A Presentation of the Dawson Daily News Print & Publishing Festival
Sat, June 2 at the KIAC Ballroom, 7:30pm, FREE
The path to reconciliation is paved with story, a process of remembering that informs how we live and the direction we are headed. Lasting change and transformative healing happens in this way, and involves reclaiming what has been ignored or appropriated. This reclamation is happening now. In 2017, five of ten bestselling children’s books in Canadian independent book stores were written by Indigenous authors, and several more populated the fiction and non-fiction lists. One of those books was “When We Were Alone” by David A. Robertson, a picture book that educates Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth about residential school history in Canada. It is one in a growing catalogue of literature that creates a different truth that comes from a mutual understanding of history and its impact. In this presentation, David A. Robertson shares his personal experience in reconciliation, and how his own process of healing is one that applies to all Canadians, and has always involved story.
David A. Robertson is an award-winning writer. His books include When We Were Alone (Governor General’s Literary Award winner, McNally Robinson Best Book for Young People winner, TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award finalist), Will I See? (winner of the Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award Graphic Novel Category), and the YA novel Strangers. David educates as well as entertains through his writings about Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, reflecting their cultures, histories, communities, as well as illuminating many contemporary issues. David is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. He lives in Winnipeg.