Sôhkêyihta

The Poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe

Louise Bernice Halfe, David Gaertner

• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781771123501
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

"I build this story like my lair. One willow, / a rib at a time"
— "The Crooked Good"

Since 1990, Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe's work has stood out as essential testimony to Indigenous experiences within the ongoing history of colonialism and the resilience of Indigenous storytellers. Sôhkêyihta includes searing poems, written across the expanse of Halfe's career, aimed at helping readers move forward from the darkness into a place of healing.

Halfe's own afterword is an evocative meditation on the Cree wordsôhkêyihta: Have courage. Be brave. Be strong. She writes of coming into her practice as a poet and the stories, people, and experiences that gave her courage and allowed herto construct her "lair." She also reflects on her relationship withnêhiyawêwin, the Cree language, and the ways in which it informs her relationships and poetics.

The introduction by David Gaertner situates Halfe's writing within the history of whiteness and colonialism that works to silence and repress Indigenous voices. Gaertner pays particular attention to the ways in which Halfe addresses, incorporates, and pushes back against silence, and suggests that her work is an act of bearing witness – whatKwagiulth scholar Sarah Hunt identifies as making Indigenous lives visible.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of contents
• Foreword, Brian Henderson and Neil Besner
• Biographical Note
• Introduction, David Gaertner
• From Bear Bones & Feathers
• From Blue Marrow
• From The Crooked Good
• From ARC Poetry Magazine
• From Burning in This Midnight Dream
• From The Malahat Review
• Afterword, Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe
• Cree Glossary
• Acknowledgements