de Castell’s new fantasy release

Author of 16 fantasy novels, Sebastien de Castell (left) is set to release the first book of his new series in April, following his internationally acclaimed fantasy series, Greatcoats and Spellslinger.” FULL STORY

 

Okanagan leader joins literary pantheon

Jeannette Armstrong is the first First Nations winner of the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement.

June 08th, 2016

The public is invited to the ceremony for Jeannette Armstrong in Vancouver on June 29th, 7pm

This award is presented for an outstanding literary career in B.C.


Since 1995, the City of Vancouver (Mayor of Vancouver’s office), the Vancouver Public Library and Pacific BookWorld News Society have worked in partnership to present an annual prize to a B.C. author for outstanding and enduring contributions to B.C. society. Each year the Mayor of Vancouver proclaims BC Author Achievement Day in honour of the new recipient. The Writers Trust of Canada and Yosef Wosk have contributed sponsorship since 2009.  Jeannette Armstrong is the 23rd recipient of the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia.

As well as being a gifted writer, Armstrong has contributed countless hours as an educator, spokesperson and organizer for the enhancement of indigenous cultures, making her the most integral, contemporary figure in the growing constellation of aboriginal authors of B.C.

The public is invited to hear her speak and receive her $5,000 award at the Vancouver Public Library’s main branch on June 29th at 7 p.m. A permanent plaque will also be installed in the library’s Woodcock Walk of Fame. This award and ceremony are co-sponsored by the Vancouver Public Library, Writers Trust of Canada, Yosef Wosk and Pacific BookWorld News Society.

At this same event Andrew MacLeaod, legislative bureau chief for The Tyee, will receive the Ryga Award for Social Awareness for his book  A Better Place on Earth: The Search for Fairness in Super Unequal British Columbia (Harbour, 2015).

**

DSC_8888Jeannette Armstrong grew up hearing stories about her mother’s great aunt, the novelist Mourning Dove, who lived briefly in Oliver, B.C., and who also taught Armstrong’s mother in school. Mourning Dove, who died in 1936, twelve years before Armstrong was born on the Penticton Indian Reservation in 1948, wrote Cogewea, the Half-Blood (1927), possibly the first novel to be written by an American aboriginal woman.

“Reading her stories had a great influence on me,” Armstrong says. “And I was really fortunate to have two grandmothers alive until I was well into my 20s.”

In addition to Mourning Dove, Armstrong was influenced by the cadence of Pauline Johnson’s poetry, the mentoring of Okanagan storyteller Harry Robinson and the proximity of Summerland-based playwright and novelist George Ryga who provided an introduction to Armstrong’s first novel Slash (1985). Reprinted more than ten times and adopted for use in schools, Slash recalls First Nations alienation and militancy during the period from 1960 to 1983. Despite ridicule from some friends, the protagonist Thomas Kelasket, nicknamed Slash due to a criminal incident, enjoys speaking the Okanagan language and attending powwows. Eventually he is forced to confront racism in a white-operated school. Sometimes angry and confused, he travels widely in North America to come to terms with himself and the world.

Slash was promoted in the Theytus Books catalogue as the first adult novel by a Canadian aboriginal woman. Lee Maracle’s earlier Bobbi Lee, Indian Rebel (1975), as a synthesis of autobiography and fiction, provides grounds for disputing that claim.

In 1989, Jeannette Armstrong oversaw the creation of the En’owkin International School of Writing for Native Students in conjunction with Theytus Books, Okanagan College and the University of Victoria’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program. Situated in downtown Penticton, it became a focal point for aboriginal writing throughout North America. The school has since re-located to Green Mountain Road on the Penticton Indian Reserve.

Theytus Books, a First Nations-owned and -operated book publishing company, also migrated to Penticton in the mid-1980s. Started by Randy Fred in Nanaimo, Theytus Books is named for a Salish word meaning “preserving for the sake of handing down.” The word En’owkin, according to the Centre, is an Okanagan conceptual metaphor “which describes a process of clarification, conflict resolution and group commitment. With a focus on coming to the best solutions possible through respectful dialogue, literally through consensus.” Theytus Books and aboriginal-owned Pemmican Books in Winnipeg, created by the Manitoba Métis Federation, were both started in 1980.

Armstrong’s best-known non-fiction book is Native Creative Process (1991), in collaboration with aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal. She has edited, contributed to, and written numerous other works, including poetry.The-Native-Creative-Process-A-Collaborative-Discourse

A documentary film portrait, Jeannette Armstrong: Knowledge-Keeper, was produced by A.R.T. BookWorld Productions and premiered on CBC in 1995.

Fluent in the Okanagan language, Armstrong has participated in international conferences around the world. She has received the Mungo Martin Memorial Award in 1974, the Helen Pitt Award in 1978, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. Thomas University in New Brunswick in 2000 and the 2003 EcoTrust Buffet Award for Indigenous Leadership. She was appointed one of seven Indigenous judges to the First Nations Court of Justice called by the Chiefs of Ontario. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from UBC Okanagan in 2006.

As an assistant professor of Indigenous Studies in the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC’s Okanagan campus in 2013, Armstrong was appointed a Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Philosophy, an award of $100,000 for five years to research, document, categorize and analyze Okanagan Syilx oral language literature.

**

Armstrong, Jeannette River-of-Salmon-Peoples-cover-art-WEBWhen Jeannette Armstrong was a child, she witnessed one of the last large salmon harvests on her people’s land in the Okanagan. She has referred to her mother as “a river Indian,” someone who was deeply connected to the traditional fisheries of the Columbia River system. Consequently the loss of the salmon run for her people has resulted, for her, in “the deepest possible grief.”

Revering water and salmon as inseparable, she pledged in 1998 to “forge something new, a new course chosen for the right reasons. A course insuring the preservation of the precious gifts of life to each of us and our generations to come as true caretakers of these lands.”

As a result, Jeannette Armstrong has co-edited River of Salmon Peoples (Theytus Books $32.95) with Gerry William for and about the indigenous cultures along the Fraser River, focussing on its most valuable resource, the salmon. Nine communities were consulted over a two-year period to gather research, photographs and artwork that complement the oral narratives of each community and the book’s exploration of the environmental challenges now facing the waterway and its contents. 978-1-926886-41-1

Photos of Jeannette Armstrong by Laura Sawchuck / BC BookWorld

5 Responses to “Okanagan leader joins literary pantheon”

  1. kate says:

    Very well deserved Jeannette!
    With much respect,
    Kate Shapiro

  2. David Day says:

    Congratulations Jeannette for recognition for a life time of wonderful achievements for which every Canadian should be grateful.

  3. Mahesh K. Dey says:

    My hearty congratulations to Jeannette for this recognition and honor. She well deserves it, for her contributions to Canada’s First Nations’ art, literature and culture for more than two decades. I have worked on her novels for my Ph. D. She is also regarded as one of the widely respected social and environmental activists.
    Best wishes for her future works too.

  4. Ghia Aweida says:

    Congratulations

  5. anne cameron says:

    Congratulations, Jeannette! This award is well deserved, you’ve been in the forefront, and not only have you accomplished significant things, you’ve mentored and encouraged others to do the same.
    I’m truly happy for you. And I look forward to many more years of your stellar input.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • About Us

    BC BookLook is an independent website dedicated to continuously promoting the literary culture of British Columbia.