Indigenous Literatures span many different nations, cultures, and literary traditions that have a long history dating back to a time long before Canada and colonization. These writers are working in genres and traditions that encompass a long history of language, artistic expression, and storytelling traditions that are far older than CanLit. Come hear three Indigenous wordsmiths share their work spanning the different genres of poetry, fiction, and spoken word, as well as discussion of their creative process and practice.
Hybrid events are held in person, you will also be able to watch it live streamed from our Youtube channel.
Location: Room C420, UBC Robson Square
Type: Guest Indigenous Curator Programming
Sponsored by Pace Accounting
Facilitator: Nathan Adler
Readers: Mahara Allbrett, Kalala Poems (Daylight Press) | Alex Taylor-McCallum | Joseph Kakwinokanasum, My Indian Summer (Tidewater Press)
About The Facilitator
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
Joseph is a member of the James Smith Cree Nation. He grew up in north eastern BC and moved to Vancouver in 1989. A graduate of SFU’s Writer’s Studio, he published his first novel, My Indian Summer, with Tidewater Press (2022.) He continues to write on the unseeded territory of the T’souke Nation. For more about Joseph visit starblanketstoryteller.com
Alex Taylor-McCallum is an Kwakwa̲ka̲'wakw/ Nuu-Cha-Nulth story teller & artist of many different mediums. They are a muralist, painter, drummer, singer, lyricist indigenizing various musical genres, event organizer, film maker, scriptwriter, actor, Decolonial Cook at Red Cedar Cafe and Father of 2 Sons. Now alcohol free for over two years, he has found immense healing through the various traumatic effects of colonization, while immersing himself into the art of hip-hop lyricism, which they view as a innovative, creative-native continuation of the traditional Indigenous ways of storytelling.
Mahara belongs to the T’Sleil Waututh Nation and has been writing poetry since her teen years. She put out a book in 1971 titled Ka-La-La Poems under the name Skyros Bruce. She has been published numerous times over the years and given poetry reading twice on CBC radio. She lives and works in her community as a counsellor and healer.
