Margaret Laurence lecture<\/a> to the Writer\u2019s Trust of Canada. Her speech addressed the way Indigenous women are treated in Canada, saying Indigenous women \u201ccontinuously come last.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cCanada puts Indigenous writers\u2014particularly Indigenous women\u2014last,\u201d said Maracle in her address. \u201cI do not accept it, but I get it. Conquest is understandable, but not acceptable. I get it because if you accept that we are here first, then you would lose your place here. And all this conquest would be for naught. Although I'm grateful for an opportunity to speak, I am still aware of how irrelevant you have made us.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Maracle began writing in the 1970s, she was one of the first Indigenous women in Canada to have a book published. Maracle is now known as one of the most prominent Canadian writers, with many of her works continuing to be bestsellers.<\/p>\n
Maracle\u2019s writing and activism largely revolved around the lives of Indigenous women in Canada. In the preface of I Am Woman<\/i>, Maracle states that she wrote \u201cto empower Native women to take to heart their own personal struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe road to Hell is paved with good intentions,\u201d said Maracle. \u201cThe road to my Hell\u2014which is the murder of Indigenous women\u2014is covered with good intentions: the intent to civilize, Christianized, and anglicize. It had an objective not to pursue religious freedom, but to occupy this land.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to being a writer and an activist, Maracle was also a respected scholar who held several academic positions, including at the University of Waterloo, Western Washington University, the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto. Maracle has also won numerous awards, including the J.T. Stewart Voices of Change Award in 2000 and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, also in 2000. Maracle was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018, one of Canada\u2019s highest honours.<\/p>\n
In her Margaret Laurence address, Maracle talks about the colonial anglicization of her people throughout her childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI...walked a terribly lonely journey to maturity,\u201d said Maracle. \u201cForce and isolation tagged along with anglicization. No parent wants their child to be isolated, and then beaten for letting a word slip out that the foreigners did not understand. Many parents stopped speaking their language to their children. This separated us from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maracle herself has worked tirelessly to aid the revitalization of Indigenous languages and culture in Canada. She was a professor of Aboriginal studies at the University of Toronto, and in 1981, she co-founded the En\u2019owkin Centre in Penticton, BC. The educational institute offers an Indigenous Fine Arts Program and an Okanagan Language Program.<\/p>\n
Maracle passed away on Thursday, Nov. 11, at the Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, BC. She was 71 years old.<\/p>\n
Listen to the CHUO story below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Maracle, a prominent Indigenous author, poet, activist, and scholar, passed away Thursday in hospital. In the wake of her passing, thousands of Canadians have taken to social media to share how Maracle has inspired and enlightened them throughout the years. Born in Vancouver in 1950, Maracle was the granddaughter of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":68960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,219],"tags":[10645,3381,710,10646,10642,2207,10644,10643],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68952"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=68952"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=68952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}