Michelle Good

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Issue 263 of Canadian Literature featured a forum, edited by Renae Watchman and Madeleine Reddon, of literary biographies of nine Indigenous authors from across Turtle Island who have published in the twenty-first century. In this issue, we present four more contributions to that forum edited by Watchman and Reddon: The literary biographies of Michelle Good, Tanya Tagaq, Laura Tohe, and Eden Robinson.

(7 October 1956–)

Writer of poetry, prose, fiction, plays, and non-fiction, Cree author Michelle Good (citizen of Red Pheasant Cree Nation) is a passionate advocate for Indigenous Peoples and for acknowledgement of their truths. Good’s debut novel, Five Little Indians (2020), was CBC’s number-one bestseller in 2021 and won six major awards, notably the 2020 Governor General’s Award for English-Language Fiction, the 2021 Amazon First Novel Award, and the 2022 Canada Reads competition. Her first non-fiction book, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada, was a finalist for the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy in 2023 and won the High Plains Book Award in 2024.

Michelle Frances Good was born on October 7, 1956, in Kitimat, BC, to Martha Eliza Soonias Stiff (1921–1999) from Red Pheasant Cree Nation and William Stanley Stiff (1931–1984) from Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan. She treasures her middle name, as it was also her Cree grandmother’s middle name. Good has four siblings: Susan Cottell, William Paul Stiff, John-Donald Stiff (deceased), and Anne-Marie Stiff.

Because Good’s father was a non-Indigenous man, her mother lost her Indian Status through marriage. They left Saskatchewan for BC. Her mother trained as a registered nurse and midwife in New Zealand, and she eventually returned to nursing when Good and her siblings were school-aged. Good’s father was an X-ray technician at Alcan’s private hospital, located on the beach of the Douglas Channel next to the company’s smelter site. Good was born there.

On Good’s father’s side, the family is relatively small. However, on her mother’s side, Good has fifty-two first cousins. Good’s grandmother’s grandfather was Old Wuttunee, the brother of Chief Red Pheasant. It was he who signed Treaty 6 in his brother’s place, given that Red Pheasant was very ill.¹ Old Wuttunee had two wives, so Good has relations from two distinct family lines. Good’s great-grandmother was named Chimachees (1856–1938) and later renamed Jean. Chimachees, as a relation to Mistahimaskwa (Chief Big Bear), was very likely at the Frog Lake Massacre on April 2, 1885. She reportedly never saw a white person until her early twenties. Chimachees’ story is the subject of Good’s forthcoming novel Eliza Sunshine.

Good lived with her family in Kitimat until 1969. She was thirteen when she was scooped and placed into foster care in Vancouver. She was in care until she aged out at eighteen, although she had been living alone in a tiny apartment from the time she was sixteen. She got a general education diploma when she was nineteen. Her story as a survivor of the Sixties Scoop is narrated in the conversation titled “$13.69” from Truth Telling (2023). The title reveals the daily monetary value that her life was “worth.” She calculated this per diem rate.

After she left foster care, Good began working in support of Indigenous interests. Between 1976 and 1995, Good held various positions serving First Nations communities and organizations. It is work that she has been committed to throughout her life. Her first position was with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in Vancouver. As the coordinator of their youth portfolio, she had summer secondments to the Assembly of First Nations (formerly the National Indian Brotherhood) and the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. She went on to serve as band administrator for the Neskonlith Indian Band in Chase, BC; education coordinator for the Haisla First Nation in Kitimat, BC; curriculum developer for the Okanagan Indian Curriculum Project (now the En’owkin Centre) in Penticton, BC; band administrator for the Gitwangak First Nation in Kitwanga, BC; executive director for the Ontario Native Council on Justice in Toronto; communications director for the Lummi Tribe in Washington State; director of administration for the Saulteaux First Nation in Moberly Lake, BC; and education director for the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in Vancouver, BC.

In 1995 and 1996, Good attended Langara College and the University of British Columbia Law School. She earned an arts and science diploma from Langara College in 1996, graduating with distinction. In 1999, Good earned a bachelor of laws with distinction from UBC Law, achieving the highest marks in the Indigenous Law Program. She undertook split articles in 1999 with what were then the law firms of Fraser Milner and Rush Crane Guenther.

