This past fall, Brendan Musick joined the Muses from the North (MFTN) Publication Team from UCN’s IT department, bringing fresh expertise as a website designer. His innovative contributions have given the journal a new digital look, which readers can explore at https://ucn.ca/muses-from-the-north/.
Alongside the updated digital edition, the journal now features a PDF Archive of all previous issues. This archive enables Muses from the North to be collected by Library and Archives Canada, which preserves digital publications as part of Canada Government’s national electronic heritage. Hard copies have also been archived there.
Issue 13 was produced under the chief editorship of Dr. Ying Kong, who stepped into the role while Dr. Joseph Atoyebi was on sabbatical leave. During this period, Dr. Kong taught two third-year courses cross-listed between the English (ENG) program and Aboriginal and Northern Studies (ANS) program: Indigenous Literature of the World and Indigenous Women and Literature. The former was offered to students in the Kenanow Bachelor of Education program, while the latter was incorporated into the Bachelor of Arts degree program.
The Kenanow sections taught by Dr. Kong were community-based, with students working full-time in their home communities. The coursework initially presented challenges, as many students were unfamiliar with the Sámi, Ainu, and Igbo peoples and their literary traditions. By the end of the term, however, students had discovered meaningful connections among Indigenous communities worldwide: the Sámi of Northern Europe, the Ainu of Japan, the Igbo of Nigeria, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, and the Māori of New Zealand.
Writers from these regions, Sámi poets, the Igbo story writer, the Australian Aboriginal playwright, the Ainu memoirist, and Māori fiction author resonated deeply with students from the Pinaymootang First Nation in the Interlake region and the Sapotaweyak First Nation along the south/southeast shore of Lake Winnipegosis, both communities in Northern Manitoba. Encountering these global Indigenous voices empowered students to find their own voices and share their own traditions and cultures.
The issue opens with Kelsey Anderson’s submissions: “‘Grandmother’s Stories: Honouring Oral Traditions,” “Indigenous Poetry Creation, Analysis, and Reflection,” and “Our Land Was a Forest: Reflecting on the Ainu Histories of Dispossession and the Connection to Pinaymootang First Nation.” Kelsey Anderson’s creative talents shine through her poetry and storytelling. In her academic essay, she offers an insightful comparison of Kayano Shigeru’s memoir Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir with the struggles faced by her own community, forging a connection that deepens understanding across diverse Indigenous narratives.
Rosemarie Offenloch, an Anishinaabe mother of four, brings a similarly resonant voice to the Ainu memoir. In her reflective essay, “Across the Pacific, Shared Spirits: Parallels Between Ainu and Anishinaabe Resilience,” she illustrates how literature can illuminate cross-cultural Indigenous experience. The personal investment and family history woven throughout her analysis offer a perspective that purely academic approaches may lack. In her poetry experiments, she takes fire as a subject to express Anishinaabe traditions, resisting romanticization while honouring the relevance of Indigenous knowledge systems in contemporary life.
Angela Lowe, a Métis woman, is drawn to the shape poem. Her piece, “Steps Between Two Worlds,” is shaped like a grizzly bear and powerfully expresses her spiritual connection to Grizzly Bear Woman, weaving together themes of fearlessness, land-based knowledge, and Indigenous identity through vivid imagery. A second poem, “Distant Drum: Exploring Metis Identity and Historical Trauma,” takes a contrasting approach, presenting Grizzly Bear Woman within a three-stanza refrain structure, each stanza closing with the line. She goes to “sleep, sleep.” This repeated refrain shifts gradually from peace to dissociation and finally to death, lending the poem a ritualistic quality that reflects the devastating impact of colonization on Indigenous women’s bodies and spirits.
Monica Stagg’s piece, “The Creation and Reflection Process Behind the Story of Grandmother’s Cotton Candy Sky,” describes how she developed and shared her story orally with her classmates. Her narrative planning reveals the deeper significance behind what might appear to be everyday moments, making bannock, watching sunsets, and weekend visits, transforming them into vessels for profound emotional and spiritual exploration.
Bannock also inspires Savannah Sanderson’s story, “Cinnamon Raisin Cookies and Bannock at Granny’s House,” a narrative that beautifully captures intergenerational warmth. By weaving this traditional food passed down through generations into her storytelling, Savannah highlights how traditional knowledge and practice are transmitted within families and lived out in the textures of daily life.
This issue also features two submissions from Indigenous students pursuing Bachelor of Arts degrees through the Indigenous Women and Literature course, with majors spanning Aboriginal and Northern Studies, English, History, and Sociology.
Emily Bushby, a mixed Ukrainian and Swampy Cree woman, shares experiences of navigating double racism, a theme she approaches with emotional depth and a mature understanding of mixed identity and intergenerational healing. Her submission, “Two Shores, One Current: Intergenerational Connections Between Dual Worlds,” complements Angela Anderson’s fearless voice with a more inward, reflective register.
Emily is also committed to transcribing her family history for publication in Muses from the North. This story was originally documented by her great-grandfather for future generations. Inspired by the contributions of Indigenous women to literature, she aims to bring her family’s relocation history to life through both oral storytelling and the preservation of her great-grandfather’s written accounts. In her transcription work, Emily prioritizes maintaining the author’s voice over conforming to standardized English, ensuring that these inherited stories remain authentic and true to their origins.
Chloe Muswagon’s article, “Education as Double-Edged Empowerment in Nervous Conditions,” offers a thoughtful exploration of education in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel. Muswagon skillfully uncovers the complexities of empowerment amid colonial influence, deepening her analysis of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’s framework, particularly around the tension between material mobility and cultural identity. Her personal connection to the protagonist Tambu, grounded in her own lived experience, lends the argument both force and contemporary relevance.
The issue concludes with profiles of the MFTN Publication Team, inviting readers and writers to recognize the individuals who work to provide a platform for northern and Indigenous voices to share their creativity and establish their credibility in Indigenous writing.