Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Interview With Yvonne Johnson, Michael Jacklin
Interview With Yvonne Johnson, Michael Jacklin
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
Yvonne Johnson, great-great granddaughter of Plains Cree chief Big Bear, is the co-author, along with Canadian writer Rudy Wiebe, of Stolen Life: Journey of a Cree Woman (1998). Their book tells of how Johnson came to be the only First Nations woman in Canada serving a ‘life twenty-five’ sentence for first degree murder. It also narrates Johnson’s experiences of repeated sexual abuse, inflicted on her by family members and strangers, beginning when she was two years old. As Johnson had been born with a cleft palate, she was unable to communicate to others her suffering and so the abuse continued …
Interview With Rudy Wiebe (Edmonton, Alberta, August 9, 2002), Michael Jacklin
Interview With Rudy Wiebe (Edmonton, Alberta, August 9, 2002), Michael Jacklin
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
MJ: I’m going to begin my questions by asking you about that first letter that Yvonne Johnson wrote introducing herself. In the parts you quote in the beginning of Stolen Life she asks for help researching her family’s past and her ancestry. In that first letter there is no mention at all about writing her life story. So that’s what I’d like to ask. How did that initial request for help tracing her ancestry change to the writing of her own life story?