windspeaker confidential

Page 13

Author Larry Loyie has published only one book, but it's a winner. As Long as the Rivers Flow, which recently won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction, tells the story of his last summer before leaving his home and the traditional Cree life to go to residential school.

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Larry Loyie: I think sincerity...I like a friend that, most of my friends are elderly, who knows a lot about tradition. . . I go after people who are knowledgeable in traditions and different cultures.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

LL: What really gets me angry is when the media prints something about our people and it's always negative. There's never any positive things about our culture. And especially if it's not written correctly. Even if it's positive, it's not correct.

I guess I get angry when people come up to me and ask me ridiculous questions about our culture, and they want to know if it's true this and that is the way we live. And people trying to write about us, non-Native people trying to write about Native culture. I've spoken quite frankly to people who ask me if they can, in Calgary, especially, one white lady asked if it was okay for her to write about Pauline Johnson. I just simply said 'no,' and told her, 'Do you know anything about us as a people?' And she answered 'no.' 'Then why would you want to write about somebody in a culture you don't know nothing about?'

W: When are you at your happiest?

LL: When I'm at my happiest? I guess with my grandchildren. And I guess being honored by First Nations people. I was honored in Niagara-on-the-Lake friendship centre a couple of weeks ago, and that was the greatest honor. That was what made me happiest, because the book that I'd written was so well received that I was honored by the First Nations by a drum, with an honor song, danced around by the head dancers around the arbor, and reading the whole book to 300 people, doing the dancing, all the rest, with my brothers, that was the greatest thing that could have happened to me.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?

LL: Ugly.

W: What one person do you most admire and why?

LL: I guess it would have to be my brother. And I guess when he was starting to get his degree, I remember him saying many years ago, 'If I'm going to get a degree, I have to quit drugs, I have to quit smoking, quit booze, and everything.' And that was 30 years ago. And he's since got his degree, got his masters, and he's helping First Nations people in Ontario. That would be my younger brother, Buddy.

W: What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?

LL: The most difficult thing would be trying to write my first play about the residential schools and wondering who I was going to hurt. I was wondering, the backlash of the churches, would they pounce on me? I guess it was really hard for me to even write the context of what I was writing about because I lived it...that was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do, letting people read about what I went through.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?

LL: To this point, my greatest accomplishment is that I'm a good writer. I never had a chance to be a writer until 1987 or '88. I had an opportunity because I was disabled now, and I could go back to the classroom and take creative writing courses...I went on to learn how to type on the computer by myself, one hour every morning for a month. And then I went to community college in Vancouver and took up grammar and English. . . And my first book, after a lot of articles that I'd written, but the first book became the Norma Fleck award winner. So that was my greatest accomplishment, going back to school because that schooling that I'd gotten in residential school was not very much.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?

LL: I don't think there's any goal that's out of reach for me. I think I'm quite confident in what I set ou to do I can do. I think what's out of reach for me is making a difference. I might make a difference a little bit with my writing, in helping First Nations people get on with their lives, and know themselves and be proud of who they are. And probably getting First Nations books and having First Nations history taught in schools.

W: If you couldn't do what you're doing today, what would you be doing?

LL: Probably still volunteering, helping First Nations... Probably I'd be doing volunteer work somewhere.

W: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

LL: I think I've had a lot of advice. I think I would have to say from my instructor in creative writing class that realized that I could be a good writer. And she said 'Keep it up. Keep it up.' Because I was not going to a school where you paid to go to school. It was all a free school. And she said 'Keep at it." And I have. And we've become good friends to this day.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?

LL: I guess I hope to be remembered by my work with writing for young people. My first three books are going to be geared for children, possibly four, and I hope that the books help them out in making them proud of who they are. Because I see a lot of urban children from all nations come into Vancouver. They go to a powwow. They're so happy about participating... and they come out of there, all happy... and not two hours after that, they're at the same level of being lost and bored. And I guess that's why I wrote the first book for young people, and it is dedicated to young people.