Festival to celebrate best of Aboriginal literature

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McNally Robinson Booksellers and the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company (SNTC) are teaming up once again to present the Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival.

This is the second year for the festival, a celebration of Aboriginal books and authors from across the country. This year's festival will be held Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. Some events will take place at the SNTC, located at 228-20th St. W., while others will take place at McNally Robinson Booksellers at 3130 - 8th St. E.

The authors taking part in this year's festival represent a broad cross-section of the Aboriginal literary scene-new authors and established authors, writers of fiction and non-fiction, writers of poetry and writers of prose. Festivalgoers will get a chance to meet the authors, and hear them read from their works.

Among those scheduled to take part in the festival are Arnold Isbister, Dennis Jackson, Doug Cuthand, Harold Lerat, Nicola Campbell, Ruby Slipperjack, Rita Bouvier, Randy Lundy, John McDonald, Neal McLeod, Louise Halfe, Harold Johnson, Wanda McCaslin and Joseph Boyden.

The three-day festival will be capped off on Oct. 1 with a gala banquet and awards presentation, to be held at the Sheraton Cavalier-Top of the Inn.

Two Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given out during the gala, one being presented to author, playwright and educator Maria Campbell, and the other recognizing the achievements and contributions of the late Bernelda Wheeler, who passed away on Sept. 10.

The honour was to have been a surprise, but because of Wheeler's failing health, organizers sent a letter to her on Sept. 6 informing her that she had been chosen to receive the award.

Wheeler is probably best known for her children's books-A Friend Called 'Chum', I Can't Have Bannock But the Beaver Has a Dam and Where Did You Get Your Moccasins? among them-but she accomplished much more.

She was host of Our Native Land on CBC Radio for a decade during a time when there were few other Aboriginal people working within the media. She also worked in print, producing columns for papers in western Canada. And as a member of Grandmothers for Justice, she worked to draw attention to injustice in the Aboriginal community.

This is the first year awards have been part of the festival, said Deneen Gudjonson, events co-ordinator with McNally Robinson. Their addition was just a natural progression, furthering the festival's mandate of celebrating Aboriginal literature and Aboriginal authors.

"The two women that we're honouring this year have certainly, in their own ways, paved the way for others," she said. "And that's really what the festival is about ... it's really celebrating Aboriginal authors. And a lifetime achievement is the ultimate celebration of that."

The first-ever McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award will also be presented at the gala. The winning book will be selected by a panel of jurors from among the many books submitted for consideration.

"There's such a wide variety," Gudjonson said of the entries received.

"There's poetry that's been entered. There's children's books that have been entered. There's fiction. There's non-fiction and plays. It's just across the board."

The books, which had to have been published in Canada and written by Aboriginal authors born in Canada to be accepted for consideration, will be judged based on a variety of criteria, from Aboriginal content and literary and artistic merit to editing and production.

"It's the whole package, and what makes a book. So it's all these different components."

The judges are expected to narrow the field down to a shortlist of five books by Sept. 16, then determine which book will take top honours by the time the awards banquet is held.

"It's a very difficult decision," Gudjonson said. "I know with all of the books that I've seen, and quite a few of them I've read myself, I'm really glad that I don't have to pick. The standard is so high. It's jst phenomenal to kind of see what's happening."

Tickets for the gala banquet and awards presentation are $50 and must be purchased in advance. For information about the banquet or the literary festival, contact McNally Robinson at 955-3599 or the SNTC at 933-2262.