Somebody said “Every man is like every other man, like
no other man and like some other men.”
There’s been a great deal of press lately about the
desperate situation in many of our Native communities, most of all those in the northern part
of Ontario. There’s also, far too seldom, the occasional story of a Native
person who has succeeded, like Gabrielle
Scrimshaw of the Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada who I heard recently talking about members of her Association.
She, of course, corrects the picture a bit with the presentation of an
accomplished young woman, representing a whole range of Aboriginal people who
are amongst us doing jobs, living lives, having families, the things we all do. We’re all alike but unique too…see where I’m going with this.
The view we have of our fellow countrymen who are Native - and who in fact beat us to it in inhabiting this country - is much distorted. The ones who are visible to most of us are
unfortunate and unfortunately our knowledge often stops there. As I usually do when I’m trying to make sense of something, I turned to books to try and
feel closer to Aboriginal people (You’ll notice I go back and forth from Native
to Aboriginal and occasionally say First Nations, there’s not much consensus about
which is most descriptive and respectful).
Here are some of the writers that I know a bit, there are
dozens more to explore, enough to keep us reading for years. Since June is Aboriginal History Month, it's a good time to start watching for things going on and maybe checking out some of these authors.
James Bartleman, a member of the Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nations was born in Orillia and grew up in Port Carling. After 35 years in the Canadian Foreign Service representing us internationally, he served as Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor from 2002 – 2007. He’s written several books of non fiction both about his experiences abroad and those at home as former Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s diplomatic advisor. His recently published novel As Long as the Rivers Flow tells the story of a small child being wrenched from home and family and taken in a plane to a residential school... it broke my heart.
I have a great memory of Tomson Highway…he came to do a
reading for me at Toronto General Hospital when he was just finishing Dry Lips Oughta
Move to Kapuskasing. We thought it would be fun to have the people on inpatient psychiatry do a read
through of the play; it was its first
performance and it was brilliant. Tomson was born on the Manitoba/Nunavut
border and grew up with the Cree and Dene languages before learning English and
French. He’s an accomplished concert pianist as well as a successful playwright
The child of an Ojibway mother and a Caucasian father, Drew Hayden Taylor likes to call himself an Occasion... a Special Occasion at that. Growing up on the Curve Lake First Nations, Drew has, along with many other things in a varied career, done standup comedy at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and been artistic director of the Native Earth Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto. He continues to move us and tickle our funny bones with his recent novel, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass and a new collection of essays, NEWS: Postcards from the Four Directions.
Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway from Wabasseemong First
Nations in northern Ontario. My first connection with his writing was Ragged Company, which introduced me to a group of
homeless people in Toronto whose lives were transformed by winning a lottery. His
most recent novel, Indian Horse, traces a man’s life from his early days on a
reserve, through residential school to life in a city with a career as a
professional hockey player. It’s gritty and tough, with lots of interesting close-up background stuff for hockey fans.
Born in North Vancouver of Cree and Salish
ancestry and a member of the Sto.lo First Nations,.Lee Maracle now lives in Toronto and teaches at U of T. One of the
first Aboriginal people to be published, her titles include Ravensong,
Daughters are Forever and I am Woman.
Themes in Bent Box, her first collection of poems which I’m reading now, range from the personal to the natural to the political. I discovered her and her work at a recent reading at the Spadina library, an amazing source of material by Aboriginal authors. I’m looking forward to
exploring her work further, also to discovering other native women
writers. Maybe there’s a future blog in store, stay tuned.
