papiyahtak
- Publisher
- Thistledown Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2006
- Category
- Canadian
- Recommended Age
- 15
- Recommended Grade
- 10
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781894345699
- Publish Date
- Oct 2006
- List Price
- $12.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Through the healing medicine of language, Rita Bouvier leads the reader into the world of the Métis and Cree to experience first hand the wisdom and generosity that she inherited in her birthright. Some of these poems are steeped in the tradition of the dramatic monologue; others are used as dialogue anchors to the rich oral traditions of First Nations people.
About the author
Rita Bouvier is an educator and a writer. She has published two collections of poetry with Thistledown Press, Blueberry Clouds (1999) and papîyâhtak (2004), and has been nominated for several Saskatchewan Book Awards. Bouvier's poetry has been translated into Spanish and German, and her work has appeared in literary anthologies and musical and television productions. In 2008 the Gabriel Dumont Institute published a collaborative children's book with artists Sherry Farrell-Racette and Margaret Gardiner and featuring the title poem from papîyâhtak titled Better That Way. Bouvier lives in Saskatoon.
Librarian Reviews
papîyâhtak
Bouvier’s poems, which take the form of dramatic monologues and are influenced by Aboriginal spoken traditions, are very much connected to the past. When Bouvier is “soaring empty” and feeling like she is the “grey sky with no sun in sight”, she seeks solace in the comfort of family, friends and nature. She fondly reminisces about her childhood and about her grandfather who speaks of her “as an angel who guides him when he loses his way”. She is transported into the spirit world when the scent of the earth fills her nostrils and where her “feet [are] pounding on the soft grass”. She reflects on her Métis background, and pays tribute to Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel. She speaks mournfully about the “politics of polarity” where today “white rejects red and red rejects white”, yet when listening to the “Celtic toe-tapping fiddle” she says, “it feels good to be alive”.Bouvier’s Blueberry Clouds was nominated for the First Peoples Publishing Saskatchewan Book Award.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2008-2009.
