Waubgeshig Rice

Early life

Waubgeshig Rice’s father, Elder John Rice, is Anishinaabe and is a member of the Midewiwin, an Anishinaabe spiritual society. His mother is a Canadian of European descent. Rice grew up on the reserve of Wasauksing First Nation in a home with no running water or electricity. He learned traditional stories, drumming and ways of life from his father, grandmother and community. He was part of one of the first generations who attended Indigenous-led schooling on the reserve and credits his education with providing him access to Indigenous teachings that previous generations did not have.

Before university, Rice joined a Rotary Youth Exchange program and went to Germany. There, he encountered a fascination with Indigenous peoples in North America, fed by inaccurate depictions in German popular culture. Students were excited to meet him, but they were disappointed to discover he dressed in jeans and heavy metal T-shirts instead of their stereotyped image of traditional regalia. Rice later studied journalism at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), graduating in 2002.

Journalism

Waubgeshig Rice began reporting for Anishinabek News while on exchange in Germany. After graduating from university, he freelanced for a time before joining The Weather Network in 2003, then the CBC in 2006. He has worked with CBC Manitoba, Toronto and Ottawa, contributing to many Indigenous-oriented programs, such as ReVision Quest and 8th Fire. In 2018, he became host of CBC Sudbury’s Up North radio show. In 2020, Rice left the CBC to focus on writing fiction. From 2021 to 2023, he co-hosted the Storykeepers: Let’s Talk Indigenous Books podcast, focused on Indigenous books, with Jennifer David.

Fiction

Waubgeshig Rice published Midnight Sweatlodge, a short story collection, in 2011. It won the Independent Publisher Book Award. His first novel, Legacy, came out in 2014. It chronicles the murder of a young Indigenous woman from a reserve who goes to study in Toronto and the crime’s repercussions on her family and community. Rice’s own aunt, Marion, was murdered in 1979, shortly before his birth (see Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada). Though the book is fictional, it is inspired by his family’s emphasis on his aunt’s legacy and contributions. In 2014, Rice won the Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling for his fiction and journalism.

In 2018, Rice published Moon of the Crusted Snow, a post-apocalyptic speculative fiction novel about an Anishinaabe community during a sudden, unexplained widespread power outage. The characters face threats from outsiders fleeing the chaos but use their traditional knowledge to survive and rebuild their community. The events are inspired by the Northeast blackout of 2003, a power outage that cut off electricity to large swaths of Ontario and the northeastern United States. Rice was staying in Wasauksing at the time. He recalled planning for a potential apocalypse with his brothers, realizing that the reserve was a good place to be since they had the knowledge and resources to live off the land. During a later conversation with his grandmother about these events, she described their community as having already lived through more than one apocalyptic event due to colonization (see Colonialism in Canada). This solidified Rice’s inspiration for the book. Moon of the Crusted Snow won the Evergreen Award in 2019 and was selected by Hamilton’s public library as their must-read book in 2020.

Moon of the Turning Leaves, a sequel, was published in 2023. It features the same community several years afterward. They realize the stationary settlement they have created to survive is depleting local natural resources. They send out an intergenerational group of scouts to determine whether it is possible to return to their traditional homeland and migratory way of life, far from the reserve where they were once relocated. The novel follows the scouts’ journey and their interactions with those remaining in the outside world. The book was a national bestseller and finalist for the Aurora Award.

Personal life

Waubgeshig Rice is a member of the Bear Clan of Wasauksing. He is married with three sons. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario.