Why do they write?

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Why do they write?

Storykeepers: Conversations with Aboriginal Writers

By Jennifer David

Ningwakwe Learning Press

$14.95 (sc)

If you really want to know what it means to be a writer in Canada-an Aboriginal writer-give Storykeepers: Conversations with Aboriginal Writers a read. It's more than just a collection of pretty profiles of some Metis, Dene or Ojibway authors. It's a story from beginning to middle and to end. It's well written, thoughtful and thought-provoking. Even before you realize it, you discover that something subtle and mysterious is happening.

You'll find yourself listening to how people speak, basking in the cadences and rhythms of the "road allowance" people. You'll feel the awesome power of a free spirit reach out as you look down upon a grave of the man they called "the last holdout." You'll be guided by visions and dreams. You'll find yourself in the middle of an intelligent conversation about things we all talk about in our own thoughts and amongst ourselves. This is as much a book about who we are as it is about the writers who are interpreting and shaping our cultures around us.

One of the authors in this book has a couple of favorite sayings. He delivers them all of the time when speaking about his use of humor in his writings. He quotes or paraphrases (we're never sure which) some long-dead, stand-up comic (we're never given a name) who apparently said, "Dying is easy. Comedy's hard." Which leads to another of his favorite quotes (without proper attribution), "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." This may explain why he was summarily dismissed from journalism and pushed into fiction; probably a good thing for Canadian journalism but a much better thing for Aboriginal literature in Canada.

This same person has a few more sayings. Among them, "It's not called writing. It's called re-writing." Which flows nicely into one of my favorites. "Writing's easy. You just sit in front of a blank page, stare at it for hours or days, slit your wrist and let the words flow." Yet, reading this book, you might get the impression that writing-and success-came easily for many of them. As with the person I describe, it may appear that they just sat down at a keyboard one day and a world of opportunity opened before them. Knowing some of the authors profiled in this book, I can say nothing could be further from the truth.

Writing, as some of the authors hint, is a solitary, lonely, often painful occupation. The best writers, and the best writing, delve into those deep, dark places in the soul often best left buried. Yet, a common theme throughout Jennifer David's book is that each of the writers feels compelled to explore these dark shadows, their anxieties, their fears and insecurities, because in so doing they are exploring the everyday, the banal, the ordinary lives of Aboriginal people in Canada.

Some do so by creating characters based on friends, relatives or acquaintances. Just as often, though, they expose their own flawed, far from perfect lives for all to see. Some do so with breath-taking eloquence. Others use the humor that, as Tomson Highway once said, allows us to "laugh like sonsabitches even in the worst squalor and poverty." When they succeed, they make us all feel a little more human. When it doesn't quite work, however, they endure whispers that brand them one-hit wonders or has-beens.

Yet, as this book shows, each writer refuses to meekly accept confidence-shattering, ego-destroying criticism. They persevere. Stubborn? Maybe. Driven might be more accurate. Each has his or her own reasons to write. Some want to reach out across cultural boundaries for more universal understanding. Others fight to be published because they're tired of white men trying to tell their stories for them. Or it's because their histories are relegated to the bottom shelf at the back of the store, if they're on the shelf at all. Others simply to want to celebrate precious life.

Rgardless, writes Jennifer David in her Introduction, "...their stories-the ones they write, and the ones they live-all share certain characteristics. A passionate belief in the power of words to heal, to wound, to create."

Review by Dan David

(No relation to the book author.)