The Reason You Walk is one of five finalists for the 2016 RBC Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction. 2016 recipient of Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for non-fiction. When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew (Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation) decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant Ojibwe man who'd raised him. The Reason You Walk spans the year 2012, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school. An intriguing doubleness marks The Reason You Walk, a reference to an Anishinaabe ceremonial song. Born to an Anishinaabe father and a non-Aboriginal mother, he has a foot in both cultures. He is a Sundancer, an academic, a former rapper, a hereditary chief, and an urban activist. His father, Tobasonakwut, was both a beloved traditional chief and a respected elected leader who engaged directly with Ottawa. Internally divided, his father embraced both traditional spiritually and Catholicism, the religion that was inculcated into him at the residential school where he was physically and sexually abused. In a grand gesture of reconciliation, Kinew's father invited the Roman Catholic bishop of Winnipeg to a Sundance ceremony in which he adopted him as his brother. Kinew writes affectingly of his own struggles in his twenties to find the right path, eventually giving up a self-destructive lifestyle to passionately pursue music and martial arts. Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and a wider conversation about the future of Indigenous peoples. Wab Kinew was named by Postmedia News as one of “9 Aboriginal movers and shakers you should know.” He is the Associate Vice-President for Indigenous Relations at The University of Winnipeg. His hip-hop music and journalism projects have won numerous awards. He is a member of the Midewin. Wab is also an Honourary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. He lives in Winnipeg with his family. The Reason You Walk has been selected in the Young Adult/Adult Category Longlist for First Nation Communities READ 2017.
Related
Related
Related
Related