Good was called to the bar in 2000 and subsequently represented residential school survivors for over fourteen years. From 2000 to 2002, Good was an associate lawyer with Rush Crane Guenther. Between 2002 and 2004, Good was legal counsel for Justice Canada in Vancouver. From 2004 to 2005, she was a sessional instructor and curriculum developer in history and First Nations studies at the En’owkin Centre. From 2005 to 2006, she was a sessional instructor of history and Indigenous studies at UBC Okanagan. And from 2006 to 2007, Good returned to work as a legal counsel for Fulton and Company in Kamloops, BC. In 2007, Good established her own law firm, Michelle Good & Company Legal and Mediation Services, in Kamloops, where she served as principal lawyer until 2018.

Concurrent with her law career, Good began an MFA program at the University of British Columbia in creative writing in 2011. While drafting her first novel as part of the program, Good balanced consulting work with part-time law practice and tribunal work. Good says that all of the jobs she held prior to launching her writing career were profoundly educational.

On March 30, 1982, Good’s first and only child, Jay Daniel Good, was born in Kitimat. Good once described Jay as her reason for living. He was raised in different locations coinciding with Good’s employment locations. He trained in French cuisine at Vancouver Community College and worked as a professional chef. Jay’s motto was “Simple food made with fine ingredients.” He opened Jay’s Good Eats in December 2012 in Kamloops. Good has exclaimed that Jay’s boeuf bourguignon was deadly and would challenge Julia Child’s! Jay died on April 25, 2013. His passing was unexpected, as he died suddenly and no cause of death was found. Journalist Elizabeth Mitchell writes, “Navigating unimaginable grief, Good retired from law but managed to complete the MFA program, fuelled by her son’s spirit. The draft of Five Little Indians was her thesis.” Good graduated with her MFA in creative writing in 2014.

Good’s passion for writing creatively commenced in her childhood. She kept a journal from an early age, which was foundational for her sense of self as a writer, teaching her to observe, consider, and record. Her first forays into writing were as a poet. Three of her poems have been published, with two being selected for best-of anthologies in 2016 and 2017.

Throughout her life, Good has been an activist. As such, she has published non-fiction and op-ed pieces on behalf of Indigenous Peoples and lives. Larissa Kurz shares Good’s thoughts on the matter: “Indigenous literature is a critical aspect of Indigenous activism . . . It’s critical that we tell our own stories. Nobody can tell our stories except us.”

Five Little Indians took shape over a nine-year period starting in 2011. Good was compelled to write the book, given the profound failure of the Canadian population to grasp the ongoing impacts of Indian Residential School (IRS) abuses. She tells Kurz, “That ubiquitous question, ‘why can’t you just get over it?’ became so frustrating to me that I thought okay, well, I’ll answer that question. And that’s what I set out to do.” Good says that while those nine years seemed endless, they were necessary to strike a balance in the novel that would explicate the IRS’ harms without reducing her characters to caricatures. Good’s lived experiences, her MFA training, and a critical manuscript evaluation by Merilyn Simonds—an accomplished author and one of her professors at UBC—culminated in the completion of the book. In 2020, as the release of Five Little Indians loomed, Good became increasingly nervous, both about the potential impact of publication on her very private life and about the triggering effect that her sensitive story might have on some readers. After some soul-searching and a conversation with her editor, she set those fears aside. The book was subsequently released to international acclaim. Five Little Indians has consistently been on bestseller lists since its publication and has been translated into Polish and French. It was the number three book on CBC’s list of bestselling books of 2023, more than three years postpublication.

Using a braided narrative technique, Five Little Indians tells the stories of Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie, and Maisie, five Indigenous survivors who each attended the same residential school. Interwoven with their stories are those of Kendra, Lily, and Mariah. Good illustrates the five protagonists’ lives with respect and care from childhood through to adulthood. Given the subject matter, it is no surprise that there are painful depictions of loss and suffering. Vicky Boldo’s review of the book captures the nuances of the novel:

Everyone should read this book, to look again at residential school survivors from a perspective of strong will and spiritual connection, rather than through a lens of deficit. My hope is for readers to look beyond the trauma—to sincerely acknowledge that this violence and injustice has created—and continues to create—natural physiological and psychological responses in individuals as ways to survive. These responses need to be seen and heard and upheld for human dignity.

