The community leader and former Manitoba MLA and cabinet minister Kevin Chief discusses his memoir With a Name Like Chief: Reflections on Recovery and Identity Through the Seven Sacred Teachings (Highwater Press, 2026), with Joseph Planta.
 |
With a Name Like Chief: Reflections on Recovery and Identity Through the Seven Sacred Teachings by Kevin Chief (Highwater Press, 2026).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: With a Name Like Chief [1] |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
One of the more engaging memoirs of the year is With a Name Like Chief: Reflections on Recovery and Identity Through the Seven Sacred Teachings. Its author Kevin Chief joins me now to reflect on his life, which began growing up in poverty in Winnipeg’s North End. He lived in a single-parent home, after his mother left. He had to contend with his father’s alcoholism. He went on to become an MVP basketball star and captain of his university team. He overcomes his own alcohol addiction, found recovery, and went on to become a member of the Manitoba Legislature. It’s such an instructive book, and as Kevin illustrates, the Seven Sacred Teachings of the Anishinaabe: Wisdom, respect, humility, truth, honesty, courage, and love yield so much for him when he keeps them forefront in his mind on a daily basis. I’ll ask Kevin about how he applies these teachings, and what they might offer us as we move about with grace in our day. Kevin Chief is a member of the Minegoziibe Anishinabe (Pine Creek) First Nation. He is co-founder of the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre, and was elected an MLA in Manitoba in 2011 and 2016, and serve as a cabinet minister in two different portfolios. He is currently Community Ambassador for the Southern Chiefs’ Organisation, Chair for the Neeginan Education, Training and Employment Centre, and Senior Advisor at True North Sports and Entertainment, which I bring up as we recorded this conversation on October 6th, a day after a great Winnipeg Jets victory over the Penguins. This new book is published by Highwater Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Kevin Chief; Mr. Chief, good morning.
Podcast: Play in new window [2] | Download [2] (25.8MB)
Subscribe: RSS [3]