This file contains materials related to the creation and publication of Welcome to the Circle such as correspondence, drafts, as well as notes . To view further correspondence between the authors and publisher regarding the work, see the file titled "Correspondence: Pearson." 

Welcome to the Circle was written by Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden and published by Pearson Education Canada in 2015. The work incorporated some of the research that had been conducted from 1996 to 1997 for Loyie and Brissenden’s proposed but unwritten book “Living Traditions of the First Nations.” It explores wellness concepts, is targeted at a fifth-grade audience, and also includes the story “The Person Who Walked”, which was one of Loyie’s favorite personal stories.¹ By exploring ways that circles appear in some Indigenous Peoples' cultures, the text asks "how can circles play an important role in helping us feel connected to the people and places around us?"²

Brissenden explained that she and Loyie were working on this publication while writing Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors (Indigenous Education Press & Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, 2014), and in need of money. They hadn't proposed the idea themselves, but had been approached by Pearson to write Welcome to the Circle as part of a larger series. Brissenden noted that she would have liked to have written it as a larger, more-fulsome, standalone work, but time was very limited due to their work on Residential Schools.

Includes:

• Preview copy of Get Moving! from the Turtle Island Voices series, published by Pearson
• Notes for Welcome to the Circle
• Correspondence with publisher
• Cheque receipt for the commission
• Draft with revisions

¹ Constance Brissenden and Emily Larson, "Larry Loyie Timeline" (Loyie-Brissenden Collection, Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, 2020), 96. 
 ² Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden, Welcome to the Circle (Pearson Education Canada, 2015), back cover.