Overview

Cree poet and kêhtê-aya Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer chronicles her childhood in a cabin on reserve, through the Indian Residential School system, and into her reclamation of her nêhiyaw language, culture, and spirituality. My parents taught us the art of observation. I learned to hunt, skin, and butcher game through non-verbal methods. I also watched my grandparents work on the land and live their spirituality. I helped gather, dry, and grind their medicines. I inhaled the medicines’ power and ingested it. When I left for residential school all this fell asleep. In never-before-collected essays and new poems, poet and kêhtê-aya (Elder) Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer tells the story of how she woke up from the trauma of separation and found the source of her inspiration: her culture and the land. In Cree, inspiration is described as a sudden insight. It can come from visits from spirit, from the charged reciprocal experience of being taught by Elders and teaching the next generation, from speaking Cree, which allows the poet to “somersault into memory,” and from the practice of observing and being in relationship with the land as it “constantly gives birth to itself.” wîhtamawik / Tell Them is a stunning love song to nêhiyaw ways of knowing—ways which Halfe has spent her life working to reclaim from the violence of colonization, in order to celebrate their survival and share their enduring teachings with future generations.

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9781779400840

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Reviews

“Louise Halfe, with great generosity and insight, draws us into her lodge where a person can begin to receive what she calls ‘spiritual intelligence.’ One of Canada’s most remarkable poets, she takes us through the trauma of residential school and its corrosive aftermath, through racism and injustice – she is one of our leaders and we are in good hands.” -- Tim Lilburn “Heart, soul, mind...come, experience, and learn from Sky Dancer’s story. You’ll be thankful you did.” -- Bill Waiser  ""Harrowing, hopeful, and defiant, Louise Halfe’s medicine words sing us to a greater knowing."" -- Sam McKegney, author of Carrying the Burden of Peace

Author Information

Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer is an acclaimed nēhiýaw (Plains Cree) poet and writer from the Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta. She has been the recipient of multiple awards and appointments for her work, including the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, Saskatchewan Provincial Poet Laureate, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, the King Charles III Coronation Medal, and Member of the Order of Canada. She resides on the northern plains outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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