New book club underway for Lakehead University students and Beausoleil First Nation citizens
By Rick Garrick
ORILLIA — Lakehead University students and Beausoleil First Nation citizens are looking forward to reading and discussing Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, during a book club hosted by Lakehead University and Beausoleil.
“It just really caught my attention — the book Braiding Sweetgrass has been on my list for a really long time,” says Teagan Neufeld, a Lakehead University student from Kenora. “It just really sounded up my alley so I’m really excited to jump into something like that.”
Edna King, a Beausoleil citizen, says the book club was introduced to the community by Trish Monague, Elder-in-residence at Lakehead University and heritage and cultural coordinator at Beausoleil.
“When I saw it advertised, I was trying to decide if that was for me and then I decided, ‘Well, I like to read and I haven’t done a whole lot of it lately’, so I thought if I listen to the audio [book], maybe that will get my attention,” King says. “I like to read and I wouldn’t mind listening so either would be good for me. This is a great way of breaking the monotony of the [COVID-19] pandemic that we are facing right now.”
Monague says the book club will help the community to reach out and connect with each other as well as to reach out and connect beyond the community with a different group of people.
“They don’t have to read, they just have to listen, and I’m down for that,” Monague says. “I work so many hours and I would love to drive somewhere and listen to a book — how enlightening and supportive and encouraging would that be.”
Monague says the book club also provides an opportunity for students to connect with other students and citizens from Beausoleil.
“I’m a trauma-informed traditional counsellor and I’m really aware of what isolation can do to us as human beings,” Monague says. “Because of COVID-19, there’s all kinds of symptoms we’re experiencing — being focused on something is really hard right now for everybody, not just Indigenous people. It’s just a symptom that we are all suffering and wading through right now.”
Mercedes Jocko, Indigenous Initiatives coordinator at Lakehead University, says the book club began on Jan. 27 with an information session for students and citizens from Beausoleil to introduce each other, decide on the pace of reading they want to follow and the best times to meet.
“The book Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, is quite long,” Jocko says. “I think it’s about 22-24 hours of reading so we’re probably going to be reading this book until April. We’ll be meeting once a week.”
Jocko says she previously held a book club with Indigenous students featuring the same book while she was employed at Georgian College.
“We will be offering it in two different formats — folks have the choice if they want to use audible and listen to the book on their own time or they can have the hard copy of the book and read, so it’s really accessible to more people as well,” Jocko says. “Because the book is quite large, it makes it easier and obtainable especially if we end up reading an hour-and-a-half per week, which is more of a heavier read for a book club. This book was really wonderful, I had really good conversations last year when I held it with Georgian College students.”