Poet unveils latest work

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Five years after the publication of her first collection of poems, Blueberry Clouds, Metis poet Rita Bouvier is back with a new book called Papiyiahtak.

Published earlier this year, Papiyahtak is a compilation of verses that combines both English and Cree. Bouvier's collection explores issues such as Aboriginal sovereignty in poems like "I mean no disrespect." It is balanced by more intimate musings, such as those in "even Metis women get the blues."

Also in the mix are dramatic monologues about the Battle of Batoche, originally written for the 1999 production of The Batoche Musical.

"I often find there's often a thematic structure to a number of books and I don't know that I write in that way at all ... Most of my material comes from just daily living, if you will, giving expression, I think, to the things I see around me, albeit from my perspective as a Metis woman," said Bouvier.

Bouvier said her work on Indigenous people's issues at the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) and the inspiration of authors like Pablo Neruda, the Nobel laureate from Chile whose poetry often reflected the political and social environments in which it was written, have had a tremendous influence on what she writes. Not only does her poetry reflect her own cultural experiences, it also paints portraits of other people in her life.

"It has to come from one's lived experience to some degree and your imagination and your own creativity. But you know, I'm reluctant to say 'These are the themes.' Obviously, I really want the reader to unpack that for themselves.

"When you think about our contemporary lives as Aboriginal people, there are clearly moments of joyfulness and moments of sadness. We're not that different from any other group of people. Our lives are rich and up and down as anyone and, of course, what makes us unique is our history and our culture. So I think through the poetry I share some of that."

Born in Ile a la Crosse, Bouvier developed a love of poetry at an early age. Although she admits her marks in literature composition class were "never that great," Bouvier remained fascinated with language.

"In particular when we did poetry and Shakespeare, I loved reciting the poems out loud and all that stuff that goes with it. I just loved the economy of the language itself and just the musicality of the language. So I fell in love with the form probably fairly early.

"My first book of poetry actually didn't come out until 1999 and I never shared much of my writing, but I actually started writing in high school and I did do one assignment in university for a prof who encouraged me to share them, but I never did."

Bouvier honed her craft in the Booming Ground poetry group at the University of British Columbia. In 1999, she released Blueberry Clouds. One year later it was nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award in the First People's Publishing category.

Even though Bouvier says she loves the writing process, the task of reading her poems out loud during public appearances is still something she would rather assign to someone else.

"I like to continue writing and I wish that in some ways other people would read my writing instead of me doing it. But you know people tell me they actually like to hear you read because after reading your work, they have a better sense of it ... I find that interesting."

For one of her next projects, Bouvier hopes to use poetry to make the teachings of Elders more accessible.

"One of the things I am interested in is making accessible some of the richness that I find in terms of the work that has been done with Elders. It seems that there's a lot of people who've gone and asked Elders to share their knowledge ... and you find a lot of it is published verbatim, but I'm not sure if the richness of what's in it is accessible," she said.

"So I've been toying with the idea of using form poetry where you actually take the actual words of the Elders and sring them and weave them in a way that will dance like poetry can," she said.

With more and more Metis and First Nations writers making their mark in the world, Bouvier is optimistic that interest in Aboriginal culture and literature within mainstream society will continue to increase.

"I think that people like Maria Campbell and Tompson Highway have put us on the map, so to speak, in terms of the work they have done," Bouvier said. "I think they've opened doors for us. And are people more open to hearing what we have to write? I think so. I hope so."