Edmund Metatawabin and Alexandra Shimo are co-winners of the 2015 Speaker’s Book Award for the residential-school memoir Up Ghost River: A Chief’s Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History (Knopf Canada).

Established by 2012 by Dave Levac, speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the award recognizes Ontario titles covering the province’s history, culture, or people. Up Ghost River focuses on wrongdoings at St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany and the subsequent trauma Metatawabin experienced as a result of his time there. The book will be featured in the Legislative Library and available at the Legislative Gift Shop.

The authors, who were also shortlisted for the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award, were honoured at a ceremony at the Ontario Legislature on March 8.