Former West Bank Grand Chief Ron Derrickson is a finalist for Foreword Reviews 2020 Indie Finalists for his autobiography and memoir Fight or Submit, Standing Tall in Two Worlds .
According to Foreword, some 2000 titles were submitted, and winners are being determined by teams of librarians and bookseller judges. The winners will be announced on June 17, 2021.
Fight or Submit; Standing Tall in Two Worlds exceeded planned sales and additional hard copy printings are in progress. In the opening to his memoir, Grand Chief Ron Derrickson says his “story is not a litany of complaints but a list of battles” that he has fought. And he promises he will not be overly pious in his telling of them. “As a businessman,” he writes, “I like to give the straight goods.”
In Fight or Submit, Derrickson delivers on his promise and it turns out he has a hell of a story to tell. Born and raised in a tarpaper shack, he went on to become one of the most successful Indigenous businessmen in Canada. As a political leader, he served as Chief of the Westbank First Nation for a dozen years and was made a Grand Chief by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
He has been the target of a full Royal Commission and an assassination attempt by a hitman hired by local whites. As Chief, he increased his community’s revenues by 3500% and led his people in a successful effort to reclaim logging rights. This is the determined and direct story of an Indigenous entrepreneur who, in the face of hatred and violence, always lifted his community up and had fun along the way.
Fight or Submit has been the subject of numerous reviews. In interviews with CBC’s The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay , and Bloomberg, Derrickson outlines the path to Indigenous economic self-determination.
The Vancouver Sun rates Fight or Submit “Highly Recommended”. The Daily Courier of Kelowna, BC reviewed this story of Derrickson’s “colorful life” in Derrickson’s own colorful language.
“Maybe because I’m such a shit disturber,” said Derrickson about the book’s popularity.
Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson is the owner and President of RMD Group and one of the most successful Indigenous entrepreneurs in Canada. After being elected Chief of Westbank First Nation in 1976, he began to use his business experience to lift his community out of poverty, eventually making it one of the wealthiest bands in the country.
He served as Chief of the Westbank First Nation from 1976 to 1986 and from 1996 to 1998. He was made Grand Chief by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in 2012. In 2015, he became an award-winning author when Unsettling Canada A National Wake-up Call, a book he co-authored with Arthur Manuel, won the Canadian History Association Literary Award. His second book co-authored with Manuel, Reconciliation Manifesto, went on to win the BC Book Prize for Nonfiction and appeared on the best books of 2017 lists of the Globe and Mail, Quill and Quire and the Writer’s Trust. Derrickson released his personal memoir Fight or Submit on October 27, 2020.
Order online through Amazon Canada https://www.amazon.ca/Fight-Submit-Standing-Tall-Worlds/dp/1770415661
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fight-or-submit-grand-chief-ronald-m-derrickson/1136574812
Indigo
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/fight-or-submit-standing-tall/9781770415669-item.html
Additional Information
Ron Derrickson Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Derrickson
Publisher site: https://ecwpress.com/products/fight-or-submit?fbclid=IwAR1Sg1sjcn0fMuwKB5R2se0XTJqc2lRE76aEQLW1i-FmsuWf0FvTcxKecAM
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FightorSubmit
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