Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mi’kmaq women, Aliet Paul grows up with her fierce, loving grandmother Kiju --- who raises her after Aliet’s mother died in childbirth. Her childhood is shaped by the medicinal wisdom of the old ways, but the world beyond their community is changing. She becomes a nurse trained in modern medicine, yet carries Kiju’s teachings close, tucked beside memories of the tree that once welcomed new life. Years later, when the call comes that Kiju has died, Aliet returns home to a community scattered and a past she thought she’d outrun. As Aliet digs to uncover who her family really is, each revelation pulls her deeper into a web of long-guarded silences and generational wounds that refuse to stay buried: Someone knew the truth about her mother’s final moments. And someone wants the past to remain undisturbed.

In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters melds traditional storytelling with beautiful, spare prose to describe the dignity of the traditional way of life, the humiliations of systemic racism, and the resilient power to endure. A young man returns from residential school only to realize he no longer can communicate with his own parents. A grieving mother finds purpose and healing on the front lines as a water protector. And a nervous child dances in her first Mawi’omi. The collection also includes the Indigenous Voices Award-winning and title story “Waiting for the Long Night Moon.” At times sad, sometimes disturbing but always redemptive, these stories will remind you that where there is grief there is also joy, where there is trauma there is resilience, and, most importantly, there is power.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her --- and she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.