Tanya Talaga's book focusing on the deaths of seven Indigenous students in Thunder Bay has won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize.
In its citation, the jury said Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City is "an open letter to the rest of us about the many ways we contribute—through act or inaction—to suicides and damaged existences in Canada's indigenous communities."
Calling the book detailed, balanced and heart-rending, it added that it "describes gaps in the system large enough for beloved children and adults to fall through, endemic indifference, casual racism and a persistent lack of resources. It is impossible to read this book and come away unchanged."
Talaga, a journalist with the Toronto Star, received $30,000 and a leather-bound version of her book.
Seven Fallen Feathers was also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Talaga was part of a team that won a National Newspaper Award for Gone, a series of stories about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Her grandmother is a member of Fort William First Nation. Her mother was raised in Raith and Graham, Ontario.
