A gifted storyteller and poet, Halfe shares the adventures of awâsis, a shape-shifting, gender fluid trickster, teacher, and healer that is not afraid to be hilariously open and expressive. Halfe begins the collection by stating that there are no pronouns in Cree for gender, and is unapologetic in her explanation that awâsis will not provide an answer if asked if he is “an animal or human/if you are a he or a she” – defying western binaries – for awâsis knows that she is both “neither and is all.” This same mischievous defiance is continued as Halfe challenges the use of English, weaving in Cree language and playing with word use and spelling. The poems explore hard-hitting themes like identity, resistance, and soul healing, amongst laughter, fart jokes, and trickster antics. Includes Cree language with written translations. | Foreword by Maria Campbell.
Caution: Mature subject matter and sexual acts.

86 pp., 5.75 × 8.5"

Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer (Cree)

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. Her first book, Bear Bones & Feathers (Coteau, 1994), received the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award and was a finalist for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Gerald Lampert Award. Blue Marrow (Coteau, 1998) was a finalist for the 1998 Governor General's Award for Poetry, and her fourth book, Burning in This Midnight Dream (Coteau, 2016), won the 2017 Saskatchewan Book Award and the Raymond Souster Award, among numerous other awards. Her newest book is awâsis – kinky and dishevelled (Brick Books, 2021). Halfe was Saskatchewan's Poet Laureate for 2005-2006, was awarded the Latner Writers Trust Award for her body of work in 2017, and was awarded the 2020 Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence. She trained at Nechi Institute as a facilitator, has a Bachelor of Social Work, was granted a lifetime membership in the League of Canadian Poets, and has received three honorary doctorates. She currently works with Elders in the organization Opikinawasowin ("raising our children") and lives near Saskatoon with her husband, Peter.

Louise B. Halfe's profile page

"Louise Halfe knows, without question, how to make miyo-iskotêw, a beautiful fire with her kindling of words and moss gathered from a sacred place known only to her, to the Old Ones. These poems, sharp and crackling, are among one of the most beautiful fires I've ever sat beside." — Gregory Scofield, author of Witness, I Am

"Louise makes awâsis out of irreverent sacred text. The darkness enlightens. She uses humor as a scalpel and sometimes as a butcher knife, to cut away, or hack off, our hurts, our pain, our grief and our traumas. In the end we laugh and laugh and laugh." — Harold R. Johnson, author of Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada

"This is all about Indigenizing and reconciliation among ourselves. It's the kind of funny, shake up, poking, smacking and farting we all need while laughing our guts out. It's beautiful, gentle and loving." — Maria Campbell, author of Halfbreed