Moose Jaw Public Library, in collaboration with Wakamow Aboriginal Community Association (WACA) and Library Services of Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples (LSSAP), hosted an Aboriginal storytelling event in late February featuring Tenille K. Campbell, a Saskatchewan Dene/Metis author and photographer.
The events focused around love. Unfortunately, Elder Barb Frazier was unable to attend the library event on Feb. 24. The following afternoon, the WACA office hosted Campbell to share her poems about self-love.
“I’ve always been a writer and reader, I find they go hand in hand,” Campbell said.
At the workshop, Campbell also gave those in attendance a chance to write their own love poems.
She finds poetry correlates with storytelling and mimics the natural rhythms of people speaking. It’s like writing a story or drawing an image or taking a photograph.
“It’s all storytelling.”
Campbell started writing as a teenager around the time she was discovering other Indigenous writers. It was an epiphany for her to get to know writers from her community.
Although Campbell could have chosen a different career, she decided to become a creative writer. She said, “Making money for reading and writing seemed pretty ideal to me.”
As an Aboriginal person, she says there are sacred moments when you are invited into a culture, different ceremonies and into someone’s home. All these experiences have communal power over sensuality, and it breaks down barriers and lets people trust their guests. These intimate private moments are inspirations for both poetry and photography.