Five Little Indians will soon be even more accessible, as it is set to be adapted as a limited TV series by Prospero Pictures with Cree-Métis writer Shannon Masters.

Good is a child and grandchild of residential school survivors. Her mother, Martha Eliza Soonias, attended the St. Barnabas Indian Residential School in Onion Lake, Saskatchewan. In an interview with Michelle Cyca, she says,

I am an intergenerational survivor . . . I think people tend to say that if you didn’t go to a school, you’re not a survivor. But I am a survivor. To say that I’m not is to suggest that my mother’s experience was not reflected in our relationship, or in the challenges that she faced, the anxiety and feelings of inferiority that she faced, that we all witnessed as children. It’s different than attending a school, but it is a lived experience.

That lived experience in her private and professional life equipped her with a unique Indigenous literary aesthetic that helped craft her debut, award-winning novel. While Good did not base the characterization and experiences of the five main protagonists on actual survivors, she did model a moment on a story her mother shared with her about her residential school experiences. In a conversation with Falen Johnson of CBC’s Unreserved on December 13, 2020, Good says that her mother had a best friend at St. Barnabas named Lily, as does the character Clara. The real-life Lily hemorrhaged to death from tuberculosis on the playground, and the children witnessed this. Traumatizing events like this are handled with care and re-storied in the novel.

Five Little Indians was named a Top 100 Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail and a Book of the Year by CBC, Apple, Kobo, and Indigo. In 2020, Five Little Indians, in addition to winning the esteemed Governor General’s Award for English-Language Fiction, was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, formerly the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and longlisted for the Giller Prize. In 2021, Five Little Indians took awards ceremonies by storm. In addition to winning the Amazon First Novel Award, the novel won the City of Vancouver Book of the Year Award, Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, and Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Award (Fiction). It was a finalist for the BC and Yukon Book Prize’s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English Fiction, and the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes. In 2022, Five Little Indians was selected as the twenty-first annual winner of Canada Reads. The novel was championed by Ojibwe journalist and Vogue fashion writer Christian Allaire (Nipissing First Nation) as the “One Book to Connect Us.”

Good’s recognition as a writer has garnered numerous invitations to speak and tour. In December 2021, she was a visiting scholar for the Indian Residential School Centre for History and Dialogue at UBC. She is Green College’s Distinguished Indigenous Fellow (March 2022–2027). Good was made an honorary doctor of letters by Simon Fraser University in 2022, and by the University of the Fraser Valley in 2024.

Readers’ phenomenal response to Five Little Indians and their willingness to reconsider their beliefs about residential schools signalled a willingness to learn. Good set aside writing her second novel, Eliza Sunshine, to respond to that willingness. As readers were listening and engaged, Good wanted to tell the larger story of colonialism in Canada, and she wrote Truth Telling: Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada, a non-fiction book that has also been well received. Truth Telling was released on May 30, 2023, and was number one on the Toronto Star’s bestseller list the next day. Truth Telling was selected as the inaugural book for the Indigenous Studies Book Club at McMaster University in 2023. The book was a 2023 finalist for the prestigious Balsillie Prize for Public Policy, and Good was the only woman, and the only Indigenous author, in the final round; she considers this a win. Truth Telling was also among CBC’s best non-fiction books of 2023.

Good published seven timely and timeless essays in Truth Telling. One of the most difficult conversations is the chapter “Cultural Pillagers,” which encourages readers to acknowledge the truths about individuals who fraudulently claim Indigenous identity, and to act.

Michelle Good is now completing her second novel, Eliza Sunshine, and editing a collection called The Pretendian Compendium: The Complex Phenomenon of Indigenous Identity Fraud, coming out in 2027. She also has an unpublished play, “The Barbarian Princess” (1996), about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s exploitation of his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, that she may dust off, polish, and publish someday. She writes from her newly renovated writing studio in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan.

