Authors tour ends in Cape Croker

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Sixteen authors from New Zealand, Australia and Canada participated in Honouring Words: an International Indigenous Authors Celebration tour that started Oct. 19 in Vancouver and ended on Oct. 30 in Cape Croker. The tour was in Winnipeg from Oct. 24 to 26.

Honouring Words began as a dream of writer, publisher and spoken word artist, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm more than 10 years ago. While visiting New Zealand, she met Indigenous authors and began to dream of authors from different hemispheres coming together to celebrate their similarities through the written word.

Over the years, Akiwenzie-Damm, owner of Kegedonce Press, continued to travel to New Zealand and Australia, meeting authors and learning more about their stories and cultures. She began to work towards realizing her dream of the Honouring Words tour.

Her idea came to fruition in October this year. A dozen of the Indigenous authors finished the tour in Cape Croker.

Kenny Laughton, a writer from Australia, had to leave the tour after the Vancouver stop because of a family medical emergency. Robert Arthur Alexie of Teetl'it Gwich'in ancestry, Louis Bird of Cree ancestry, and Thomas King of Cherokee ancestry, were all part of the tour as well but did not appear in Cape Croker.

The four other participating Australian writers included: Fiona Doyle (Athailpun), Anita Heiss (Wiradjuri), Jadah Milroy (Palku) and Kim Scott (Nyungar). The three writers hailing from New Zealand were Brian Grace Smith (Nga Puhi), Joe Harawira (Nga Te Rangi and Ngati-Awa) and Robert Sullivan (Nga Puhi). The following five writers comprised the Canadian presence of the tour: Katerie Akiewenzie-Damm (Ojibway), Louise Bernice Half (Nehiyaw, Plains Cree), Tammy Jose (Vantut Gwich'in), Richard Van Camp (Dogrib) and Jordan Wheeler (Nehiyaw, Plains Cree).

The 12 who finished shared their experiences of being Indigenous writers in their home country, discussing the purpose that they feel they have as writers.

Australian author Fiona Doyle comes from a remote area of northern Australia where the dialect of her people is considered extinct by the government. Doyle knows that is not the case because her "granny," albeit the only surviving speaker, still speaks the language of the Athailpun people. Doyle has made it her purpose to document and preserve the traditional stories in the language as well as English by working closely with her 80-year-old-granny. She feels like "a red light is on" in the pit of her stomach as she races against time to document these stories.

The Six Nations Writers were special guests of the Honouring Words tour coffee house hosted Oct. 29 by Cape Croker poet, Rolland Nadjiwon.

As the tour drew to a close and the authors gathered together to reflect on their common experience shared over the course of two weeks, most were overcome with emotion.

Doyle expressed gratitude to Akiwenzie-Damm for having a dream that, in the course of being realized, made her own dream come true. "I dreamed of coming to this country and sharing my stories here," she said. This was only Doyle's second exposure to other Indigenous writers. "It's probably been the highlight of my career of writing to date," she said.

Richard Van Camp of Kamloops, B.C. probably summed up best when he said, "Honouring Words reminded me that we, as Aboriginal authors, never work alone. We write with our ancestors beside us and our families around us, with our future generations listening patiently and with love. I know now what I need to do with the stories I've been working on. The path of light has found me again. I've been blessed with this gift and I will return it through my stories, my storytelling, my life."

Akiwenzie-Damm hopes to host another author's celebration tour next year, possibly in Australia. The Honouring Words tour was sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts, Toi Maori Aotearoa, CBC Radio-Canada, Winnipeg nternational Writers Festival, Vancouver International Writers Festival, DammWrite! Consulting, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, University of Winnipeg and Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.