Sisters in the Wind

In Sisters in the Wind, the journey to selfhood is an act of reclaiming a fractured identity and reconnecting with familial bonds. The novel suggests that true belonging is found through forging active bonds of love, loyalty, and community, including but not limited to biological relationships.

The novel upholds biological family and genetic heritage as an important part of personal security and identity. Lucy’s father’s death is the catalyst for her negative experiences of adoptive and foster care, suggesting that biological bonds are a naturally strong source of care. Lucy’s sense of identity is also damaged by her father’s lie that her birth mother was Italian, not Anishinaabe, disconnecting her from her heritage and the potential protection of her maternal family. Lucy’s character arc to reconnect with her lost family and heritage, including her own role as a biological mother, frames the significance of kinship in the narrative. Lucy’s subsequent experiences with legally-created families deepen this presentation. Her adoptive mother, Bridget, terminates the adoption shortly after her father’s death, treating her as disposable: “Bridget requested to terminate the adoption. I didn’t know it was possible to undo an adoption. It was called a ‘failed adoption.’ I was to become a ward of the state” (95). This highlights the precarity of the legal bond in comparison to the biological one.

Later, the Sterlings, her foster family, prove to be a source of abuse rather than protection, as do the Hoppys. Both foster families are shown to be false or corrupt pseudo-families, hiding behind the image of virtuous family life: The Sterlings use religion to conceal and condone incestuous sexual abuse—a form of abuse that inherently perverts the nature of the family unit—while the Hoppys use a wholesome façade to hide an illegal and exploitative “baby farm.” In this way, both foster families present as nightmarish imposters for the true familial unit.

These false familial relationships teach Lucy that legal ties are no guarantee of love or safety, reinforcing her isolation until she is “found” by her connections to her maternal family and cultural identity. This process starts with Miss Lonnie, a foster parent who offers her stability and kindness, and Abe Charlevoix, who provides a crucial link to her Anishinaabe heritage by calling her “Noozhishenh,” or grandchild. Lucy’s most transformative relationships are with Daunis and Jamie, who offer unconditional support and reconnect her to her maternal family and community. Jamie explains the Anishinaabe perspective of family as an onion, where protective layers of relatives and community surround the child at the center: “That green center, where the onion is sweetest, that’s the Native child. Surrounded by layers of family and community” (163). This metaphor of layered, communal protection reframes the idea of family as a small, nuclear unit. Through these wider familial connections, Lucy begins to mend her fractured identity and understand that family can be an active, conscious choice.

Ultimately, Boulley portrays the reclamation of identity as an act of deliberate creation. Lucy’s journey culminates in the discovery of her past and in her choice to build family bonds on her own terms, one that integrates her past and her future. By the end of the novel, she has woven a resilient network of care that includes her son Luke, her mother. Maggie, her chosen sister Stacy, and her elders Miss Lonnie and Abe Charlevoix. These acts of emotional connection demonstrates Lucy’s healing journey, and that while one’s history is important, true selfhood and belonging are achieved by actively forging bonds of trust and mutual care.