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Indigenous writers to lift voices in Sechelt Sept. 10

Angela Sterritt is moderating Walking With: Honouring Indigenous Voices event featuring Joseph Dandurand, Danielle Geller, Darrel J. McLeod
arts lead triptich
Left to right are Joseph Dandurand, Danielle Geller and Darrel J. McLeod.

Three Indigenous authors and cultural leaders who live in B.C. will be featured at an upcoming event co-presented by the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. 

Walking With: Honouring Indigenous Voices will unite writers Joseph Dandurand of the Kwantlen First Nation, Danielle Geller, a member of the Navajo Nation, and Darrel J. McLeod, who is Cree from Treaty 8 territory in northern Alberta. CBC journalist Angela Sterritt, herself a member of the Gitanmaax community of the Gitxsan Nation, will serve as host and moderator. 

The panel, which will include readings from the authors’ published works, is scheduled for Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. in the Festival Pavilion of Sechelt’s Rockwood Centre. 

Jane Davidson, the outgoing artistic and executive director of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, was inspired to organize the event after observing an initiative of the shíshálh Nation on July 1, 2021. 

In response to the identification of burial sites at former residential schools across Canada, the shíshálh Nation invited the greater Sechelt community to walk with them in solidarity, acknowledging victims of Canada’s residential school program.  

At the outset of the march, hiwus (Chief) Warren Paull addressed the crowd that had gathered, saying that the Nation asked two things of the Sunshine Coast: to listen and to walk with them. 

His words resonated with Davidson. She said, “[The Walking With event] along with our commitment to include Indigenous voices at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and in our schools programming, is our response to the [shíshálh Nation’s] call.” 

Walking With also coincides with the festival’s 40th anniversary. It was planned to help mark the milestone following the recent wrap-up of the 2022 literary celebration that included a roster of two dozen Canadian authors, poets and journalists.  

“We wanted to make [Walking With] a free event, so it is accessible to all,” Davidson added. 

Joseph Dandurand’s poetry collection The East Side of It All was a finalist for the 2021 Griffin Prize. Dandurand uses autobiographical poetry to reflect on a life trajectory that included drug use and occupancy of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Today, he is a playwright, archaeologist, and director of the Kwantlen Cultural Centre. He has published 13 collections of poetry and has written a poem every day for three decades. 

Danielle Geller, who teaches creative writing at the University of Victoria, published her first book, Dog Flowers, in 2021. The book chronicles the life of her mother through Geller’s eyes as she traces her family story in relation to its Navajo heritage and the impacts of colonialism. The book was nominated for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes. 

Darrel J. McLeod won the 2018 Governor-General’s Award for English-language non-fiction for his memoir Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age. Before retirement, McLeod was a chief negotiator of land claims for the federal government and executive director of education and international affairs with the Assembly of First Nations. Last year he released a second memoir, Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity. 

During the Walking With event, books will be for sale on site courtesy of Talewind Books. Audience members will be asked to wear masks on the Rockwood grounds and in the Pavilion. 

Pre-registration for Walking With: Honouring Indigenous Voices is not necessary, but more information is available by emailing info@writersfestival.ca or by calling 604 885-9631.