David A. Robertson

Early Life & Education

David Robertson was born in Brandon, Manitoba. His father, Donald, was Swampy Cree and his mother, Beverly, is of English, Irish and Scottish ancestry. His father grew up on a trapline in Northern Manitoba. Robertson’s paternal grandmother, Sarah Jane Robertson, was sent to the Norway House Residential School (see also Residential Schools in Canada). His father attended day school, where he was forced to assimilate and was forbidden from speaking the Cree language. When Robertson was three years old, his father became superintendent of the Manitoba Indian Education Board, a prestigious position that allowed the family to move to Winnipeg. Robertson, along with his siblings, was raised in the affluent Winnipeg suburb of River Heights. Robertson thought for many years that his parents avoided raising him and his brothers with a Cree identity. Initially, he believed this was to shield them from anti-Indigenous racism prevalent in Winnipeg. In later years, Robertson discovered that his father followed a traditional Cree approach of non-interference concerning the development of his children’s identities. Instead, his father planned to model what being Cree meant to him, allowing his children to learn about their Cree identity from his example. His father’s responsibilities as superintendent put a strain on the family, and his parents eventually decided to separate. The separation created a challenge for Robertson to learn about his Cree heritage. He was in junior high school when he first found out that he is Indigenous. The separation was emotionally devastating for Robertson, and it placed a strain on his relationship with his father. In 1991, Robertson’s parents reconciled, and his father moved back in with the family. As a result, Robertson and his father formed and maintained a positive relationship, until his father died in 2019.

In his process of self-discovery, Robertson discovered his great-grandparents and an aunt all died suddenly within a short time of one another. He also learned that his grandmother had a missing sister. Seemingly no one in his family knew about this relative.

Career

As an author, David Robertson explores themes and subject matter that some might consider to be too advanced for young adult or children’s literature. However, his position is that children are often better able to handle difficult subject matter than many adults might imagine. As an example, Robertson includes characters who are in foster care in his work because currently in Canada, there are more Indigenous children in foster care than ones who attended the residential school system. In his own life, Robertson deals with anxiety. Therefore, he includes characters dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues in his writing.

Robertson has also tackled the complicated issue of Indigenous identity, particularly in the context of his own experience having been unaware of his Indigenous identity as a youth. Throughout his work, Indigenous cultures, histories and communities are foregrounded, and contemporary issues facing Indigenous people are common.

In addition to his work as a writer and author, Robertson is also the host and writer of the CBC Manitoba podcast series Kīwew (a Cree word pronounced kee-WAY-oh which Robertson describes as meaning “he goes home”), which documents his journey of Indigenous self-discovery.

Well-known as a graphic novelist, Robertson is a lifelong fan of comic books, including the The Amazing Spider-Man series and The Transformers series. He considers Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns to be the best Batman graphic novel and one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.

Some of Robertson’s works concern his father, how they reconciled and how this reconciliation brought the two men closer together and helped Robertson reconnect with his Cree heritage. Robertson’s 2022 book, The Theory of Crows, is about a father and daughter who, after dealing with a tragic event, rekindle their relationship during a voyage into the bush to find a long-lost family cabin. This work was preceded by his 2020 book Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory, which is a narrative memoir about reconnecting with his Cree identity and is structured around a trip Robertson took with his father to a Northern Manitoba trapline.

Robertson’s book for middle-graders, The Barren Grounds (first in The Misewa Saga series), was shortlisted for several prestigious awards, including the Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch Award, the TD Award for Children's Literature and Governor General's Literary Award. The Barren Grounds was also a national number one bestseller. It was listed as the best middle-grade book of the year for 2020 by Kirkus Review, National Public Radio and Quill & Quire. The second and third book in the series — The Great Bear and The Stone Child respectively — were also nominated for the Silver Birch Award.

Awards & Distinctions

• John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, Manitoba Writers’ Guild (2015)
• Finalist, Beatrice Mosionier Award for Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award, Manitoba Book Awards (2016)
• Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books (When We Were Alone) (2017)
• Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature - Illustrated Books (On the Trapline) (2021)
• Freedom to Read Award, The Writers’ Union of Canada (2021)
• Prairie Region Award for Best Podcast, RTDNA (2021)
• Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction, (Black Water) (2021)
• Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, (Black Water) (2021)
• High Plains Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, (Black Water) (2021)
• TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, (On the Trapline), TD (2022)
• McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award (The Stone Child) (2023)
• Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Manitoba (2023)