Bibliography

Books

Five Little Indians: A Novel. HarperCollins Canada, 2020.

Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada. HarperCollins Canada, 2023.

 

Translations

Pięcioro małych Indian. Translated by Elżbieta Janota, Sonia Draga, 2022.

Cinq petits Indiens: Roman. Translated by Isabelle Maillet, Seuil, 2023.

 

Other

“The Barbarian Princess.” Unpublished 3-act play, 1996.

“Ancient Songs” and “Stone People” (poems). Standing Ground: Strength and Solidarity amidst Dissolving Boundaries, edited by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Jeannette Armstrong, Theytus Books, 1996, pp. 146–48. Vol. 7 of Gatherings.

“Defying Gravity” (poem). The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2016, edited by Helen Humphreys, Anita Lahey, and Molly Peacock, Tightrope Books, 2016, p. 22.

“Defying Gravity.” The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English 2017, edited by Molly Peacock and Anita Lahey, Tightrope Books, 2017, p. 47.

“A Tradition of Violence: Dehumanization, Stereotyping, and Indigenous Women.” Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters, edited by Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell, and Christi Belcourt. U of Alberta P, 2018, pp. 89–101.

“‘Play Indians’ Inflict Real Harm on Indigenous People.” Best Canadian Essays 2023, edited by Mireille Silcoff, Biblioasis, 2022, pp. 41–48.

Selected Periodical Publications—Uncollected

“Play Indians Cause Real Harm.” Globe and Mail, 21 May 2021, https://theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-play-indians-inflict-real-harm-on-indigenous-people.

“Many of Us Are Heartbroken over Buffy Sainte-Marie. But, We Must Remember What She Gave Us.” Toronto Star, 30 Oct. 2023, https://thestar.com/entertainment/many-of-us-are-heartbroken-over-buffy-sainte-marie-but-we-must-remember-what-she/article_d124e030-59d5-5a84-8641-805a14a01886.html.

Interviews

“Michelle Good on Five Little Indians, WT Fiction Prize Finalist.” YouTube, uploaded by Writers’ Trust of Canada, 18 Nov. 2020, https://youtube.com/watch?v=j4DX-P86HNg.

Johnson, Falen. “‘Truth Is Truth’: Why Michelle Good’s Residential School Fiction Resonates.” Unreserved with Falen Johnson, 13 Dec. 2020, https://cbc.ca/search?q=%22Why%20Michelle%20Good%27s%20Residential%20School%20Fiction%20Resonates%22&section=radio&sortOrder=relevance&media=all.

“The Giller Book Club: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.” YouTube, uploaded by Giller Prize, 3 Mar. 2021, https://youtube.com/watch?v=SyT1BhOSaFo.

Cyca, Michelle. “Michelle Good Is a Book Person.” The Tyee, 26 May 2021, https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2021/05/26/Michelle-Good-Book-Person.

Misri, Angela. “Michelle Good Wins the 2021 Amazon First Novel Award.” The Walrus, 27 May 2021, https://youtube.com/watch?v=pcMmgJ8bSzk.

Rogers, Shelagh. “Michelle Good on Five Little Indians.” CBC: The Next Chapter, 11 June 2021, https://cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/full-episode-june-12-2021-1.6059373/michelle-good-s-five-little-indians-is-a-look-at-the-legacy-and-trauma-of-canada-s-residential-school-system-1.6059380.

“A Conversation with Michelle Good, Author of ‘Five Little Indians.’” YouTube, uploaded by Pearson TV, 29 June 2021, https://youtube.com/watch?v=962nb0unnY.

Drudi, Cassandra. “Bestsellers: Michelle Good’s Debut Novel Has Spent 36 Weeks on the Bestsellers List.” Quill and Quire, 8 Sept. 2021, https://quillandquire.com/omni/bestsellers-michelle-goods-debut-novel-has-spent-%E2%80%A836-weeks-on-the-bestsellers-list.

“Michelle Good in Conversation with Shelagh Rogers and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm.” YouTube, uploaded by Green College UBC, 22 Nov. 2021, https://youtube.com/watch?v=nDNQklf61nY.

