Harry Robinson
As a member of the Lower Similkameen Band of the Interior Salish people and a rancher for most of his life, Harry Robinson also looked upon himself as one of the last storytellers of his people. As he came to realize fully the importance of the storytelling tradition in his community, he began telling stories in the Okanagan language and became as skilled in English storytelling by his mid-seventies.
Wendy Wickwire met Robinson while working on her doctoral thesis and recognized what, as Thomas King would later suggest, may well be "the most powerful storytelling voice in North America." He passed away in 1990-shortly after the publication of Write It on Your Heart, the first of three story collections which will ensure the survival of the epic world of Harry Robinson in many generations to come.
Books (2)
Synopsis:
Following on two previous collections— Write It on Your Heart: The Epic World of an Okanagan Storyteller (1989) and Nature Power: In the Spirit of an Okanagan Storyteller (2004)—Living by Stories is the third volume of oral narratives by Okanagan storyteller Harry Robinson. This third collection documents how the arrival of whites forever altered the Salish cultural landscape.
Living by Stories includes a number of classic stories set in the “mythological age” about the trickster/transformer, Coyote, and his efforts to rid the world of bad people— spatla or “monsters,” but this new volume is more important for its presentation of historical narratives set in the more recent past. As with the mythological accounts, there is much chaos and conflict in these stories, mainly due to the arrival of new quasi-monsters—“SHAmas” (Whites)—who dispossess “Indians” of their lands and rights, impose new political and legal systems, and erect roads, rail lines, mines, farms, ranches and towns on the landscape.
With permission from Harry Robinson, Wendy Wickwire began recording Robinson's oral stories in 1977. Robinson took his role as a storyteller very seriously and worried about the survival of the oral tradition and his stories. “I’m going to disappear”, he told one reporter, “and there’ll be no more telling stories.”
Review
Whenever I need to be reminded that language is magic and that stories can change the world, I go to Robinson.
- Thomas King
Additional Information
288 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Stories from Harry Robinson
Edited and compiled by Wendy Wickwire
Synopsis:
Many of the stories in Harry Robinson's second collection feature the shoo-MISH, or "nature helpers" that assist humans and sometimes provide them with special powers. Some tell of individuals who use these powers to heal themselves; others tell of Indian doctors who have been given the power to heal others. Still others tell of power encounters: a woman "comes alive" after death; a boy meets a singing squirrel; a voice from nowhere predicts the future.
Award
BC Book Prize Winner, 1993.
Review
Epic, mesmerizing tales by a great Okanagan storyteller that lift [one] eerily and movingly into a different world.
- Michele Landsberg, Toronto Star
Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
2nd edition (First Edition published 1992)
Stories from Harry Robinson
Edited and compiled by Wendy Wickwire
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