Two Saskatchewan First Nation writers are winners

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The Governor General's Literary Awards represent the highest recognition Canada can give to its writers and the Saskatchewan Book Awards are the highest literary recognition given by Saskatchewan. This year, two First Nation writers were nominated for specific categories of both awards: Louise B. Halfe (Sky Dancer) for her poetry book Blue Marrow, published by McClelland & Stewart, and Yvonne Johnson, for Stolen Life: the Journey of a Cree Woman, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada. Johnson wrote her book in collaboration with two-time Governor General's Award winner Rudy Wiebe.

Though neither of the books won the Governor General's award, Stolen Life was Saskatchewan's non-fiction winner. In November, Rudy Wiebe attended the Saskatchewan awards on behalf of Yvonne Johnson and himself, talked to Louise Halfe while he was there and, on his way home to Edmonton, spent most of a day with Johnson at the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge on the Nekaneet Cree Nation reserve, in the Cypress Hills.

Most readers will be aware that Yvonne Johnson is serving a life sentence which was imposed in 1991. After spending four years in Kingston's federal Prison for Women, she was brought back to Saskatchewan in 1995. It was while she was in Kingston, however, that she first contacted well-known author Rudy Wiebe and asked him to help her write her story.

Why Rudy Wiebe? When you understand that Johnson is the great-great-grand-daughter of Mistahi Muskwa (Big Bear) and also remember that Wiebe wrote The Temptations of Big Bear, which has just been made into a movie, the collaboration makes sense. In Stolen Life, Johnson talks about her reactions to Wiebe's book about her ancestor:

"I must admit I have seen it many times before but did not wish to even pick it up, as I figured, yeah, what do any of those White people or history [books] really know of my family [. . .] But now I am glad I read your book. And I was slapped in the face by how much you really knew or could understand. And I wondered if you had talked to my relatives. Or how you did your research. Where did you get it all?" (Johnson's letter written in November of 1992 and reproduced in part in Stolen Life, p. 8).

This first letter from Yvonne Johnson to Rudy Wiebe was the beginning of not only a partnership which produced a prize-winning book, but also of a friendship which Wiebe says will continue: "We won't stop being friends just because the book is finished." Wiebe describes Johnson as a "remarkable" woman.

Most responses to Stolen Life have been favorable, Wiebe reports. One of the few negative reviews (Globe and Mail) suggested it was politically incorrect of Johnson to work with a White man. Johnson responded that she never looked at Rudy's gender or race, but at his "spirit."

Alberta Report suggests in the article "Dances With Wiebe," by Davis Sheremata (July 20, 1998), that Wiebe was exploiting Johnson just to enhance his own reputation. About this particular article, Wiebe has said he regrets granting them an interview, adding in an exasperated tone, "after all, she contacted me!"

Wiebe also mentions that Johnson has received hundreds of letters congratulating her for the book and for her courage in telling her story. He explains some of the difficult decisions the two writers had to make about what they should publish. After all, he says, much of the story was "about her family . . . people she loves . . . your particular life story is not only your own . . . Yvonne didn't take it lightly."

Another difficulty was that there was so much material: 17 prison notebooks, numerous letters, audio tapes, trial transcripts, newspaper reports, notes of conversations. From this, Wiebe explained, it was a process of selecting the facts which would tell the story to readers in a manner that was both compelling and honest. With two writers involved, the process became even longer and more complicated. "By fax, courier, letter . . . everything went back and forth at least four imes," says Wiebe.

The award from the Saskatchewan literary community, as well as the national recognition, the many letters - and especially Louise Halfe's praise - suggests that the selection process was successful. Halfe says of Stolen Life, "it tore me apart . . . how can one individual put up with so much suffering?" She has also said, "it must have taken [Johnson] tremendous courage not only to tell her story, but also to tell it to a White man."

It seems right that Halfe's book of poetry and Johnson's true story were published in the same year and both nominated for awards. Johnson's struggle for survival is similar to the painful stories which Halfe turns into powerful poetry, most of them stories of Native women in the past. Both Johnson's book and Halfe's suggest how suffering has been handed down through the generations.

The women also share a heritage. Johnson, though half white, was accepted through her grandmother to be part of Saskatchewan's Red Pheasant Cree Nation. Halfe is part Cree as well, also married to a White - she calls her children and grand-children "rainbow children" - and she grew up at Saddle Lake First Nation.

Halfe's poetry has become a vehicle for her to champion the women and children victimized in the past and to inspire Native people, especially young people, in the present. Stolen Life is also a story of hope. Yvonne Johnson describes how her spirit name, Muskeke Muskwa Iskwewos (Medicine Bear Woman), was given to her and what it means to her:

"Another thing is that, as the Elders tell me, 'all that you have experienced you must learn from, and the people who live the hardest lives can have the greatest understandings and teachings to give others. So learn well, for the sake of others'," (Stolen Life, p. 439). The connections between the writers continue. Wiebe says he's disappointed that Halfe's book was not a winner at the Saskatchewan awards. Halfe says she hopes Johnson continues to write for she is "on [a] journey that wil be gifted if she continues to work with it." Of her own future projects, Halfe says she "can't say to anybody what [she's] working on . . . [she's] always working, but it's all of a piece as well." Halfe won the 1996 Milton Acorn Award for poetry for her previous book, Bear Bones and Feathers.

Rudy Wiebe also speaks highly of Yvonne Johnson's writing abilities:

"What is remarkable and enlightening is how Yvonne's powers of writing have expanded during her time in prison . . . even in the earliest of her writings I have seen she had a profound ability to capture an astute perception with words . . . the written language of her perceptions and her natural oral story-telling ability have grown immensely, to become acute, distinctive, and often beautiful."