Ancestral Voices

Past Programs

• Tending to the Fire: An Offering for Storytellers

  Embark on a journey into tending to your own fire of storytelling. Every writer has a beginning spark and finding the kindling to grow the flame is step one. Stories, lived experiences, dreams and ancestral knowledge is kindling at reach.

  Join Heather O’Watch as she shares her journey into tending to her fire, and offers some kindling to participants.

  About Heather O'Watch

  Heather O’Watch (She/Her) is a Nakoda and Cree woman from the Okanese First Nation in Treaty 4 Territory. She also has paternal ties to Cegakin (Carry The Kettle) First Nation. Heather is currently enrolled in a Master’s Degree in Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Saskatchewan. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies from the First Nations University of Canada. Heather currently works for a global Indigenous Rights organization and was recently selected amongst 3 other young Canadians to represent Canada at the upcoming G7 Summit as Young Diplomats of Canada. Beyond the realm of her work in Indigenous rights and policy, Heather tends to her passion for storytelling.
   
  Heather considers herself a storyteller and an avid story listener. She often reflects on the stories and teachings she has witnessed in her life from her parents, grandparents, and in the community from Elders and knowledge keepers. Heather began writing and creating her own stories at a very early age and continues to tend her passion through poetry and short stories.
   
  She is currently publishing her first Children’s book titled Auntie’s Rez Surprise with Second Story Press. 

• Celebrating Stories and Storytellers with Nadia Hohn

  Join multilingual, award-winning children’s book author, Nadia Hohn. Listen to Nadia as she reads from one of her popular books, learn about what it's like to write, and take part in a Q&A.

  About Nadia L. Hohn

  Nadia L. Hohn, B.A. (Hon.), B.Ed., M.Ed., M.F.A. is a multilingual, award-winning author of several books for young people, including A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice (Owlkids, 2019), Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter (HarperKids, 2018), and the Malaika series. Her first picture book, Malaika’s Costume (Groundwood Books, 2016) was the 2021 TD Grade One Book Giveaway and featured as a float in the 117th Original Santa Claus Parade. Nadia has two books releasing in 2023: Malaika, Carnival Queen, her fourth book in the Malaika series on May 2 and her edited anthology, The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) on October 17. Nadia is an “artivist” who wants to make sure that all young people see themselves in books. When she’s not lost in a story or concocting a tasty vegetarian dish, she is likely spending time in music and the arts or daydreaming about her next adventure. Nadia teaches elementary school and writing for children courses at post-secondary institutions in Toronto where she also lives.

  Recording to Come

• Celebrating Stories with Shani Mootoo and Pamela Mordecai

  Join award-winning writer and visual artist Shani Mootoo in conversation with award-winning poet, writer and scholar, Pamela Mordecai, as they discuss the vast landscape of own voices' literature and their roles as storytellers.

  About Shani Mootoo

  Shani was born in Ireland and grew up in Trinidad. She is an author and multimedia visual artist. Her first collection of short stories, Out on Main Street, was published in 1993, beginning her literary career. Her first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was published in 1996 and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, as well as being longlisted for the Booker Prize. This novel is now both a Penguin Modern Classics and a Vintage Classics book. Mootoo’s most recent novel Polar Vortex was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize. She is the author of two books of poetry, The Predicament of Or and Cane|Fire. Mootoo was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa from Western University and is a recipient of Lambda Literary’s James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, and the Writers Trust Engle/Findley Award. She lives in Southern Ontario.

  About Pamela (Pam) Mordecai

  Pamela (Pam) Mordecai was born in Jamaica and educated there and in the USA. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1994. A former language arts teacher with a Ph.D. in English, she was for fourteen years editor of the Caribbean Journal of Education. The author of over thirty books including textbooks, children's books, anthologies, nine collections of poetry, a reference work on Jamaica (with her husband, Martin), a collection of short fiction and a novel, her creative and critical writing appears in numerous journals, as well as in major anthologies of Caribbean and African-Canadian literature. Mordecai is known internationally for her children's poems, which have been widely anthologized and used in textbooks in the Caribbean, India, the UK, the USA, South and West Africa, and Malaysia. She has a strong interest in promoting the writing of Caribbean women and has edited and co-edited ground-breaking anthologies of their writing. In 2010 her play, El Numero Uno had its world premiere at the Loraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People and, in March 2016, its Caribbean premiere at the Edna Manley School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She has read at major festivals including the NGC BOCAS Litfest, Calabash International Literary Festival, the International Festival of Authors (Toronto), Smederevo's Poet Autumn Festival, Winnipeg's International Writer's Festival and the Miami International Bookfair. In the spring of 2014, she was a fellow at the Yaddo artists' community in upstate New York (yaddo.org). Pamela’s debut novel Red Jacket was one of 5 books shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Award in 2015. She lives in Toronto.

• Contemporary Indigenous Storytelling with Drew Hayden Taylor

  Expand your understanding of Indigenous storytelling traditions and literature in this virtual author visit with award-winning Ojibway playwright, journalist, writer, filmmaker, and stand-up comedian, Drew Hayden Taylor.

  About Drew Hayden Taylor

  Drew is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario. He has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts, to an award-winning playwright, journalist/columnist short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and documentary filmmaker.

  Recording to come.

• Ancestral Voices: Junie Désil

  A part of the Ancestral Voices series.

  Discover our shared histories, our unique lived experiences, and the past, present, and future of own-voices storytelling in this conversation series hosted by Kim Wheatley and Maxine Gordon Palomino. In August, meet and learn from acclaimed poet, Junie Désil. Check our website for more details.

  About Junie Désil:

  Junie Désil is a poet. Born of immigrant (Haitian) parents on the Traditional Territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka in the island known as Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), raised in Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg). Junie’s debut poetry collection Eat Salt|Gaze at the Ocean (TalonBooks, 2020) was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Junie currently lives on the traditional territories of the Homalco, Tla'amin and Klahoose where she is currently working on a novel and a poetry manuscript.