The Marrow Thieves

Throughout The Marrow Thieves, author Cherie Dimaline presents language as a powerful tool for preserving identity, memory, and culture, as well as for resisting an oppressive system. A key example is one of the novel's most powerful moments: when Minerva destroys the Recruiters' marrow-harvesting system through a song in her native language. The song is made up of dreams which are recounted in her native language. Through Minerva’s miracle, Dimaline suggests that language is much more than a means of communication and expression. It is a carrier of cultural memory and ancestral wisdom, capable of confronting oppression and bringing down a “broken system.”