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 - 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 Métis 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 – finding his identity, his calling and along the way, his long-lost mother. Jesse’s memoir is called From the Ashes. A longer version of this programme was first broadcast on 9th September 2020.
Presented by Anu Anand
Produced by Sophie Eastaugh, Maryam Maruf and Mariana Des Forges
Image: Jesse Thistle
Credit: Lucie Thistle
Last on
Broadcasts
- Sun 10 Jan 202109:32GMTBBC World Service
- Sun 10 Jan 202123:32GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
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