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Essay collection wins Ryga Award

A collection of short essays and reflections by an Aboriginal writer has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness.

A collection of short essays and reflections by an Aboriginal writer has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness.

The award, to be presented on Saturday at Centre Stage Theatre in Summerland, will go to One Story, One Song, by Richard Wagamese.

The essays draw on Wagamese’s Ojibway heritage and reflect on his experiences.

“We only take one thing with us and we only leave one thing behind, and that’s the story of our time here,” he said.

Wagamese, a journalist since 1979, said the stories in the collection reflect his own experiences and observations over 55 years of living.

At the same time, the essays are about common experiences and common insights.

“Despite our apparent differences, we’re still the same,” he said. “We have stories that reflect a Canada people sometimes take for granted.”

One of his essays is about his first car. Wagamese said this essay prompted people to write to him with stories about their own first cars.

Wagamese, a journalist since 1979, said he became a writer on the advice of an elder who told him about the necessity of building bridges. But bridges will rust and eventually collapse, the elder told him.

He was urged to fill the gaps with stories.

“A gap, once filled, is always filled,” Wagamese said.

The book was selected from a short list of five books. The other books on the list are A Room in the City by Gabor Gasztonyi, Working With Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowicahn Sweater but Sylvia Olsen, Invisible Chains by Benjamin Perrin and The Tiger by John Valliant.

This is the eighth year the award, in honour of Summerland playwright and novelist George Ryga, has been presented.

 



John Arendt

About the Author: John Arendt

John Arendt has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years. He has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
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