Tough Lies (Indigenous Belonging and My Healing Through Golf)

How do we heal from colonialism? What does healing from colonialism look like for First Nations? What about non-Indigenous people? What are the barriers to this healing, and what can we do to move past them?

These are questions that lie at the heart of Tough Lies, the highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning and national bestselling Unreconciled: Family Truth and Indigenous Resistance by Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster, and thinker Jesse Wente.

In Tough Lies, Jesse returns to the familiar format and style of Unreconciled, focusing this time on his own healing path and how it informs what he sees as necessary for reconciliation between Nations. Introspective, moving, and characteristically candid, Wente uses his own life experiences to illuminate and explore the controversial issue of false claims to Indigenous identity.

Through a lens of healing and anti-colonial thought, Jesse examines his reaction to such incidents that have hit close to home, chronicling his personal journey and what it has taught him about the present and future of reconciliation in Canada. Jesse’s healing path has also led him to reflect on other aspects of his life, such as grieving the loss of his closest friends, the pressure to succeed, the racism he has faced, and his own place within family and community. Perhaps most surprising to Jesse is his re-discovery of the game of golf and the role it plays.

Approaching all of these moments and issues with the same honesty, humour, humility, and directness that made Unreconciled such a beloved bestseller, Tough Lies delivers another groundbreaking memoir from one of Canada’s foremost thinkers.