Award-winning Métis writer 切丽Dimaline recently visited 特拉法加校园 to discuss her responsibilities as an Indigenous storyteller and explain how land and space influence her writing.

“Our land is disappearing, and so much of who we are has to do with that land,” Dimaline told the crowd that attended the event in The Marquee, Sheridan’s Student Union venue. “I’ve realized the only way my kids will have an understanding of what our land is, and therefore who they are and what their responsibilities are, is if I keep that place home through stories.”

The evening of conversation was the first installment of Sheridan’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences’ C² = The Creativity Calendar, an initiative which will bring notable speakers and activities related to creativity to the Sheridan community throughout the Winter 2020 term. Griffin Prize-winning poet 莉斯霍华德, the inaugural writer-in-residence of Sheridan’s 创意写作和出版荣誉学士学位, interviewed Dimaline on stage for 45 minutes before the two fielded questions from the audience.

土地是一种性格

Howard led off the conversation 通过 noting how 荒野帝国, Dimaline’s latest novel and Indigo’s #1 Best Book of 2019, was descriptively set in the Georgian Bay area where Dimaline grew up. “Land is absolutely present as a character in all of my writing,” responded Dimaline, whose mother is Métis with Anishinaabe and Menominee ancestry. “It’s not something I do on purpose, it’s just that one of the parents who raised me was the land.”

Dimaline指出，大部分土地已经被开发，现在已经面目全非。 “Part of the impetus for the speed I’m writing at is that the land is everything. It’s where the stories come from and it’s who we are, and I’m watching it be pulled away. (Writing about it) is a way I can always ensure there’s space for all the kids,” she said. “It’s like inhaling really deep to feel the flex and curve of your lungs, just to know you can breathe. So when we can’t always be on the land, we are always on the land.”

土著故事包含历史或教训

Discussion then shifted to Dimaline’s responsibilities as an Indigenous storyteller, responsibilities she has held since her youth. “My grandmother kept stories for the community, which was so important because we’d been relocated so many times. My role was to listen and then eventually, after a few years, my job was to tell those stories back,” Dimaline recalled.

有两种类型的故事：一种包含了社区历史，描述了通往北方的路线，盟友和敌人； 还有那些包含教训的。 The former had to be recited back exactly the same “because they were our textbooks and our maps”, while the latter had to be told “differently, but the same. They wanted me to know how to recognize what the teaching was that had to be passed along, and also for me to prove I could weave a basket of words to carry that teaching properly and be able to deliver it.”

“I’ve realized the only way my kids will have an understanding of what our land is, and therefore who they are and what their responsibilities are, is if I keep that place home through stories.”

One of those stories — the legend of the Rogarou, a mythical werewolf-like creature in Métis communities — later became the inspiration for 荒野帝国. After sharing that story as an impromptu 40-minute speech at an event where she thought she’d simply be part of a guest panel, Dimaline was approached 通过 a fellow writer who asked if she’d written extensively about the Rogarou before. “That was the day I knew I needed to write about it,” Dimaline said. “Then I thought of someone trying to colonize the Rogarou, and then it became about resource extraction and the role the church plays in making us vulnerable to that extraction.”

Sharing stories can help settlers ‘understand how to be better’

Other topics of conversation included the television adaption of Dimaline’s Governor General Literary Award-winning novel 偷骨髓的人; 本土文艺复兴； 为了文化保护和娱乐而写作的微妙平衡； 以及决定哪些故事应该与非土著观众分享，哪些故事不应该透露的挑战。

迪玛琳谈到了她最近与斯托：洛诗人李·马拉克（Lee Maracle）的互动，马拉克在汉密尔顿的一家咖啡馆里讲了一个故事，迪玛琳以前只在仪式上听过这个故事。 “I told her I wasn’t judging her, but I wondered why she told it at an event where I thought there was maybe one Indigenous person in the audience,” Dimaline said. “She said, ‘Because we’re at a time where the western way of doings things has brought us to the end. 我们希望定居者做得更好。 我们需要他们做得更好。 We ask them to do better, but we don’t give them the stories they need to understand how to be better on our land… From now on, I’m going to start telling these stories more often because I truly want them to do better for all of us.’”

《与切丽·迪玛琳的夜晚》是与奥克维尔社区基金会合作举办的，并支持奥克维尔真相与和解伙伴关系。 接下来的 C² = The Creativity Calendar event is scheduled for Feb. 13, when playwright and acclaimed CBC broadcaster Amanda Parris will visit 戴维斯校区 for a conversation in celebration of Black History Month.

Pictured at top of page: Award-winning Métis writer 切丽Dimaline. 罗宾·萨瑟兰摄。

作者：Jon Kuiperij， Sheridan的营销文案/内容作家。