Richard Van Camp gives us new works

Three Feathers, a graphic novel about restorative justice, is just one of six new works from Richard Van Camp anticipated for release in 2015. He worked on Three Feathers with artist Krysal Mateus.

It tells the story of three young men who return from the land after nine months of learning their language and culture.

In the novel, three boys, Rupert, Bryce and Flinch, break into a number of homes to steal valuables and drugs. When they are caught, they feel nothing but contempt for the people they victimized and the Elder they gravely injured.

The story is richly drawn with vivid images of the pain these young men feel, having lost their culture and connection to their community. One of the lines that stand out explains, “Every animal is born with gifts. Bears always know what you are thinking.  Frogs are keepers of the rain.  Dragonflies are keepers of snakes and can sew the lips shut of any child who tells their first lie.”

This graphic novel can be read and re-read for the wonder of learning Native culture and for the simple genius of how the story is told, bringing three misguided boys to a new understanding of who they are in the world around them and bringing them to ‘repent’ for their crimes and make right what was made wrong.

Richard Van Camp was born in 1971 and grew up in the town of Fort Smith, N.W.T. in the South Slave region. Nearly all of his work has a focus on the northern region and he counts himself lucky to have lived there in the time of ninjas, music videos, Star Wars and He Man, which he says “invaded his life and spirit”.

Always a big reader, Van Camp devoured the writings of S.E. Hinton, Stephen King and Pat Conroy, and many comic books.  He started writing himself when he was 19 when he realized that no one was writing about the life he and his family and friends were experiencing, living in both the traditional Native and pop culture worlds.

His earliest major work was “The Lesser Blessed,” which came out in 1996.

Another new work, released in April is The Blue Raven, a graphic novel illustrated by Stephen Keewatin Sanderson. It’s a tale of family and loss and friendship. 

A young man named Benji has his bike stolen, and a young man in his teens named Trevor offers to help get the bike back. The two boys become close friends as the younger boy teaches the older about the wonders of his culture, though he is still tormented by the loss of his father which the lost bike symbolizes for him.

The story carries a message of hope in how by helping one another through life’s difficulties we grow stronger, and it is also about the power of tradition in all of our lives.

A third Van Camp short novel called Whistle will also focus on the topic of restorative justice, but this time told through letters written from a young man named Darcy to a boy he bullied and assaulted numerous times.

The letters are written from a youth detention centre where Darcy was taken and shows the transformation of the young man as he learns useful job skills, realizes how important his family is to him and, through writing to his victim, realizes that when he was most angry and violent he was more scared than anything. 

These three works are set up to be used as teaching tools. The Blue Raven and Whistle are featured on the website www.pearsoncanada.ca under the heading “Always Learning”, and Three Feathers is available through Highwater Press, which can be accessed through www.highwaterpress.com 

Other works to watch for from Richard Van Camp are For Our Children: Teachings and Traditions from Fort Smith Elders, Night Moves, and The Moon of Letting Go.

Van Camp believes that life in Fort Smith will always influence his work.

“There is a magic there” he said. “There are so many storytellers and so many people I admire.”