“Canada, you are in the midst of an Indigenous renaissance,” said Jeremy Dutcher as he accepted the 2018 Polaris Music Prize for his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. If you don’t agree, you haven’t been paying attention, at least not to the arts. Four out of the last five Polaris winners have been Indigenous (Dutcher, Buffy Ste Marie, Tanya Tagaq and Lido Pimienta, who is Colombian Canadian with Indigenous roots). In the lit world, Indigenous writers have been coming to the fore more often, too. Tanya Talaga, Bev Sellers, Eden Robinson (who GET LIT will interview in October), Tanya Tagaq (Split Tooth is long-listed for the Giller and it’s not even out yet), Richard Wagamese, Drew Hayden Taylor, Lee Maracle…that’s off the top of my head, there’s plenty more.
This leads us to another player in this renaissance, Waubgeshig Rice, whose Moon of the Crusted Snow comes out Oct 2. It’s an amazing story, but I don’t want to say too much about it, so tune in and hear us dance around the spoilers and mostly succeed. Enjoy!