BOOKS

Current Issue

COVER:
Grassy Narrows Fights for their Future

BIOGRAPHY
Eskasoni's Icon: Seymour Doucette

Sophie Pierre, Lifetime Achiever Seeks a Better Future for Children

BUSINESS
Tobacco Road Revisited

Interior First Nations Awarded Forest Licenses

BOOKS
Fatherhood, History, and Art

CULTURE
A Mother's Prayer for Son's Safe Return

EDUCATION
CHIP Hospitality "Future Tourism Leaders" Scholarship

HUMOUR
Bee in the Bonnet: Circle the Wagon

MODERN TREATIES
Top Court to Determine Scope of Metis Rights

• For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son
  
• Of Earth and Elders: Visions and Voices from Native
• The First Nations Longhouse: Our Home Away From Home
• Bill Reid

For Joshua
An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son
By Richard Wagamese

In his third book, award-winning native writer Richard Wagamese reaches out to his son after a long and painful estrangement. This Native memoir describes the writer's life long battle with alcohol addiction, in an attempt to explain to his son, Joshua, how and why he made certain decisions on his life's journey.

Wagamese's confession is brutally honest. In the book's first pages the author tells his son:

Drinking is why we are separated. That's the plain and simple truth of it. I was a drunk and never faced the truth about myself - that I was a drunk. Booze owned me.

His goals are to live up to the responsibility that he shirked for many years by passing down his hard-earned wisdom. As an Ojibway man, he is taught "…it is the father's responsibility to introduce our children to the world." The rest of the book chronicles his life from his first clear memories of living in a foster home at the age of four, on the outskirts of Kenora, Ontario.

Adopted at the age of nine, Wagamese writes about his experiences in non-native homes. Although his surrogate family do their best to make him comfortable, the author describes his feelings of insecurity and alienation - a recurring theme throughout the book - during his childhood years. He describes his youth dismally:

My teen years were a sad mix of pain, anxiety, fear and different, that I'd ceased to care about where "in" might be. Anywhere would have done.

Had Wagamese had access to his culture in his youth, he writes, perhaps things would have been different; perhaps Native stories could "act as guides to our selves." Once he runs away from his home, with a grade 9 education, no job or work skills, Wagamese quickly finds two things he has sought his entire life: acceptance and alcohol.

Alcohol "took everything away." The bottle helped Wagamese lift the burden he'd carried for so long. It gave him confidence, courage and developed his social skills. He soon found himself in and out of jail after committing various crimes he often couldn't remember, thanks to his indulgences. His time inside gave him time to reflect on his Native culture. He befriended only Native men and devoured Native books.

After a while, living on the streets often penniless, the writer's hunger for food becomes overpowered by a spiritual hunger he'd never fed. At 24, Wagamese found work in the Native community as a reporter on a small Native paper. This began his belated learning of his culture.

Wagamese participates in Sweat Lodge rituals, meditates on the doctrine of the Medicine Wheel, and comes to many self-realizations about himself and Native people. Mentored by an older Native man, John, also an alcoholic, Wagamese learns the true meanings of Native terms, such as a petition (a humble asking), and pipe teachings.

The book ends with a personalized letter to Joshua, where Wagamese summarizes his life long quest for self-respect and self-knowledge. He hopes his finding will help his son avoid making the same mistakes, and to understand, that being Native is simply being human:

The truth is Joshua, that a real Indian is a person who lives feeling.

Richard Wagamese's first novel, Keeper 'n Me, has won an award, and helped establish him as one of Canada's new literary talents. A former columnist for the Calgary Herald, he received a National Newspaper Award for his writing.

Of Earth and Elders: Visions and Voices from Native America (Volume 1)
Written, Photographed, and Edited by Serle Chapman

This breathtaking book offers a glimpse into contemporary Native America dealing with stories in the past, the present and the future. This collection of thoughts, explanations, opinions and prose contains moving in-depth interviews with Natives (celebrities and non-celebrities) living on and off reservations today.

Divided into four main sections, Of Earth and Elders begins with a series of short stories - each comes with its own lesson. In the Visions section, a variety of anecdotes and yarns related to nature are interspersed with stunning photos of animals including elks, bears, wolves, fawns, coyotes, deer, ram and foxes. These accounts deal with Creation, family, tradition and culture.

In Voices, an interesting mix of historical, spiritual and lifestyle comments are shared through interviews with Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Dances with Wolves, The Doors, The X-Files), Larry Sellers (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman), Steve Reevis (Last of the Dogmen, Dances with Wolves, Fargo, Geronimo), and many more Native Americans. Each picture of the profiled Native allows the reader to see deep into their eyes, sensing the wisdom accumulated in their years.

