Words from the Editors

Tansi! Our deepest appreciations go to the following groups and individuals for their remarkable contributions to the successes that we have so far recorded since the launch of Muses from the North: first, our student contributors; second, President Doug Lauvstad and the VPAR, Dr. Dan Smith; third, Dean Harvey Briggs of the Faculty of Arts Business and Science, colleagues and supporters without whose help we wouldn’t have come this far.

The MFTN publication team has come full circle with the release of this fourth issue from our stables. The number four is a revered number among the Indigenous people of Canada. It is regarded as a balancing number. We are inspired by this belief as we look forward to more productive years ahead. In still another positive light, we, the publication team at MFTN, will be traveling to Vancouver (UBC) to host a panel at the 5th Annual Gathering of Indigenous Literary Studies (ILSA), June 3-5, 2019, which is part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The theme of ILSA this year is “Indigenous Literary Arts of Truth and Redress.” The working theme of our panel presentation is: “Voice, Image, Prose and Poetry from Indigenous Students.” As principal editors of MFTN, Drs. Joseph Atoyebi and Ying Kong will introduce Muses from the North to attendees at the conference. They will demonstrate how UCN students, especially Indigenous student writers and illustrators share their voices, images and texts about their culture and tradition, and they will also explore what the future holds for Indigenous student writers. Kassidy Burden and Flett Taylor will share their achievements and experiences as student writer and artist respectively as well as their contributions to the journal in proofreading, editing, and designing of the print copy.

Furthermore, Muses from the North will be represented at HASTAC 2019, which has the theme: “Decolonizing Technologies, Reprogramming Education.” Dr. Ying Kong will talk about the process of decolonization of publication through technology, which has made it possible and accessible for students to publish their creative works through different media. Also, two student writers, Alicia Stensgard and Brie Phillips are currently working on a YouTube video which will soon be made available to the general public, where they share their experience as student writers published in MFTN. We will provide a link to the YouTube video when it is ready – watch this space.

With all these well-deserved recognitions that MFTN currently enjoys, we are delighted to release to our readership the fourth issue of Muses from the North. There are a total of fourteen student-generated works in this issue. These cut across a variety of literary forms and topics. Hope Richards and Brie Phillips use art to express their understanding of the themes of death and life. Shelby Tobacco from Mosakahiken Cree Nation dedicates her play, “The Neck-Bone Eating Championship of the World” to the memory of her brother, who was lost to the “suicide spirit.” Hannah Pajic in her short story, a fiction, with the title “My Little Jilly-bean” provides the reader with an insight into the mind’s thought process and the capabilities of a psychopath. This story was inspired by a psychology course which she took at UCN. Elizabeth Tritthart and Joseph Damilola express their feelings towards Northern culture in poems. More and more students demonstrate their research interests in their respective fields of study. Thus, we have six research papers on different subjects. There are two research papers with “women” as their subject: Jenna Brown writes about the indispensability of Indigenous women to the survival of their communities, while Alicia Stensgard writes on violence against women in Canada. Ramsey Cook reports on the World Championship Dog Race event at this year’s annual Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival. John Hendrickson revisits the 2016 USA presidential election which saw the emergence of an enigma.

It is obvious that Muses from the North has become a forum for UCN students to demonstrate their deep understanding of political, social, and cultural issues. It goes to show that our students are not afraid to share their learning and perspective with the world. We hope that in the near future, more UCN students will participate and moderate student-led discussion forums on the global stage.

(Drs. Ying Kong and Joseph Atoyebi)