Putting Pen to Paper

Q. Tell us about your film...

Dèeddhoo Gòonlii is my family's fish camp, a place where we spend a couple of weeks almost every summer, fishing with gill nets in the river to catch the running whitefish and the conies. We harvest and process the fish into dry fish to last for the coming winter.

Q. When did you first start writing?

I started writing back in 2017. I used to work with some researchers and I spent a lot of time exploring nonfiction writing. I wrote about climate change from the perspective of a young Indigenous person who is witnessing changes to the land.

It was by working with these researchers that I recognized that I enjoyed putting words on paper. The stories that I told have since been published in journals.

Q. How do you approach writing?

I have to think about the message that I'm trying to present to my reader. I guess with all writers, that is the challenge: how do you make these concepts in your mind interesting enough to grasp the attention of readers?

I think about it for weeks, sometimes for a month. Then I put my pen to paper and the ideas start to flow.

Q. What are you writing now?

One of my recent works is about my grandfathers' work in the past. A lot of their work, like many other leaders at the time, was focused on the land, ensuring that the land would be protected for the future generations.

Now I'm trying to tell their story from the perspective of myself. How do I relate to them and all the work they did in the past?

Q. How will you bring the work to fruition?

Looking back into that history helps me look into the future with hope. I am thinking about the messages I want to present to my readers, in the hope that they can go and explore these ideas on their own.

I think you just have to be passionate about the stories that you're telling. And from that passion comes a desire to tweak these pieces of writing, constantly wordsmithing, constantly changing words, moving things around. The editing process is tedious for me. I can spend months doing it.

Q. Do you have a last word of advice?

Write, and continue to write. These stories are important. As long as you continue to work at it, continue to change those minute details, you will write the best story that you can. I hope that somebody is inspired by it.

I've always questioned why I've desired to move home. And it's because I'm in close proximity to the land. We have unique stories and unique stories are worth telling. So put pen to paper and write your stories.