Purich Publishing was founded by Don Purich and Karen Bolstad in 1992. Together, they built an influential and enduring list of books in Indigenous studies and law, and about Western Canadian issues. On December 1, 2015, Purich Publishing’s list was acquired by UBC Press, whose existing strengths in the fields of Indigenous studies and law made it an ideal home for Purich.
UBC Press will continue to build on this significant legacy under a new imprint, Purich Books. We are moving forward with a clear purpose: to publish impassioned and experienced voices that will ignite understanding and champion change. Informed by substantive knowledge and written with the vigor of direct engagement, these are the books, the authors, and the ideas that readers will come to know as essential.
A Healthy Future
Lessons from the Frontlines of a Crisis
This riveting insider’s account of how the COVID-19 pandemic unfurled in one of Canada’s hardest-hit provinces draws on the lessons learned to provide a hopeful vision for building a healthier future.
- Publication year: 2023
The Fire Still Burns
Life In and After Residential School
The Fire Still Burns is a tale of survival and redemption through which Squamish Elder Sam George recounts his residential school experience and how it led to a life of addiction, violence, and imprisonment until he found the courage to face his past and begin healing.
- Publication year: 2023
Braided Learning
Illuminating Indigenous Presence through Art and Story
In Braided Learning, Lenape-Potawatomi educator Susan Dion inspires engagement with the histories and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, cultivating capacities for understanding, attunement, and respect.
- Publication year: 2022
Métis Rising
Living Our Present Through the Power of Our Past
Métis Rising brings together a vibrant collection of essays on history, politics, and culture that celebrate the resilience of Métis identity.
- Publication year: 2021
Making the Case
2SLGBTQ+ Rights and Religion in Schools
Making the Case provides clear explanations of how law protects sexual minority rights, making it an essential resource for supporting 2SLGBTQ+ students in Canadian schools.
- Publication year: 2021
First Nations Wildfire Evacuations
A Guide for Communities and External Agencies
Based on the experiences of evacuees from seven First Nations communities, this book offers guidance to Indigenous communities and external agencies on how to successfully plan for and carry out wildfire evacuations.
- Publication year: 2021
Getting Wise about Getting Old
Debunking Myths about Aging
By exploring the social issues of aging and debunking the common myths, Getting Wise about Getting Old paints a more accurate and nuanced portrait of old age in our society.
- Publication year: 2020
The Shoe Boy
A Trapline Memoir
The Shoe Boy is an evocative exploration of Indigenous identity and connection to the land, expressed in guise of a unique coming-of-age memoir set on a trapline in northern Quebec.
- Publication year: 2020
Knowing the Past, Facing the Future
Indigenous Education in Canada
Knowing the Past, Facing the Future offers a sweeping account of Indigenous education in Canada, from the first treaty promises and the failure of government-run schools to illuminating discussions of what needs to change now to work toward reconciliation.
- Publication year: 2020
A World without Martha
A Memoir of Sisters, Disability, and Difference
A World without Martha is an unflinching yet compassionate memoir of how one sister’s institutionalization for intellectual disability in the 1960s affected the other, sending them both on separate but parallel journeys shaped initially by society’s inability to accept difference and later by changing attitudes towards disability, identity, and inclusion.
- Publication year: 2019
Upstream Medicine
Doctors for a Healthy Society
Upstream Medicine features interviews with physicians who are identifying and addressing the upstream conditions that lead to good health and long lives, thus avoiding more complex, painful, and expensive downstream medical problems later on. By transforming how we imagine the practice of medicine, this book will help us build a healthier society.
- Publication year: 2017
The Honour and Dishonour of the Crown
Making Sense of Aboriginal Law in Canada
Unique within Canadian legal writing, this book unpacks the complex conceptual differences between the fiduciary duty of the Crown and the honour of the Crown.
- Publication year: 2015
More Indian Ernie
Insights from the Streets
Retired Police Sergeant Ernie Louttit heads back to the streets in his second book, giving readers a rare glimpse of the realities a street cop faces dealing with prostitutes, street gangs, drunk drivers, and other offenders.
- Publication year: 2019
Moving Aboriginal Health Forward
Discarding Canada’s Legal Barriers
This comprehensive analysis of Aboriginal health statistics, historical practices, and legal principles in Canadian law provides a practical framework for the reconciliation of Aboriginal health and healing practices within Canadian society.
- Publication year: 2014
Nationhood Interrupted
Revitalizing nêhiyaw Legal Systems
Co-founder of the international movement Idle No More, Sylvia McAdam shares nêhiyaw (Cree) laws so that future generations may understand and live by them, revitalizing Indigenous nationhood.
- Publication year: 2015
Revisiting the Duty to Consult Aboriginal Peoples
The duty to consult has a fundamental importance for all Canadians, yet misunderstandings of the doctrine remain widespread; this book addresses those misconceptions.
- Publication year: 2014
Indian Ernie
Perspectives on Policing and Leadership by Ernie Louttit
Retired police sergeant Ernie Louttit shares stories from the streets of Saskatoon, struggling to bring justice to communities where the lines between criminal and victim often blurred.
- Publication year: 2019
Decolonizing Education
Nourishing the Learning Spirit
An impassioned argument for Aboriginal education and critical engagement with Indigenous knowledges and traditions.
- Publication year: 2013
Breathing Life into the Stone Fort Treaty
An Anishnabe Understanding of Treaty One
A comprehensive evaluation of how negotiations for Treaty One were shaped by Aboriginal Anishinabe laws
- Publication year: 2013
Aboriginal Law, Fourth Edition
Commentary and Analysis
Now in its 4th edition, this definitive text discusses and clarifies Canadian laws impacting Aboriginal peoples.
- Publication year: 2012