Lee Maracle


Lee Maracle, is a Canadian poet and author. She speaks out as a critic of the treatment of Indigenous people by the Canadian state, and she particularly highlights the issues relating to Indigenous women.

Early life

The granddaughter of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George, Maracle was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1950 and grew up in the neighbouring city of North Vancouver as one of the first Indigenous children to be allowed to attend a normal state school. She dropped out of school and went to California where she did various jobs that included producing films and doing stand-up comedy. She returned to Canada and attended Simon Fraser University. She was one of the first Aboriginal people to be published in the early 1970s.

Career

Maracle is one of the most prolific Indigenous authors in Canada and a recognized authority on issues pertaining to Indigenous people and Indigenous literature. She is an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor and keeper/mythmaker among the people.
Maracle was one of the founders of the En’owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, British Columbia and the cultural director of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto, Ontario.
Maracle has given hundreds of speeches on political, historical, and feminist sociological topics related to Indigenous people, and conducted dozens of workshops on personal and cultural reclamation. She has served as a consultant on First Nations’ self-government and has an extensive history in community development. She has been described as "a walking history book" and an international expert on Canadian First Nations culture and history. Her views are that the
Canadian people should accept responsibility for cultural genocide and the theft of the whole land from the Indigenous people.
Maracle has taught at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Southern Oregon University and has served as professor of Canadian culture at Western Washington University. She currently lives in Toronto, teaching at the University of Toronto First Nations House. She was the writer-in-residence at the University of Guelph.
In 2017, Maracle was presented the Bonham Centre Award from The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto, for her contributions to the advancement and education of issues around sexual identification.
Her newest poetry book, Hope Matters, was written in conjunction with her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter, and was published in 2019.

Fiction