SWG Board and Community Reading in Indian Head

Lisa Wilson, Vice-President of the SWG, reads poems from a new manuscript. Her poems are word-pictures, letting us see through her eyes as she looks at old black and white shots from the Gordon's Residential School.

I read from the article I sent to FreeLance about blogging Treaty Walks.

I'm attending this community reading in Indian Head at the invitation of Allison Kydd, who is a board member of the SWG. I'm so happy to see one of my writing heroes, Rod MacIntyre, who has just driven in from LaRonge for the board meetings. When I wrote my thesis, Blue Eyes Remembering Toward Anti-racist Pedagogy, way back in 2006, I thank Rod in the introduction for helping me find my narrative.

There is so much to unpack about the reading tonight:

• The etymology of the town name: Indian Head.
• A gentleman from Indian Head reads his poem about fur trade voyagers wearing a Quebecois voyager sash which today is recognized as a Metis symbol.
• Lisa Wilson's poetry.
• My embarrassment talking about treaties, cold, to an audience who doesn't know me. I feel like I should apologize before I begin, but I don't.
• Rod asked Arwen what she was reading. She had along one of her favorite books, Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. In both pictures, with Lisa and Rod, Arwen is clutching her other book A Desperate Road to Freedom.

There is so much to unpack about the reading tonight, but I've run out of time and energy.

Lisa Wilson and Arwen

Rod MacIntyre and Arwen

Missed this gentleman's name. I'll have to update later.