Published by McGill-Queen's University Press, the book won the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language non-fiction.

Told from an Anishinaabay point of view, Aki-wayn-zih is the story of growing up on Turtle Island, life before European contact, and early memories of trapping and fishing on traditional lands.

In his book, Baxter also describes how the residential school system changed him as a person, and transformed his family, his reserve community, and others like it.

"[2] At the 49th Shelf, David Paul Achneepineskum of the Matawa First Nations contributed, "Aki-wayn-zih will educate not only Canadians but the world as to what my people went through during this tragic part of history.

"[3] The Governor General's Literary Award peer assessment committee members Will Aitken, Madhur Anand, and Jenna Butler stated, "At a time when [Baxter] worries that the fires of Indigenous languages are going out, his simple and beautiful book, written across languages, cultures, and generations, radiates a radical kind of hope.”[4]