Acclaimed Nisga’a Poet to Discuss Residential Schools in Indigenous Literature
By Bob Hall
Selkirk College’s Indigenous Services Department and the Mir Centre for Peace are proud to present Nisga’a author Jordan Abel, speaking at Selkirk College Castlegar Campus on March 16.
Abel will explore what it means to be Indigenous, what it means to be an intergenerational survivor of residential schools, and what it looks like to be at the intersection of Creative Writing, Digital Humanities, and Indigenous Studies.
“It’s important that we understand the violence that colonization has done through language, and even to language,” says Jennie Barron, Chair of the Mir Centre for Peace. “Jordan’s work illustrates the power of language to frame and justify harmful actions and ideologies, but also to challenge and ultimately transform our perceptions in a good way.”
An award-winning poet, Abel has been described as “one of the most exciting young writers in Canada.” Currently pursuing a PhD at Simon Fraser University, he researches intergenerational trauma and Indigenous literature. His creative work has recently been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry (Tightrope), The Land We Are: Artists and Writers, Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (Arbiter Ring), and The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century (Hayword). Abel is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize).
Abel’s talk is part of Selkirk College’s Reconciliation Speaker Series, a collaboration between the Mir Lecture Series and the college’s Indigenous Services Department.
“We were thrilled to hear the positive feedback from community members about the high calibre of Indigenous speakers that we were able to bring to the area last year,” says Leah Lychowyd, Indigenous Services Liaison. “We are continuing the series this year, in partnership with the Mir Centre for Peace, with bringing more incredible wisdom to our communities to demonstrate the resilience of Indigenous peoples despite the ongoing system of colonization.”
Tickets for the event on Saturday, March 16 will be available at the door ($15 for adults and $10 for seniors/students). The talk starts at 7 p.m. in Sentinel 113.
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