Emerging writer earns prize for literature

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A play called Heart of the Flower, which touches on the traditions of Japan and its comparisons to Aboriginal culture, has garnered a prize and rave reviews for playwright and actress Anna Marie Sewell from Canada. During part of 1994 and 1995, Sewell spent a year in Japan as an exchange teacher.

On July 15, under the category of emerging writer, Sewell picked up $2,500 for the Prince and Princess Edward Prize in Aboriginal Literature. She also met Prince Edward and his wife, the Countess of Wessex, in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Sewell began to put the whole project of poetry and stories together to form a play in May 1999.

"My sister Trish is an illustrator, so I had been talking about working together with her for some time," said Sewell.

On a whim, Sewell decided to put in a grant proposal through the Canada Council to help put together the book and a performance.

"We spent a fair bit of time together developing both on the text and the illustrations. In September of 1999 I heard that I got the grant," she said.

"I was completely and utterly taken aback when they phoned me up and said I got this emerging writer award," said Sewell. "I certainly cannot disagree that it was wonderful," she said.

When it came time to go public, "I got Kathleen Arnold who is a choreographer, writer, dancer that I've known for years to direct me in this show, and then I asked Eagle Child, who is a flutist, and Robert Clinton, who plays all styles of guitar," said Sewell. "They do a good job. It was really fun to work with them," she said.

For Sewell, discovering the link between the Aboriginal people and the traditions of Japan is where the title Heart of the Flower came from.

She was born in New Brunswick, is from the Listuquj Mi'maq Nation in Quebec and is Micmac, Ojibway and Polish.

"We were considered Metis, and growing up it was expected that if you were Metis that you were not going to go very far.

"Today I believe that you can do a lot of things that are good. I'd like to say that if you want to go anywhere in the world you have to work hard for it. You have to open yourself up to the possibilities," she said.

"We belong to the world, and the things we have, our spiritual ways, our cultural ways, our intelligence and our physical beauty, those are all gifts to the whole world."

Travelling for Sewell has brought a new awareness.

"When you are travelling as an Aboriginal person there are things that you might notice that are different than what other people see," said Sewell. "What I found in Japan was the Shinto religion, the old Japanese religion is very much like Native spirituality. They also have the circle concept. I found a lot of beauty in that. Here we are so far apart geographically and yet I was able to see a common bond."