Two Metis books win awards

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The Gabriel Dumont Institute had a very strong showing when the 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards were handed out on Nov. 30, garnering three nominations and two wins for its publications.

Winning the award in the First Peoples Publishing category was The Bulrush Helps the Pond, written in Swampy Cree and English by Ken Carriere with photographs by Dennis Chamberlain and illustrations by Joanne Panas.

Drops of Brandy: An Anthology of Metis Music written by Leah Dorion, Trent Bruner, David Kaplan and Lyndon Smith was nominated in the First Peoples Publishing category.

Metis Legacy, edited by Leah Dorion, Darren Prefontaine and Lawrence Barkwell, won in the Publishing in Education category.

"Metis Legacy is certainly a book with a great deal of content that has never been published before about the Metis, a lot of artifacts, pictures, things like that, and essays that have been written by a variety of specialists in that area," said Kurtis Hamel, publishing co-ordinator with the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI). The book was a collaborative effort between the GDI and the Louis Riel Institute of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

"And The Bulrush Helps the Pond was a successful book just because it's so visually pleasing. It's full of pictures, artistry. It combines Swampy Cree language with English. And it's a good story about keeping one with nature. It talks about how the wetlands go through their circle of life basically, and it's an excellent, excellent story," he said.

"Drops of Brandy was nominated. I think it was nominated because it is a book that is an anthology of Metis music through probably the last 100 years. A lot of the songs that are in there and that are on the actual musical discs that you can also purchase are 100 years old and they are played by contemporary Metis fiddlers from Western Canada."

To follow on the heels of these award-winning works, the GDI publishing department is also working on a number of new projects.

"We're working on one, we haven't got a title for it yet but it's going to be a Metis oral history book, which will be basically a whole collection of interviews of Metis Elders from across Saskatchewan. We're in the very early stages of workshopping a book by Joan Panas . . . she is doing some art and story, " Hamel said.

While its most recent accolades were for its work publishing books, at least one of the department's current projects involves electronic publishing rather than the traditional ink on paper variety.

"We're working on a virtual museum online, which will be the most comprehensive Metis history and cultural Web site to date. And it's due to be launched May 30, 2003," said Hamel.

While the works published by the GDI over the years have helped to both preserve and promote Metis history and culture, the institute has also helped many Metis authors start their writing careers.

"Our mandate is to encourage Metis authors to come to us and hopefully we can help them get something published, especially if they're the first time, emerging author," Hamel explained.

"With nomination and winning of these awards, we're hoping that we are going to get some block funding from different organizations so that we can get back more to the book publishing," Hamel said, explaining that, while the GDI started out publishing books, the institute also branched off into other media, including video and CD-ROM.

"Hopefully this year, with these two wins and with our nominations, we're going to be able to secure some additional funding so that we can do more books."

For more information about the Gabriel Dumont Institute, visit the institute Web site at www.gdins.org.