Wayne K. Spear, Georges Erasmus and Rosanna Deerchild among winners for 2025 Indigenous Voices Awards

CBC

5 days ago

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Wayne K. Spear, Georges Erasmus and Rosanna Deerchild are among this year's winners of the Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs).
Since 2017, the IVAs have recognized emerging Indigenous writers across the country for works in English, French and Indigenous languages. The awards have given a total of $247,000 to writers over their eight-year history.
Spear and Erasmus won the $5,000 award for published prose in English for their book Hòt'a! Enough!: Georges Erasmus's Fifty-Year Battle for Indigenous Rights.
The autobiography chronicles Dene leader Erasmus's decades-long fight for Indigenous rights, including his pivotal roles in the Berger Inquiry, the Oka Crisis, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
"For Indigenous peoples this book is an inspiration. A vivid look into the sacrifices and sheer determination of a person and his community in the continual struggle for recognition of our rights," said the jury in a citation.
"For non-Indigenous peoples this book is an eye opener into what has and continues to go into the constant struggle for recognition and respect and the role that Georges has played in that."
The jurors for the English prizes were Cody Caetano, Camille Georgeson-Usher, Liz Howard, Jessica Johns, Conor Kerr, Jónína Kirton, Cecily Nicholson, and Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek.
A vivid look into the sacrifices and sheer determination of a person and his community in the continual struggle for recognition of our rights.
Spear is a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) educator and writer. His other books include Residential Schools, with the Words and Images of Survivors and Full Circle: The Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the Unfinished Work of Hope, Healing, and Reconciliation. Spear is based in Toronto.
Erasmus is the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, president of the Indian Brotherhood of Northwest Territories and chair of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada and is based in Yellowknife.
Deerchild won the $5,000 award for published poetry in English for her collection She Falls Again.
The title follows the voice of a poet attempting to survive as an Indigenous person in Winnipeg when so many are disappearing. Riddled with uncertainties, like if the crow she speaks to is a trickster, the poet hears the message of the Sky Woman who is set on dismantling the patriarchy. Through short poems and prose this collection calls for reclamation and matriarchal power.
"With precision, humour and love, Deerchild invites us into trickster conversations, cultural and familial memory, the beauty and resistance of Indigenous life and the revolutionary power of Sky Woman's return," said the IVA jury in a citation.
"Deerchild instructs that 'these stories are scars i turn to stars/set free in the sky of telling,' where the rhythm of Cree 'carries/[her] back to bone memory,' and assures us that it's the lovers who will save us all."
With precision, humour and love, Deerchild invites us into trickster conversations, cultural and familial memory, the beauty and resistance of Indigenous life and the revolutionary power of Sky Woman's return. - IVA jury
Deerchild has been storytelling for more than 20 years, currently as host of CBC's Unreserved. Deerchild also developed and hosted This Place, a podcast series for CBC Books around the Indigenous anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold.
Her book, calling down the sky, is her mother's residential school survivor story. Deerchild is currently based in Winnipeg.
The French prizes went to Émergence insoumise by Cyndy Wylde and Trouver la maison by Océane Kitura Bohémier-Tootoo.
Previous winners include Alicia Elliott, Brandi Bird, Cody Caetano, Emily Riddle, Brian Thomas Isaac, jaye simpson, Tanya Tagaq and Jesse Thistle.
The IVAs are a crowd-funded non-profit organization with additional support provided by the Canada Council for the Arts, Pamela Dillon & Family Gift Fund, Penguin Random House Canada, Scholastic Canada and Douglas & McIntyre.