Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada with Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser

The Centre for Human Rights Research and the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba are pleased to host Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser for a talk on Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada (Harper Collins Canada, 2026).

This event will take place on Friday, October 23, 2026 beginning at 10:30am in Room 200 Education Building, University of Manitoba. For information on getting to the University of Manitoba, see: https://umanitoba.ca/about-um/our-campuses/getting-here

Dr. Fraser will present the work, followed by a Q&A and book signing. Books will be available for purchase.

This is a free event. No registration is required.

About the Book

Treaties cover much of Canada. Some were established thousands of years ago, with Land and animals, and others date back to the time when Europeans first arrived in North America. These agreements make it possible for all of us to live, work, play, and profit on these Lands. Additionally, treaties have profoundly shaped the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In Talk Treaty to Me, Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky untangle the complexities of treaties and set forth a path to a greater understanding of all our roles, rights, and responsibilities. In this accessible, clear, and concise book, they discuss:

• Treaties among and between Indigenous Peoples
• The history of treaty-making between Indigenous Peoples and Britain, then Canada, from the very beginning to the present day
• Concepts like Métis scrip, modern Land claims and self-government agreements, Indigenous sovereignty, and unceded territory
• The (dis)honouring of treaties and the role of Canadian settler colonialism
• How the creation of Canadian borders interrupts Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood
• Important insights from gendered and queer perspectives on treaty and Land
• The politics of land acknowledgements
• Reconciliation and Land Back movements

With a quick-reference timeline, maps, and black-and-white photographs throughout, Talk Treaty to Me concludes with a call to action and specific, tangible steps that all of us can take every day to support truth and reconciliation.

About the Presenter

Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser

CRYSTAL GAIL FRASER is Gwichyà Gwich’in (and of English-Scottish ancestry), originally from Inuvik, Northwest Territories. She holds a PhD in Canadian history and is an associate professor in history and Indigenous studies at the University of Alberta. Crystal is a community-engaged scholar of Indian residential schooling histories and recently published By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, winner of many awards, notably the prestigious Canadian Historical Association’s Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History Prize and the 2025 Governor-General’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research.

Together, Crystal Gail Fraser and co-author Sara Komarnisky authored “150 Acts of Reconciliation” in 2017. Many of these are small, everyday acts that average Canadians can undertake, while others are more provocative and intended to encourage people to think about Indigenous–settler relationships in new ways. Their new book, Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada (2026), expands this public-facing work by offering an accessible and grounded guide to understanding treaties and land in Canada. Since its release, Talk Treaty to Me has become a national bestseller in Canadian non-fiction.