Tuesday 29 November 2011

Randy Fred, Theytus Celebrations & More

Accompanied by Penticton Indian Band Chief Jonathan Kruger and Sarah Dickie, Randy Fred receives a hand-made blanket for his contribution to Aboriginal literature/Q&Q
 Congratulations to Theytus and thanks to all 
who have assisted in the flourishing!
Theytus was founded by Randy Fred in Nanaimo, B.C., in 1980, the same year Winnipeg’s Pemmican Publications debuted. Fred sold the company a few years later to the Okanagan Indian Education Resources Society and the Nicola Valley Indian Administration in Penticton.
“In the early 1980s, aboriginal communications was just coming into its own,” Fred recalls. “I always had this desire to … educate general society about aboriginal matters. The buzzword in those days was ‘cross-cultural understanding.’”

Fred adds that the most significant barriers he encountered at the time were the intolerant and exclusive attitudes of government agencies toward an aboriginal man.

“At times, I was being looked at as an inferior person,” he says. “One of the purposes of Theytus in the beginning was to break down those racial barriers. Canada’s not blatantly racist, but the subtleties in racism make life quite difficult at times.… Having attended an Indian residential school for nine years and made to feel ashamed for being Indian, I was trying to battle out of that cultural sphere.”
To read the full article: Quill & Quire article (source)
Q&Q slideshow (image source) Photo courtesy of Theytus
Visit Theytus Press online



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Randy Fred more recently launched a print and online arts magazine, FACE-Siem: first issue is online, with a second edition expected in June 2012.
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Kogawa House Sunday Salon with Shirley Bear
December 4th — Shirley Bear
2pm – 4pm
Shirley Bear returns to Vancouver to read from her 2006 collection Virgin Bones – Belayak Kcikug’nas’ikn’ug at Kogawa House. A visual artist, writer, and activist, she was honored last week at Rideau Hall with the Order of Canada.

Place: 1450 West 64th Avenue, east of Granville St., Vancouver BC Canada
To reserve a seat, email kogawahouse (at) yahoo (dot) ca
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En'owkin Update: