Storytelling circle opens up in Saskatchewan

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A new chapter was added to literary history in Saskatchewan when internationally renowned Metis writer Maria Campbell paid a visit to elementary and high school students in Lloydminster April 25.

Jose Stone, who teaches the new Saskatchewan Grade 12 English curriculum at Holy Rosary high school commented on the general excitement and enthusiasm generated by Campbell's visit.

"We worked for two years with Aboriginal liaison Mel Gervais to get Maria Campbell to come and speak to my students from the viewpoint of a writer and feel that she is an excellent representative of a Canadian, a Saskatchewan and especially a Metis author," said Stone.

After an early morning children's storytelling circle, Campbell spoke to an audience of 60 Grade 12 students at Holy Rosary high school, giving an oral presentation that held her audience spellbound.

In their Canadian literature course, the students had tackled Stories of the Road Allowance People, tales by the Metis and Cree, translated by Campbell.

The students fired off questions concerning the creative writing process, Campbell's personal inspiration and the Metis culture. Explaining her development as a writer, Campbell said she had been transported from total obscurity to overnight literary celebrity when she published Halfbreed in 1973, in the wake of Wounded Knee.

"It was a time in our history, from 1965 to 1970, when there was a whole Aboriginal movement happening in Canada. Indian and Metis people were organizing what have now become the Metis and Indian organizations across the country. A real militant time. Aboriginal people were saying, 'We are here and you need to learn from us,'" said Campbell.

"In 1982, Metis people were legally recognized as a people, so the word 'half breed' was something many people were familiar with and which was used in a very derogatory manner. That's why I used it as a title.

By the time I reached Vancouver on tour, the book was doing very well, number one. Media asking me what I was going to write next. I had never planned on writing a book and since then I've published seven books in eight countries in five languages and produced 35 documentaries and a television series," she said.

"That book and that life sometimes seems like another world. I sometimes wonder about that young woman that I left behind , but she took me to a really good place. Halfbreed, and the writing of it, was a healing journey for me," said Campbell.

"It changed my life and took me to places I never though I would be. If anybody had told me 40 years ago that I was going to be an international writer and filmmaker, I would have laughed," said Campbell.

The works of Maria Campbell have now become standard fare in Canadian literature.

"Teaching Halfbreed, my approach was to make my students see the difficulties that Native people face and to make them understand that we are responsible for our own individual choices, a message that came out loud and clear when we read her book," said Stone.

Jade Scutt, a Grade 12 student, commented on Campbell's personal introspection in Road Allowance.

"An incident in the book that interested me was the way Maria treated Sophie (an Elder) at the dance that one evening. Maria was very pretty with red hair and blue eyes and she said she didn't know whom this old Indian woman was and completely rejected her. For her whole life, Maria had been trying to understand why people discriminate against each other and yet turns around and does the same thing to Sophie. She cut down Sophie to make her feel lower than herself and make her own self feel better. Luckily, Marie realizes what she is doing and feels bad, but has trouble admitting it," said Scutt.

"These are the kinds of responses that that are so positive for students, not judging people but finding them as human beings. Road Allowance is a book worth teaching, showing there is hope for everyone, regardless of race, background, difficulties or poverty," said Stone.