My Conversations with Canadians
Written by Lee Maracle
Published in 2017 by BookThug Press
My Conversations with Canadians presents a series of essays written as conversations to respond to questions or comments Maracle has faced. She addresses the reader while reflecting on these experiences:
You are always sitting just out of reach of my kitchen table; you occupy a large space in my mind, and so I thought I would like to have a conversation with you. You are not invited into the text to respond, and for that I apologize. Instead I take it upon myself to scribble a number of chapters in response to a number of common questions. I hope to create a conversational book. Perhaps we will meet at some justice event in the future. But now, in my imagination, I locate you in my kitchen. (p. 7)
The thirteen conversations presented address a wide range of topics and issues. They combine Maracle’s frank responses and reflections with personal anecdotes, history, and references to the works of other Indigenous writers and artists.
The book closes with the text from her presentation at the first ever First Nations Literature Conference in India. Maracle’s remarks include a compelling summation of her conversations with us:
I want to say that the influence of our societies on Western society went far beyond mere story. It extended to science, medicine, democracy, politics, and law—human rights and acceptance of homosexuality. We were called savages, not because we were brutal in any way. The Jesuits referred to our dress code (women showing skin), our sexuality (women were permitted to be permissive, as it were; homosexuality was accepted), and our polity (women had equal authority to men). Two hundred years later these practices are accepted in the US and Canada and a number of other countries globally. We have influenced the world, but no one has to credit us, as there is no written document by the settler to vouchsafe that fact—in fact, there is, but no one is seriously looking for it. (pp. 140-141)
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