Aboriginal writers inspire youth at SIFC conference

Page 20

More than 80 high school students and about 20 teachers from across the province gathered in Prince Albert Oct. 26 to 28 to take part in "Writing the Territory Ahead": Young Aboriginal Writers' Conference.

The conference was organized by the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC) English department to celebrate the college's 25th anniversary.

"Five years ago, SIFC English department had a young writer's conference, very similar to this," said Christine Watson, one of the conference organizers.

"It's the 25th anniversary for SIFC this year, so we decided we would revive the tradition by having another one. We figured five years had passed, and new kids were coming into high school. It was a good opportunity for us to do one on our 25th anniversary."

Randy Lundy was another one of the conference organizers.

"It was quite a challenge," Lundy said of organizing the event. "I was mostly just in charge of tracking down the writers we wanted to get out here. It was a challenge, and it was well worth the while. There were some speakers this morning talking about how all of the students who are here are going to be the generation of new writers, so that sort of made it worthwhile."

"I think all of us who are here, all of the writers who are here now, had other Native writers that we looked up to when we were just getting started. So I guess we're just trying to give something back."

One of the writers leading workshops during the weekend was Jordan Wheeler, whose road to where he is now was a gradual one.

"I've been writing, professionally, since 1982," said Wheeler.

"I've written some journalism, poetry, some popular theatre-not mainstream theatre. I've written children's fiction, adult fiction . . . I've lost track of the number of books my work has appeared in. The last dozen or so years, I've been focusing on writing scripts for television. I've written somewhere between 25 to 30 of them up to this point, and that was years after trying to make it as a freelance writer."

Another of the writers taking part in the conference was poet Marilyn Dumont. She, along with the other writers, attended a public evening reading at the John M. Cullenare Library in downtown Prince Albert on the first evening of the conference.

Dumont said the reading had a "very warm enthusiastic crowd. So that kind of set the tone a bit. It was a good kind of welcome."

Workshops were held for both students and teachers, and were lead by the writers in attendance, who also included award-winning journalist Nelson Bird, Drew Hayden Taylor, and the traditional singing group Nikamok.

The best thing about the conference, according to Watson, was "the energy of the students that want to learn. And it's just the imagination that our high school Aboriginal students have. The possibilities are endless, and it's just so wonderful to see them in their workshops.

"I guess one of the most important parts is having [the students and writers] meet face to face, and not just having them as a name on a page that they read in high school. [The writers are] actually real people that do real things, and who have had real struggles to get where they are, and it's just a great opportunity for the students to meet famous people and to know that they, someday, could have a book [published] too."

What is the one thing that the workshop leaders and organizers want the people attending the conference-especially the students -to take with them?

"To enjoy writing," said Dumont. "Not to feel like [writing is] always going to have to be a chore. That they can have fun, and use humor, and play with the language."

"Most people, for whatever reasons, tend not to value their own lives as much as they should," said Wheeler.

"Stories are what come out of people's hearts, what comes out of people's souls, what comes out of people's environments. If you have a story to tell, value what you know. The world wants to know. If it's written well, the world needs t."

"To believe in themselves," said Watson. "To believe that they can do it, and to believe that the future of Aboriginal writing is in their hands. And that, if nothing else they take from this conference, it's the confidence to go out and 'write the territory ahead', which is the conference theme.