In this remarkably candid collection of personal essays and stories, Joanne Arnott explores multiple themes: tapping her creative energy as mother, writer, workshop facilitator; celebrating friendship as a potent path to healing; acknowledging the 'bodymind' pain of racism and societal denial of racism; and finding the sacred within ourselves by reclaiming women's rituals.

To read Breasting the Waves is to participate in "a conspiracy of healing." It is to witness the vulnerability, strength and pride of a Metis woman writer reclaiming her full powers.