Voice for truth receives honorary doctorate at Waterloo convocation

Monday, June 17, 2019

Si'Yam Lee Maracle’s unflinching look at life on Turtle Island under settler colonialism has propelled a generation of storytellers. In a recent interview with the CBC, the author of path-breaking books such as Bobbi- Lee: Indian Rebel, and Ravensong talked of the bigotry she faced trying to tell Indigenous stories as a young woman growing up in 1970s Vancouver. "Publishers were telling me they don't publish Indians — that's what they called us at the time — because Indians can't read or write," she told the CBC.

Waterloo Chancellor shaking hands with Lee Maracle at convocation ceremony
She responded by interviewing Indigenous people living in Vancouver’s notoriously dangerous Downtown Eastside. What she found was roughly two-thirds could not read; nearly all were victims of forced resettlement and the residential school system.

This sparked a life of teaching and activism — beginning with projects helping Indigenous people to read and write.

To honour a lifetime of education, scholarship and organizing, Maracle — one of the first aboriginal writers to have fiction published in Canada — will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Waterloo. [...]

Read the full story in Waterloo Stories.