Janis Fairbanks. Photo: U of M Press 

By Haley Brickner - Boreal Community Media - October 22, 2025

Ojibwe author Janis Fairbanks has been a storyteller nearly all her life. Her debut memoir, Sugar Bush Babies: Stories of My Ojibwe Grandmother (U of M Press, October 2025), captures childhood memories of growing up in northern Minnesota and the lessons passed down from her grandmother. Fairbanks will visit Grand Marais this month to share those stories and reflections in an upcoming author talk.

A member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Fairbanks spent her early years in Bena, Minnesota, in a log cabin without electricity or running water. Her family later moved to Duluth in the early 1950s, where she was the only Native American in her class, an experience she describes as jarring. “It was such a culture shock,” she told Boreal Community Media. “It was a different world from what I knew.” Storytelling helped her cope with that isolation and teach others about her life and culture.

She felt so out of place in the city, away from nature and family, that she kept running away from school until her family finally agreed that if she attended school, she could stay with her grandmother on the Fond du Lac Reservation when classes weren’t in session.

Sugar Bush Babies traces that early journey: from the woods and lakes of her childhood to the city classroom and back to her grandmother’s home, where she found belonging again.

Some of Fairbanks’s favorite memories come from the lessons her grandmother gave her in observation. Each morning, she was told to walk to the end of the road and return with a story about what she saw - something different every time. “It expanded my mind and perception,” she said. “I was made aware that there are deeper lessons in everything around you. Even trees can talk to you. But you have to be tuned in to listen.”

Although Fairbanks has been a storyteller since childhood, she began writing her memories as a teenager. Years later, while taking a college history class, she realized how rarely Native people’s voices appeared in print, and how often misinformation was shared. “The only way it’s going to be accurate is if Native people tell it,” she said.

That belief in the importance of authentic voices runs through all of Fairbanks’s work. She encourages others to tell their own stories, emphasizing that firsthand experiences are essential to preserving accurate and meaningful Indigenous history.

Her Grand Marais visit follows the official launch of Sugar Bush Babies in Fond du Lac, where many of its stories take place. At the Drury Lane event on October 25 (6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.), she’ll read selected passages, talk about the book’s inspiration, and invite audience questions before signing copies.

 Image: U of M Press