Waiting for a story

Back in 2008, I was up one night searching the term “Aboriginal authors” online. As a would-be author, I wanted to get a better sense of the kinds of Anishinaabe writers out there that I would hopefully one day be writing alongside.
A few familiar names came up like Tomson Highway, Joseph Boyden, and Drew Hayden Taylor, but another result that stood out to me was the Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge, which is now known as The Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge.
The website urged Aboriginal Canadians between the ages of 14-29 to submit a short story. Well-known Aboriginal storytellers would review the entries, and there were cash prizes available as well as the chance to be published in a national magazine – not to mention an all expense-paid trip to a Canadian city to accept the award.
The guidelines for the challenge explained that the entries “somehow be tied to a moment or theme in Aboriginal history.”
Several moments and themes in Aboriginal history came to mind and I started notes on possible subjects: residential school, the Highway of Tears in BC, all of the missing Aboriginal women, the 60’s scoop.
I forced myself to come up with so many possible stories that I didn’t start on a single one. Great young writers had already written about the same subjects I came up with in this challenge. I also didn’t want to enter a story for the sake of entering. I wanted to tell a different story, something special that came naturally from the heart.
I wanted to wait for my story, and wait I did.
I waited four years until this year, 2012, which coincidentally is the last year I would be eligible to enter the challenge due to the age criteria.
I am happy that I chose to wait to enter the challenge because this year I actually came out on top. Out of roughly 300 entries, the fictional short story I wrote entitled “Jonas” was picked as the winner.
It’s a little mind-blowing too that the Aboriginal authors whom I was originally searching wound up being the same ones who helped choose my submission as the winner.
The story itself means so much to me. “Jonas” was inspired by real-life events involving students who have passed away while attending high school in Thunder Bay. The majority of the students who passed on were attending the same high school I graduated from in 2004, Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School.
I went to Winnipeg with my family to accept the national award at a June 21 reception held in the Manitoba Museum. The walls of the reception hall were lined with the winning submissions of the arts categories, which is a relatively new category added for those Aboriginal youth who are not writers but visual-artists.
It was such a surreal experience to see the giant board that had an excerpt of my story on it alongside my photo, and it made me feel good to see so many people taking time to read it.
When writing “Jonas” I made a point to include various afflictions that Anishinaabe youth deal with in 2012 as fourth-generation residential school survivors. In “Jonas”, there are signs of a loss of culture and language; there are prejudices in the city from both Anishinaabe and non-Anishinaabe people. I wanted to hint at the different ways that youth deal with their problems through things like eating disorders, bullying, inhalant abuse, underage drinking and physical violence.
I also wanted to leave readers with a message that life will go on no matter what and that new paths sometimes need to be created in order to get to your destination.
I strongly encourage Anishinaabe writers and artists aged 14-29 to enter this challenge each year because you just never know what could happen. Your skills and talents will only become better with age.
I feel it is important to share your story because nobody else will ever wear the kind of shoes that you do, therefore nobody else can tell your story. Know that as an Anishinaabe person, you have an innate ability for storytelling through words and depicting tales and legends through art.
I look forward to one-day seeing winners of future Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenges who are from familiar northern communities.