News Releases - 2002
Honouring Words: First-ever International Indigenous Authors Celebration and Tour comes to Canada, October 20-30, 2002
Ottawa, 8 October 2002 - The first-ever International Indigenous Authors Celebration and Tour, featuring major Aboriginal writers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, will be coming to Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Cape Croker, Ontario from October 20-30, 2002.
Featuring public readings, discussions, panels and workshops on Aboriginal writing, as well as a series of special national radio broadcasts in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Honouring Words will be an unprecedented opportunity for Indigenous writers from the northern and southern hemispheres to gather and publicly celebrate their writing.
In the past two decades, Indigenous writers from these three countries have achieved international prominence on the literary scene as individual writers, but they have never collectively been celebrated. They also have not had a chance to meet, share new writings, and explore and discuss what it is to be an Indigenous writer in the 21st century, at a time of the increasing globalization of culture.
Sponsored principally by the Canada Council for the Arts, CBC Radio, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, Toi Maori Aotearoa and DammWrite! Consulting, this inaugural celebration will be launched in Vancouver on October 20 with a two-hour special live literary cabaret edition of the CBC’s Dead Dog Café. The next few days will include panel discussions, readings, youth events on Indigenous writing, storytelling, theatre and other events hosted by the Vancouver International Writers Festival.
The celebration will then travel to Winnipeg for three days of special programming, children’s events and workshops at Thunderbird House and the University of Winnipeg, hosted by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, from October 24-26. The Canadian and international participants will then travel eastward to the Anishnaabe community of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation in Cape Croker, Ontario for a series of workshops, broadcasts, readings, discussions, community visits and the closing celebration and feast.
The more than 20 participating authors will include Canadian writers Thomas King and Richard van Camp, internationally acclaimed Maori writer Briar Grace-Smith, and award-winning Australian writer Kim Scott. CBC programming will include original works commissioned for this celebration, as well as a special Aboriginal Writing Book Club. More complete information is available on the web site www.honouringwords.com.
Other sponsors include the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, the Vancouver International Writers Festival, the University of Winnipeg, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Redwire Magazine and the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
Join this historic international gathering of some of the finest contemporary Indigenous writers on the globe, either in person or on CBC Radio, and discover the exciting, unique voice that is contemporary Aboriginal literature.
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Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Tour Coordinator
(519) 534-5107
dammwrite@bmts.com
Winnipeg International Writers Festival
Kathleen Darby
(204) 943-0235
Dead Dog Café, CBC Radio, Vancouver
Kathleen Flaherty
(604) 662-6127