“Michelle Good and Christian Allaire Discuss the Novel Five Little Indians.” YouTube, uploaded by CBC, 11 Mar. 2022, https://youtube.com/watch?v=ucEpcudhqJU.

Power, Tom. “Michelle Good and Christian Allaire Reflect on Winning Canada Reads 2022.” Q with Tom Power, 1 Apr. 2022, https://cbc.ca/radio/q/friday-april-1-2022-michelle-good-and-christian-allaire-plus-more-1.6404231.

 

Note

1. https://treatysix.org.

Works Cited

“Biography.” Official Website of Michelle Good, https://michellegood.ca. Accessed 10 Feb. 2024.

Boldo, Vicky. “Five Little Indians, by Michelle Good.” Good Reads: Book Reviews from the Eastern Townships, 27 Apr. 2022, https://bibliolennlibrary.wordpress.com/2022/04/27/five-little-indians-by-michelle-good.

Bresge, Adina. “Michelle Good on Why Indigenous People Can’t ‘Get Over’ Residential School Trauma.” Toronto Star, 28 May 2021, https://thestar.com/entertainment/books/michelle-good-on-why-indigenous-people-can-t-get-over-residential-school-trauma/article_361dee37-88c3-51f5-a024-4c3e2e9eb3de.html.

—. “Michelle Good Says Residential School Remains Cast Shadow over GGBooks Fiction Win.” Global News, 2 June 2021, https://globalnews.ca/news/7915444/michelle-good-five-little-indians.

Hank, Melissa. “Good’s Five Little Indians Novel Wins GG Fiction Prize; Also on Giller List.” National Post, 2 June 2021, https://proquest.com/docview/2557927995?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14656&sourcetype=Newspapers.

Kurz, Larissa. “Author Michelle Good Embarking on Sask. Tour with Best-Seller Five Little Indians.” Regina Leader-Post, 22 Feb. 2023, https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/author-michelle-good-embarking-on-sask-tour-with-best-seller-five-little-indians.

Lederman, Marsha. “Michelle Good’s Debut Novel, Five Little Indians, Chronicles the Aftermath of Residential School.” Globe and Mail, 28 May 2021, https://theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-drawing-on-her-familys-story-for-her-debut-novel-five-little-indians.

Logan, Anne. “Book Review: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.” I’ve Read This: Book Reviews for Bookworms, 5 Apr. 2022, https://ivereadthis.com/2022/04/05/book-review-five-little-indians-by-michelle-good.

Mitchell, Elizabeth. “One-on-One with ‘Five Little Indians’ Author Michelle Good.” Zoomer, 18 June 2021, https://zoomer.com/zed-book-club/bookshelf/2021/06/18/five-little-indians.

“Storytellers.” Our Times, fall 2022, pp. 46–47.

Tremblay, Lisa. “Five Little Indians: Michelle Good.” Herizons, vol. 35, no. 4, winter 2022, pp. 35–36.

Vlessing, Etan. “David Cronenberg Producer Martin Katz to Adapt ‘Five Little Indians’ Indigenous Trauma Novel (Exclusive).” The Hollywood Reporter, 8 June 2021, https://hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/david-cronenberg-producer-martin-katz-to-adapt-five-little-indians-indigenous-trauma-novel-exclusive-1234964818.

 

Tódich’íi’nii éínishłị dóó Kinyaa’áanii báshíshchíín. Dóó Tsídii, Tsalagi éí da shichei. Táchii’nii éí da shinálí. Naat’áanii Nééz déé’ íiyisí naashá, áádóó Haudenosaunee dóó Mississauga bikéyah, dii shighaan. Ákót’éego Diné dóó Tsalagi Asdzą́ą́n nishłį́. Renae Watchman is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. She is Bitter Water Clan, born for the Towering House Clan. Her maternal grandfather was Cherokee from Tahlequah, and they are Bird Clan. Her paternal grandfather was Red Running Through the Water Clan. Watchman is a professor in Indigenous studies at McMaster University. She is the author of Restoring Relations through Stories: From Dinétah to Denendeh (U of Arizona P, 2024) and co-editor with Hartmut Lutz and Florentine Strelczyk of Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2020).