Cherie Dimaline’s Hunting by Stars takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which plagues and natural disasters has radically changed the world and has caused tremendous death and destruction. This death and destruction removes the ability of most people on Earth to dream, something which has also changed the world. However, previously unsubstantiated rumors have emerged which say that Indigenous people in North America are still able to dream. Because of this, the government establishes residential schools to harvest the Indigenous people’s dreams, which reside within their bone barrow. Governments feel that, if they do this, the world will go to what it once was. But they don’t know that it will.
Specifically, the novel follows a young man named French, who previously his family to the residential school system. French finds a new family of other Indigenous people who are able to dream and together fight for their freedom. But their fight is difficult. French has been captured by staff at the residential school and must escape. He also must make choices about who he will betray and what he will do to save himself.
The novel explores themes of trauma, cultural appropriation, the damaging effects of systematic racism, and survival in the face of oppression. The novel also explores themes of cultural identity, oppression, and survival in the face of unimaginable hardship. Despite its heavy subject matter and complex themes, Hunting by Stars is always engaging, easily readable, and entertaining.
The author draws the connection between the government's actions in Hunting by Stars and the historical injustices western governments committed against Indigenous people. It also highlights how important being a resilient person is in the face of oppression and evil. Without that resiliency, the novel shows that the people have no reason to live.
At the end of the novel, Dimaline explores ideas surrounding people who are placed in impossible situations and decisions that they face which would ensure their survival. It shows that, to survive, people will invariably make selfish decisions which benefit only them and don’t consider those around them–even if the decision is right or wrong.
