Raymond Yakeleya has been announced as the new consulting editor for Indigenous content at UpRoute, a branch of Durvile Publications.
Among his responsibilities will be acquiring and developing new titles for the publishing house and reviewing other UpRoute titles for Indigenous content and representation.
“Canada’s Indigenous people need to have a voice in mainstream media in order to tell our peoples' stories, our way,” stated Yakeleya in the company’s announcement.
Yakelaya, an author and filmmaker originally from Tulita, published The Tree by the Woodpile: and Other Dene Spirit of Nature Tales this past spring with UpRoute, telling stories passed down from his grandmothers.
The book of three stories, written in English and Dene languages, include tales about how a tree provides sustenance and a home for the North’s living creatures
Before the announcement of his new job, Yakelaya told News/North he hopes to invest in community literacy and opportunities for young Indigenous writers, and find funding partners to build literacy initiatives.
Yakelaya and his publisher, Lorene Shyba, have established a prototype for a workshop in Tulita this fall, said Shyba.
“Raymond has a lifelong passion for making sure the stories of his people are told,” said Shyba.
The workshops will use video storytelling as a practice tool to teach children how to write and tell their own stories, and the stories of family.
“The meat and potatoes of literacy is knowing how to string words together to read and write,” said Shyba.
Yakelaya wants to use his book to establish three scholarships through a partner matching program, he said.
“I think it’s important for me anyway to be helpful. I think we want to be helpful and contribute to our young people so that they can if they want to be writers they can have assistance,” he said.
Two of the scholarships for students in Tulita would be in the names of his grandmothers, Elizabeth Yakelaya and Harriet Gladue, “so that we will never forget them and their time with our people and the things they tried to teach us, and they tried to teach us good things,” he said.
“They have both passed on but the book is about them. I dedicate it to my grandmothers. They were two very exceptional women,” he said.
Each of the stories incorporates Nwet’sine, the Creator and the Spirit of Nature, said Yakelaya.
The stories are about a “time gone by that we will never see again, a time of the dog teams when people used to hunt and trap on the land, would go into the hunting camps,” he said.
“It was something special when I grew up, it was a quiet and romantic growing up. I think mail came once a month, we had one little store in there middle of the NWT on the Mackenzie River,” he said.
Yakelaya recalls a two-room schoolhouse in Tulita, chopping wood and retrieving water.
“It was good because it taught us a lot and the people that were teaching us were our parents, our grandparents, our relatives,” he said.
Writing about his grandmothers, who were both “deep thinkers” was nostalgic and sentimental, he said.
“Writing made me think of them and made me closer to them again, in the way that we were. It made me think about things I hadn't thought about in a long time,” he said.
“My grandmother Elizabeth would be an extrovert whereas my granny Harriet, she would reveal things to me, had put deep thought into what she wanted to say. It made me think that granny Harriet was really sweet.”
Every once in a while, granny Harriet would offer a long answer, he said.
“I was asking her God, how come we never see God?” said Yakelaya.
Dene people are a spiritual people, and it’s important to have an indigenous-centric understanding of the creator, he said.
“They're trying to impress upon is that the most important thing is to know the creator and to have a relationship with the creator. The creator is very mysterious, but through nature we see the work of the creator,” he said.
The stories impart ideas of spirituality, the creator and responsibilities to look after the nature and animals that keep us alive, he said.
“We know if we need water, the water that we need to drink is coming from this earth. We need to be mindful of that and respectful of that and keep it as pollution free as we can,” he said.
The “heart of Dene living” is to be mindful of existence and have stewardship principles and live good lives, said Yakelaya.
The legacy of Giant Mine is simple one example of poor stewardship, he said.
“You look at Yellowknife, How much gold did they take out and how much arsenic did they leave behind? We pollute, pollute, pollute ... and one day we’re going to have to drink the water.”
Teaching Dene lessons is important to ensure cultural relevance in schools, he said.
The Sahtu Educational Board is placing a large order so the books can be used in schools, said Yakelaya.
“It’s important for native educators. Students need to know more about themselves, and more about their peoples’ spiritual beliefs,” he said.
“We're not white men and we never will be white men. I also think it's important that non-native kids learn Dene ways. There are a lot of good things that we can share,” he said.
– with files from Tim Edwards