A descendant of chiefs: My long journey home
The many lives of Jesse Thistle. How a drug-addicted, homeless high school drop-out found his Indigenous identity, his academic calling, and along the way 鈥� his long-lost mother
Today, Jesse Thistle is a celebrated professor of Indigenous history in Canada. But as a child, he was a high school drop-out, raised by his disciplinarian white paternal grandparents and cut off from his mother and his M茅tis Cree roots. It set him on a self-destructive path to drug addiction, homelessness and prison. In jail and in his 30s, Jesse learned to read. After he was released, he would reach the pinnacle of academic success 鈥� finding his identity, his calling and along the way, his long-lost mother. Jesse鈥檚 memoir is called From the Ashes.
Anu was speaking to Jesse in 2020. He's recently got in touch to let us know that he and his wife Lucie now have a daughter, baby Rose.
Presenter: Anu Anand
Producer: Sophie Eastaugh and Maryam Maruf
(Photo: Jesse Thistle. Credit: Lucie Thistle)
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- Tue 15 Feb 2022 12:06GMT成人快手 World Service
- Tue 15 Feb 2022 18:06GMT成人快手 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Tue 15 Feb 2022 23:06GMT成人快手 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Wed 16 Feb 2022 03:06GMT成人快手 World Service
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