In Consequence, the last section of the book, an essay written by Bruce Ellison describes the continuing Native struggle, recapping the past injustices made against indigenous communities. Noting the current problems in today's Native populations, the last words of the book urge the new generation to let their voices be heard loud and strong - for the survival of all mankind.

Serle Chapman is a critically acclaimed writer and one of the world's leading wildlife photographers. His first book, The Trail of Many Spirits, was published in the UK in 1996.

The First Nations Longhouse: Our Home Away From Home
By Verna J. Kirkness & Jo-Ann Archibald

We wanted the longhouse to be our home away from home, where children and Elders had a prominent place in the daily lives of the students.

We wanted the longhouse to be a place where our heritage would be respected and where our cultures could thrive...

-From the Grand Opening of the First Nations Longhouse

A mixture of photographs and text, The First Nations Longhouse describes the creation of a cultural home - "the first of its kind" - built on a North American university campus.

The book explains each step that was taken in order to open the doors of the Longhouse in three parts: the planning, which includes the fundraising efforts and ceremonies, the people who helped and gave generously to achieve the dream, and a current account of what it's like to live in the longhouse.

Situated on the University of British Columbia campus, within the traditional territories of the Coast Salish People, the First Nations Longhouse provides "a home away from home." Essentially a community center for First Nations people, it sits cozily in a small forest.

Constructed primarily of cedar, the building is an interesting mix of modern and traditional architecture: walls are mostly made of glass and logs serve as the columns and beams. According to the book, copper, made in France, was used as the roofing material because of "its traditional value to the coastal people." Occupying 2,043 square metres, this "institute of higher learning" was four years in the making and was opened on May 25, 1993.

Describing the longhouse's many purposes, including enabling the First Nations people to share their knowledge and cultures with the general university community, this documentary-styled book introduces the reader to the First Nation Elders who contributed their time and passion to the building of the longhouse. The section provides vibrant pictures of the Elders as well as quotes explaining their thoughts and hopes for the longhouse.

The last section describes a week in the life of the home noting the wonderful smell of cedar, the sunlight that filters through the copper roof opening, and the sound of the waterfall beside the library - all experienced from sitting in the longhouse's Sacred Circle, which is used for ceremony, prayer, and reflection.

A typical week is filled with activities, day and night, including crafts, meetings, computer labs, sports, ceremonies, and social gatherings often in the form of "talking circles" where each person in given an opportunity to say whatever they need. (More information on the activities and services can be found at the Longhouse's Web site. )

The book is written by two members of the First Nations; Verna J. Kirkness and Jo Ann Archibald.

Kirkness, of the Cree Nation, was the founding direction of the First Nations House of Learning. She supervised the formation and development of the longhouse. She has the Order of Canada for her work in advancing Aboriginal education.

Archibald, of the Sto:lo Nation and was the director of the UBC First Nations House of Learning from 1993 to 2001. She is an editor of the Canadian Journal of Native Education and received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2000 for her assistance to education.

Bill Reid
By Doris Shadbolt

"Of all the arts whose traces remain, that of the Indians of the Northwest Coast is surely one of the greatest. And now, we are indebted to Bill Reid, that incomparable artist, for having tended and revived a flame that was so close to dying."
-Claude Levi-Strauss

Fans of Bill Reid - or anyone interested in Native art and history- will love the pictorial biography recently published in paperback that chronicles the Haida artist's life and work.

The author, Doris Shadbolt, a Canadian art critic and curator who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1976, writes in the book's preface about the challenge she faced compiling Reid's work; specifically the "risk of failed objectivity" and interpreting work where "anthropological interests were heavily invested."

However, she found comfort in the thought that "while this is the first book on Reid, there will be others, for his work is not yet finished, and whole evolving story of cultural change of which he is an important part will offer new perspectives in which to view him."

Reid, whose artwork drew heavily on his Haida ancestors' heritage, continues to be exhibited internationally. His work embraced many forms, and came in miniature and monumental sizes. His art - in gold, argillite, cast bronze or cedar, pencil or ink - is interpreted through a series of chapters that not only divulge the pieces' possible meanings, but also describe events in his life that may have provided him with inspiration.

Beginning with details about Bill Reid's birth in 1920 and illustrating his family tree with pictures of his young mother in Skidegate, chapters include Becoming Haida, Looking Backward, Deep Carving, Beyond Art, and perhaps most interesting - Reid's Bestiary. This chapter showcases his art that was inspired by the "same creatures who lived in the old Haida myths and stories." The writer explains their charm:

"On the most obvious level they appear to be what the art is about. The life they lived in the art however was quite unlike that which they enjoyed in the myths, where they were creatures of action and took part in extraordinary adventures."

This edition, which features 60 full-colour photographs, and even more in black and white, devotes its last chapter as a tribute to Reid's burial in his ancestral land - his beloved Haida Gwaii at Tanu. Reid died on March 13, 1998.