Crazywater is a testament to pain, but more importantly, to hope, honesty, and the unstoppable will to reclaim life, one story at a time.Praise for Crazywater:

“One of the most powerful books I have ever read on any theme . . . a brutal reminder that each abuser today was yesterday a victim . . . I have no hesitation in saying that it will save lives.”
—Rupert Ross, author of Dancing with a Ghost

“Candid, urgent, and important.”
—Ronald Wright, author of Stolen Continents

“Crazywater is full of anger. It is also full of hope. . . . [It] is about people telling their own stories . . . with revealing and sometimes searing honesty.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Crazywater isn’t about white guilt at all. It isn’t about the Constitution or self-government or any of the other buzzwords of the Indian industry. It’s about bravery.”
—The Toronto Star

“A mesmerizing and ineffable tale of survival.”
—The Montreal Gazette

“Powerful.”
—Ottawa CitizenBRIAN MARACLE is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Mohawk Nation, originally from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory near Brantford, Ontario. During the 1970s he worked for Indigenous organizations at the local, provincial, and national levels, and since the early 1980s he has worked as a print and broadcast journalist, specializing in Indigenous issues. He is the former host of CBC’s Our Native Land and a former reporter for The Globe and Mail.