āniskōstēw - connecting

Posted by LT October 05, 2020

āniskōstēw - connecting

I cannot say for sure what happened
to my mother and father.
The story said,
she went to St. Anthony's Residential School
and he went to Blue Quills.
They slept on straw mattresses and
attended classes for half a day.
Mother worked as a seamstress,
a kitchen helper, a dining room servant,
or labored in the laundry room.
Father carried feed for the pigs,
cut hay for the cattle and
toiled in the massive garden.

That little story is bigger than I can tell.

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Louise Bernice Halfe is a Cree poet from Two Hills, Alta. A survivor of the residential school system, she often draws on her childhood experiences for her writing. Louise Bernice Halfe is the 2017 winner of the $25,000 Latner's Writers' Trust Poetry Prize, which awards $25,000 to a writer with an exceptional body of work in the field of poetry. Her most recent collection is Burning in this Midnight Dream.

CBC Books caught up with Halfe to speak about the advice she would give her young self and what we can expect next from her.

What would you tell your younger self?
"I would tell my younger self: Louise have courage, persevere and take risks. Read, read, read and make the dictionary and your thesaurus your bibles. Talk to the Great Mystery as if this the last day of your life. Keep a journal and have faith." via