Life in the City of Dirty Water
Clayton Thomas-Müller’s Life in the City of Dirty Water, A Memoir of Healing is a must read, especially for people interested in climate justice, but it can also help non-Indigenous people to understand the struggles of Indigenous communities, particularly the ones in urban areas in North America. The author’s energetic and straightforward writing makes the reading easy and enjoyable, while keeping it grounded at the same time. The book chronicles Thomas-Müller’s path; from a childhood marked by intergenerational trauma and abuse (his parents being both residential school survivors), to an adulthood defined by his environmental activism and connection to Mother Earth.
The book opens with some words by Thomas-Müller’s mother. She talks about her decision to move from Thompson, Northern Manitoba, to Winnipeg in search of a better life for her and her unborn baby at the age of 16. That struck me hard; and it gave me a premonition that what I was about to read was no light matter. In fact, I had to put the book down several times because I couldn’t deal with all the violence and abuse Thomas-Müller continues to describe: his childhood and early youth entangled with violence coming from all sides. At home, the domestic violence he and his mother suffered at the hands of her partner and the sexual abuse from the people who should have taken care of him; in school, the covert and not so covert racism that led him to dropping out; and in the streets, the looming presence of gangs which provide him, as a young Indigenous man, with community and refuge. Not the details made me struggle, but the thought that what I was reading had happened to a child. It is hard not to think about that little boy without wanting to protect him, and it is harder to know that there are so many other kids out there who are facing similar traumatic experiences. And precisely this is where the memoir shines, in shedding light on the cycle of violence that, for many generations, has disproportionately (but not coincidentally) affected Indigenous communities across the world.
The book is not only bleakness, it also depicts Thomas-Müller’s journey as an Indigenous and climate activist and his connection to his community and their spirituality. It is a beautiful, yet crude, story of resilience and hope. I also believe, as the author himself puts it at the end of the book, that this memoir can help “to spark a conversation about what it will actually take to heal both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada and across Mother Earth”.