Review: Wabigoon River: Poems
Reviewed by: Christine Smith McFarlane
Wabigoon River Poems is written by award winning writer
David Groulx and covers a wide range of social justice issues within a global
context. In order to fully understand the breadth of the poetry that Groulx
writes, one must take in each poem they read slowly.
By reading slowly, it is like ingesting every powerful word and
letting yourself fall into the depths of each word that is written. For an
example there is the poem “Why Are They Called White People,” where Groulx
bluntly says
“Why are they called
White people
and not immigrants
colonists
settlers
or
killers
or kidnappers
or
thieves”
This poem clearly speaks historically of the unsettling
relations between non-Native and Native peoples in the past but also in the
present. We just need to think of the impact of colonialist policies imposed
upon our people-the Indian Act, the residential school system etc.
Another poem that really struck me was “On Seeing a
Photograph of My Mother At St. Joseph Residential School for Girls,” where
Groulx metaphorically speaks of the sadness that encompasses the image he sees
off his mother in a picture from residential school and the storm that ensues from
her survival.
“Some of the girls in
the picture are smiling. You are not Your
eyes staring into the
camera Seem a million miles away
That stare I will see
seldom and one day understand that
Storms begin millions
of miles away”
Wabigoon River Poems is breathtakingly beautiful. The poems
tackle a wide range of issues such as genocide, revolution, and survival. David
Groulx does not just speak of Indigenous struggles but he also places other
battles, other atrocities and other genocides committed worldwide. A great read overall
Wabigoon River is 58 pages, and is published by Kegedonce
Press. ISBN 978-1-928120-01-8
This is a cross post-will soon be posted in Anishinabek News
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