{"id":18520,"date":"2017-10-05T13:46:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T17:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18520"},"modified":"2017-10-05T13:46:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T17:46:34","slug":"award-winning-poet-sheds-light-on-indigenous-relationship-with-water-through-unique-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/award-winning-poet-sheds-light-on-indigenous-relationship-with-water-through-unique-lens\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-winning poet sheds light on Indigenous relationship with water through unique lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

No matter where we come from, no matter our background, we each have a relationship with our ancestors and history, according to poet Gwen Benaway.
\nFor Benaway, a writer of Anishnaabe and Metis descent, it is fertile ground to explore and that is just what she does in her latest collection of poetry, \u201cWhat I Want is Not What I Hope For.\u201d
\nBenaway will read from the collection at the Aurora Cultural Centre next Wednesday, October 11 as part of LIT on Tour, presented by the International Festival of Authors Ontario.
\nThis free ticketed event, hosted by the Centre in conjunction with the Aurora Public Library, will get underway at 7.30 p.m.
\nBenaway is an award-winning Two Spirited Trans poet who has been described as \u201cthe spiritual lovechild of Tomson Highway and Anne Sexton.\u201d
\nHer most recent collection of poems sheds a unique light on the unique relationship between Indigenous Peoples and water.
\n\u201cI was thinking about the Indigenous connection to water and the link in our culture between water and women, women as water keepers, life-givers, and a lot of that imagery came through for me in writing that collection,\u201d she explains. \u201cMy Metis and Anishnaabe ancestors relied on water as a way of travelling across the country as a connection point.
\n\u201cI think all of us, no matter where we come from, have a relationship with our ancestors and history. I don\u2019t think a lot of people in Canada think about that and are disconnected from that. I hope people are reminded of their own ancestral connections through my work and see themselves in that notion of travel, voyage and where you come from.\u201d
\nThere is always a pressure on Indigenous artists, and indeed artists from any background \u201cdifferent from the mainstream Canadian culture\u201d to write work that is accessible to everyone, says Gwen, but she adds she doesn\u2019t think that should be the goal.
\n\u201cIt is okay to write work that is accessible differently to people,\u201d she says, \u201cnot to exclude anyone but to actually understand that people from different backgrounds and different audiences are going to see things in the work and be able to connect with it in different ways. It is important to preserve that difference rather than erase it. It is nice to have work that is personal, that has a connection.\u201d
\nThe majority of Gwen\u2019s work is personal. A self-described \u201cconfessional writer,\u201d she says her starting point is always focused through the prism of her own culture and worldview and everything flows from there.
\nAnd her own personal prism is a unique one.
\nWhile Two-Spirited Indigenous authors are finding their voice and increasingly finding a wider audience, it is tougher going for Two-Spirited Trans writers. Although her latest collection of poetry is called \u201cWhat I Want Is Not What I Hope For,\u201d what Gwen does hope for are more voices to emerge and join her in the public forum.
\n\u201cI think we have a long way to come,\u201d she shares. \u201cIndigenous communities, like other communities in Canada, have a lot of transphobia and that has to be overcome. I don\u2019t want to be the only one for very long. My effort is to try and specifically get other Indigenous trans women published and in the world because I don\u2019t want to be the only one. I want to see more of our voices represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on the International Festival of Authors Ontario\u2019s presentation of Gwen Benaway: Reading and Q&A, visit www.auroraculturalcentre.ca or call 905-713-1818. Books will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Blue Heron Books.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter where we come from, no matter our background, we each have a relationship with our ancestors and history, according to poet Gwen Benaway.
\nFor Benaway, a writer of Anishnaabe and Metis descent, it is fertile ground to explore and that is just what she does in her latest collection of poetry, \u201cWhat I Want is Not What I Hope For.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4OI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 12:23:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}