Stories as good medicine: Moe Clark makes the case for This Accident of Being Lost

On Wednesday, Sept. 20,CBCco-hostsTurtle Island Readsa live public event atMcGill University's Tanna Schulich Hall,highlighting stories written by and about Indigenous Canadians.

• Turtle Island Reads returns: Discover the best in Canadian Indigenous writing

It'san opportunity to talk about and celebrate Indigenous Canadian writers and connect readers with their stories.

Three advocates will each championone book of fiction written by an Indigenous Canadian author and try to persuade you to make that book the next one on your reading list.

Moe Clark, a Montreal-based Mtispoet, touring musician, educator and activist, will make the case for LeanneBetasamosake Simpson's This Accident of Being Lost(House of Anansi).

This Accident of Being Lost speaks from the raw and raging process of finding belonging, as an Indigenous person and as a survivor of colonialism in 2017.

At times awkward and hilarious and, at others, sacred and serene, Leanne Simpson's stories remind me of the deep ancestral knowledge that is and has always been a living compass for connection.

As a Mtis spoken-word artist, I chose to champion Simpson's book because I'm inspired by her creative force as a Nishnaabeg Kwe.

I value her capacity to dance between different forms of expression: she tells stories through the written word but never veers far from oral tradition.

Her refusal of rules of grammar and her use of her Native language, Nishnaabemowin,are ultimately her rebellion against colonial conventions.

She doesn't translate, she asks the reader to do the work.

As a Nhiyawwin (Plains Cree) language learner myself, this defiance is empowerment, because it invites readers into a non-hierarchical Indigenous world view.

• Leanne Betasamosake Simpson wants us to reconsider what we know about Indigenous literature

My own belonging has not always been clear.

It wasn't until my teenage years that I learned about my Mtis lineage and ancestry, after the death of my Mtis grandfather.

Hehad not shared his stories, so I sought out Mtis elders to further my connection to Mtis ways of being and knowing. Their stories helped me end the silence and repair my Mtis family line, fractured by colonial violence.

Sacred and subversive manifestos

The humour in This Accident of Being Lost is at times fierce, but mixed with an honest vulnerability. It loosens the dammingof historical trauma, both personal and collective, while offering up a space for reflection.

The story Doing the Right Thing reframes toxic masculinity through the lens of a Nishnaabeg Kwe who takes a gun course class and ends up with the highest mark in the class, in spite of having to deal with an overtly sexist and racist instructor.

In Plight, a group of friends embark on a guerilla operation to tap the sugar maples in their urban neighbourhood. Their reappropriation of a traditional process turns into a backyard bonfire gathering with a mission. I like that nobody asks for permission here: they just state their actions and go forth, unapologetically.

It was hard for me to put down Simpson's book, because the stories became part of me and I, part of them. They speak to me and to my experience as an urban Kwe.

This both captivates and frightens me. But I like it when stories feel like good medicine.

In This Accident of Being Lost, these sacred and subversive manifestos call me home.

Turtle Island Readstakes place at Tanna Schulich Hall at McGill University, 527 Sherbrooke Street West, onWednesday, Sept. 20at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Find out more about CBC Montreal's special event:Turtle Island Reads.

Co-hosted by CBC's Nantali IndongoandWaubgeshigRice, theevent is a CBC collaboration withthe Quebec Writers' Federation andMcGillUniversity'sInstitute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas.

Let us know you're comingby visiting ourCBC Montreal Facebook Events page.