Aboriginal books shine at Saskatchewan book awards

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The ninth annual Saskatchewan Book Awards, at the Centre of the Arts, was an impressive event celebrating Saskatchewan's remarkable storytellers, researchers and publishers.

Joyce Wells, coordinator of the event, said a record number of more than 400 guests came to the gala. She also noted that this was the first time a new award-the Reader's Choice Ballot Award -was given to the favorite nominated book. Four awards were given out this year to authors or publishers who created books with First Nations content.

Ahtahkakoop Publishing won the First Peoples Publishing Award for their book, Ahtahkakoop: The Epic Account of a Plains Cree Head Chief, His People, and their Struggle for Survival 1816-1896, while Ahtahkakoop author Deanna Christensen won the Readers Choice Ballot, chosen by the guests at the gala, for the book as well. The Native Law Centre won two awards, the Award for Publishing and the Publishing in Education Award, for Dr. Kent McNeil's book Emerging Justice? Essays on Indigenous Rights in Canada and Australia. The Non-Fiction Award went to Warren Goulding's book Just Another Indian by Fifth House\Fitzhenry and Whiteside.

Chief Barry Ahenakew accepted the First Peoples Publishing Award on behalf of Ahtahkakoop Publishing. Ahenakew played a major role in developing both Ahtahkakoop- the book and the publishing company-initiating the research process for the book, performing corporate fund raising and requesting monies at the band level.

Deanna Christensen is a historian who graduated from the University of Saskatchewan at the Regina campus in 1973. She said she has always been interested in researching Saskatchewan's past. Christensen and her husband Ray knew Ahenakew and his wife Hazel for seven years before she was asked to write a book about the original chief for the school on their reserve. In 1987, she signed her first contract.

In 1994, the first draft was submitted; but it seemed like something was missing. The committee decided to begin the book with a section entitled "The world Ahtahkakoop was born into." The long awaited book was finally launched in October 2000.

Christensen was very pleased with winning the Reader's Choice Ballot at the book awards. She said "I thought that was wonderful. It was a recognition from the people at the awards."

Her book is filled with people's stories, Cree translations, intricate illustrations, and pictures from 1816-1896. In Christensen's words, it is a story of a remarkable head chief named Ahtahkakoop who was a visionary and a realist. He realized the buffalo were disappearing and newcomers were arriving in greater numbers each year. He realized in order to survive, his children and grandchildren would need to adopt a new way of life. The book documents, season by season, Ahtahkakoop's people and their transition from buffalo hunter and warrior to farmer and from traditional Indian spirituality to Christianity.

The Native Law Centre at the University of Saskatchewan has been publishing since 1978. This year Dr. Kent McNeil developed the book Emerging Justice?

This book, with its comprehensive index, brings together 15 essays which examine the development of the law of Indigenous rights in Canada and Australia. Focusing on the two topics of self-government and land rights, McNeil portrays how the law in these two countries has converged in certain respects and diverged in others.

Warren Goulding began to freelance during his high school years in Toronto. He decided to move to Kerrobert, Sask., which is his mother's hometown. Goulding bought the local paper there but sold it five years later when he moved to Saskatoon. He worked for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix but is now freelancing for Eagle Feather News based out of Saskatoon.

Warren began to write Just Another Indian in 1999 but his story begins a decade ago when he was reporting for the Star Phoenix. It was then that four Native women-one from Lethbridge, the others from Saskatoon-were murered. There were never any missing persons reports filed when they went missing in 1992. Eventually three of the women's bodies were found in a grove between Moon Lake and the South Saskatchewan River.

"The whole point was trying to write/right the unjust and unfair portrayal of these women in the media," Goulding said. He wrote about the views of family members, Elders and investigators that tried to help the families locate their loved ones.

These are all phenomenal books that are a must read. They represent historical, cultural, political and modern issues that are important to us as Saskatchewan people. So this gift-giving season, stroll down to your nearest bookstore and pick up one of our nominated and award-winning books.