Secwépemc poet, residential school survivor Garry Gottfriedson says poetry was his 'saviour'

Renowned Secwépemc poet Garry Gottfriedson is set to receive an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in Prince George on May 26.

According to the university, Gottfriedson has been at the forefront of advocating for Indigenous self-determination and identity reclamation for four decades, beginning with his land-based teaching at Mountain Cree Camp — a remote community in Alberta also known as Smallboy Camp — during the '70s.

Gottfriedson, 68, was born the youngest of seven siblings in a ranching family near Kamloops, B.C., a city in the Interior, about 356 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. He attended Kamloops Indian Residential School for five years before his parents transferred him to the public school system.

He has published 11 books of poetry, including Skin Like Mine in 2010, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. He was inducted into the International Library of Poetry Hall of Fame in 1997.

Gottfriedson has worked with UNBC professor Sarah de Leeuw, who specializes in health inequalities, on efforts to combat anti-Indigenous racism in the health-care system across north and central British Columbia. He is currently the Secwépemc cultural advisor for Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

Gottfriedson spoke to host Margaret Gallagher on CBC's North by Northwest about his writing career, the revitalization of Indigenous culture, and decolonization of Canadian universities.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

You're a poet, you're an educator, you're a community leader, you're also a rancher. How are all of these things connected for you?

I grew up in a rodeo ranching family in my community and I witnessed both of my parents actively involved in the fight for Indigenous education and Indigenous rights over the years.

My mother was deeply involved in starting out with the dismantling of the residential schools, because she took us right out of the residential schools and put us into the public school system, which eventually led to the dismantling of the residential schools itself. 

My dad worked very much with the B.C. Native Brotherhood, which eventually led into what we now know as the Assembly of First Nations in Canada.

So I grew up understanding politics very well, but mostly the fight for Indigenous education in this country.

How did you find your way to poetry?

I was living in Alberta for quite some time and I got my undergraduate degree there. I was teaching out there. I moved back to B.C. and I got a job teaching at the En'owkin Centre [in Penticton, B.C.]