11/12/2021
It is with sadness we share the news of Lee Maracle's passing.
Maracle was a prolific First Nations writer and expert on First Nations culture and history, and an influential Indigenous voice in Canadian postcolonial criticism. She was a member of the Stó:lō Nation; grandmother of four and mother of four. Born in North Vancouver, Maracle was the daughter of a Métis mother and Salish father and a granddaughter of Chief Dan George.
Maracle was one of the first Aboriginal people to be published in the early 1970s, and she is one of the most highly published First Nations writers in Canada. She was an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor and keeper/mythmaker among the Stó:lō People.
Her awards include the J.T. Stewart Voices of Change Award (2000) and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation (2000). In 2009, Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from St. Thomas University. In 2019, she was awarded an honourary doctorate from the University of Waterloo in recognition of her work as “as an Indigenous voice for truth.” Recognized as “one of the most influential Indigenous voices in Canada’s literary landscape” and an author “that has been instrumental in promoting social justice in Canada,” Maracle was awarded the Order of Canada in 2018, Canada’s highest honour.
Maracle’s first book, the autobiographical novel Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel (1975, 1990), was one of the first Indigenous works published in Canada. It is the story of an Indigenous woman growing up within an oppressed minority during the 1960s and 1970s, and her struggle toward political consciousness. In the latter regard, it is the story of all oppressed peoples. It is nevertheless a hopeful text that suggests possibilities for envisioning a world that does not continually suppress Indigenous peoples.
Among Maracle’s other published works are Sojourner’s Truth (1990), Telling It: Women and Language Across Cultures (1990), Sundogs: A Novel (1992), Bent Box (2000), My Home as I Remember (ed., 2000), Daughters are Forever (2002), Will’s Garden (2002, 2008), First Wives Club: Coast Salish Style (2010), Talking to the Diaspora (2015), My Conversations with Canadians (2017, finalist for the 2018 Toronto Book Award), and Hope Matters (2019).
Maracle died in Surrey, B.C., November 11, at the age of 71.
