Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Drew Hayden Taylor, an Indigenous Canadian of the Anishinaabe nations, published Motorcycles & Sweetgrass in 2010. The narrative touches on elements common to Taylor’s other writing: the relationships of First Nations bands (tribes) to current authorities and governments and traditional Indigenous religious beliefs. The novel’s fable-like premise is that the trickster demigod Nanabush might have survived despite modern Indigenous peoples’ lack of belief.

Taylor’s large body of work has received numerous awards: He is a noted playwright, journalist, short fiction author, and TV scriptwriter. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, his first novel for adult readers, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction.

This guide references the 2021 Penguin Modern Classics edition.

Content Warning: Taylor, a member of the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe First Nation, uses a variety of names when describing his nation and other Indigenous groups, often with ironic or otherwise critical intent. This guide refers to these groups and individuals by their national names or the term “Indigenous” when not quoting the text directly. Taylor also uses Anishnawbe/Ojibway rather than Anishinaabe/Ojibwe, and this guide preserves those spellings.

Plot Summary

Nanabush, the trickster demigod of Indigenous mythology, tries in vain to convince a teenage Anishnawbe girl not to attend the Catholic residential school where the Canadian government sends Indigenous children.