The publication award was won by Wendy Proverbs, for her book Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children (2021):
Based on the true story of the author's biological mother and aunt, Aggie and Mudgy relates the journey of two Kaska Dena sisters who lived many years ago in a remote village on the BC-Yukon border. Like countless Indigenous children, they were taken from their families and communities at a young age to attend residential school, where they endured years of isolation and abuse. Proverbs’ novel focuses not on the sisters’ experience in residential school, but on the harrowing 1,600-kilometre expedition that took the sisters from their home in Daylu (Lower Post) to Lejac Residential School on the shores of Fraser Lake. The girls, aged eight and six, travel by riverboat, truck, paddle wheeler, steamship and train.
Aggie and Mudgy offers a glimpse into the act of being physically uprooted and transported far away from loved ones. It captures the breakdown of family by the forces of colonialism, but also celebrates the survival and perseverance of the descendants of residential school survivors in re-establishing the bonds of family.