What is Indigenous Poetics? How does Indigeneity intersect with language, history, resilience and belonging in contemporary and traditional poetic forms? Showcasing a stellar lineup of Indigenous literary brilliance, join us for a reading and literary panel discussion centered around Indigenous Poetics, creative process, inspirations, and the legacy of Cree, Métis, and Saulteaux poetic voice in storytelling traditions.
Hybrid events are held in person, you will also be able to watch it live streamed from our Youtube channel.
Location: Room C400, UBC Robson Square
Type: In Conversation, Guest Indigenous Curator Programming
Sponsored by Pace Accounting
Facilitator: Nathan Adler
Reader: Wanda John-Kehewin, Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead ᒪᒪᐦᑖᐃᐧᓯᐃᐧᐣ ᐸᑯᓭᔨᒧᐤ ᓂᑭᐦᒋ ᐋᓂᐢᑯᑖᐹᐣ mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân (Talonbooks) | Dallas Hunt, Creeland (Harbour Publishing) | Brandi Bird, The All + Flesh (House of Anansi) | Délani Valin, Shapeshifters (Harbour Publishing)
About The Moderator
Nathan Adler is the author of Wrist, and Ghost Lake (Kegedonce Press), and co-editor of Bawaajigan ~ Stories of Power(Exile Editions), he has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, is recipient of an Indigenous Voices Award for Published English Prose, and a Hnatyshyn Reveal award for literature. He is Jewish and Ojibwe, and a member of Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation.
About The Readers
Wanda John-Kehewin is a Cree writer who came to Vancouver, BC from the prairies, on a Greyhound when she was nineteen and pregnant — carrying a bag of chips, thirty dollars and a bit of hope. Wanda has been writing about the near decimation of Indigenous culture, language and tradition as a means to process history and trauma that allows her to stand in her truth and to share that truth openly. Wanda has published poetry, children’s books, graphic novels and a middle grade reader with hopes of reaching others who are trying to make sense of the world around them, especially if you think you come from nowhere and don’t belong either. With many years of travelling the healing path (well mostly stumbling), she brings personal experience of healing to share with others. Wanda is a mother of five children , two dogs, two cats, three tiger barbs, and a hamster not named Hammy.
Dallas Hunt is Cree and a member of Wapsewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty Eight territory in northern Alberta. He has had creative worked published in Contemporary Verse 2, Prairie Fire, PRISM international and Arc Poetry. His first children's book, Awâsis and the World-famous Bannock, was published through Highwater Press in 2018, and was nominated for several awards. His first poetry collection, CREELAND, was published in 2022, and his upcoming poetry manuscript, teeth, is due out in 2024. Hunt is an assistant professor of Indigenous literatures at the University of British Columbia.
Brandi Bird is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree and Métis writer from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live and learn on the land of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh & Musqueam peoples. Their work has been published in The Puritan, Poetry is Dead, Room Magazine, Brick Magazine, Prism International and others. They are a 4th year B.F.A. student at the University of British Columbia and live with their three cats, Babydoll, Burt and Etta.
Délani Valin is neurodivergent and Métis with Nehiyaw, Saulteaux, French-Canadian and Czech ancestry. She studies for her master’s in professional communications at Royal Roads University, and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Vancouver Island University. Her poetry has been awarded The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize and subTerrain’s Lush Triumphant Award. Her work has appeared in PRISM International, Adbusters, Room, and in the anthologies Those Who Make Us and Bawaajigan. She is on the editorial board of Room and The Malahat Review, and lives on traditional and unceded Snuneymuxw territory (Nanaimo, BC).
