[ windspeaker confidential ] Maria Campbell

Page 16

Renowned Metis author, playwright, film-maker and teacher Maria Campbell is working on her master's degree, writing a thesis on homeland and identity. A new play and a collection of short stories and poetry are also in the works. Campbell was recently recognized for her contributions to Canada's literary and cultural identity, receiving the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in the Arts.

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

Maria Campbell: Honesty.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

M.C.: What really makes me angry, I guess, is the way that children are treated. I can't think of anything that makes me really angry other than when children are treated badly.

W: When are you at your happiest?

M.C.: When I'm home.

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

M.C.: When I'm at my worst I think that I am pretty sharp. By sharp I mean I can be very blunt or cutting. I don't know what you'd call it. Sharp-spoken.

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

M.C.: I guess the person that I have most admired in my life was my great-grandmother. She's been my most important role model and I've always admired her. She was very strong and she was very gentle. Being able to balance those two things. Because sometimes when people are strong they can be hard. Or else if they're just gentle they can end up being a doormat. She was able to be both. She was very balanced.

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

M.C.: I guess letting my children go. Letting them be adults.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?

M.C.: I guess my greatest accomplishment is trying to live a good life...

My greatest accomplishment I think is that somehow through all of the things that have happened in my life or things I've done I've been able to be... I think I'm a very good grandmother. I believe that everybody always has a second chance and I think that Creator giving me grandchildren, I am able to do for my grandchildren all the things that I couldn't do for my own children.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?

M.C.: If I finish my thesis, I've achieved the goals I set out for myself. I guess the goal that would be out of reach, and I don't know if you'd call it a goal, but my dream has always been to be able to live full-time out on the land and to be able to find a way to survive and not have to come into town...

The goal that remains out of reach: You know that's a very difficult one, because I believe that I'm one of those very fortunate people. I've been able to do the things that I wanted to do, to accomplish them. But a horse farm is something that I've always wanted. It's not anything like all the other things, but it's the one thing.

I love the land. I like being able to work outside and I love horses... but it was never a goal. I never set that out as a goal. You know, when I think of goals, I think of these as things that I want to accomplish in my life. But the things I set out to accomplish I think that I did them. Maybe not quite as good as I wanted or could have done, but I was able to do them with the tools that I have available. I think that I did well as a mother, considering. And I always wanted to write, so I'm a writer and I'm known as a writer. I always wanted to go to university. I did that and I teach in a university. My goals have never been [to be] rich or anything. My goals have always been to be comfortable. And I've always been looked after. The Creator has always given the things that I need.

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

M.C.: I would be living on the land. I would raise horses. But that costs a lot of money to do. I would raise horses, live on the land, train them. But I'm too old to do those things and it costs a lot of money. That was my dream. That was always my dream, to be able to have a horse farm. I love horses.

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

M.C.: The best piece of advice I've ever received is, it was when I first started to write and a fellow artist who's an old man, passed away now, told me never to believe what anybody wrote about me. That way I wouldn't get swell-headed and I wouldn't be hurt.

W: Did you take it?

M.C.: Yes.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?

M.C.: I hope to be remembered as a good person, as a kind person.