Over the last year and a half, I’ve done a lot of writing that has yet to find its way into the world. There are a ton of short stories and poems, blog posts and partial novel drafts sitting on my computer patiently waiting their turn to make their way into the world. And when all is said and done with my dissertation work, I intend to release most of that writing—to pair it up with the art I’ve done over the last two years and set it free into the world to find the people that it’s meant to.
Read moreA Gift of Language
Sge:no Swagwe:goh! Hi everyone!
I've been holding onto this very exciting news for the last few weeks and now that it is September, I am super excited to share that starting tomorrow, I will be taking a year off to do more intensive language learning!
Those of you who have been following the blog may know that for the past year or so, my husband and I have been making a concentrated effort to speak more of the Cayuga language in our home. The results of this effort have been really inspiring. The majority of our baby’s new words are all in Cayuga and our three-year old daughter also is able to speak and understand a lot of the language as well. This made us realize that things would moving along faster and even more language would be spoken in our home if I were to become a more proficient speaker. And so that is what we are going to do: take a year and focus on increasing my speaking proficiency.
Read moreSneak Peek - A Work in Progress
A few years ago now, I found myself in between books and unsure about what to write. After a few weeks of indecision, I wound up starting a rather fun project that I never actually intended to publish—or even finish—but started to become more and more invested in the longer I worked on it. Once the rough draft was done though, I put it away and moved on to writing something else. I never really intended to return to it. That all changed when I happened across the book in May/June of this year and found myself getting caught up in the story again and next thing you know the book I was supposed to be writing had fallen by the wayside and another book had emerged in its place! And now that book is (mostly) done.
It's an adaptation of the wonderful and much-loved Pride & Prejudice except all of characters are Indigenous and they live in a fictional First Nation community called Smoke River. And honestly—this book was so much fun to write.
Read moreIn Which Sara Makes a Video Blog
I had so many thoughts about all things language, writing and art, that it was hard for me to get them all out. So today's blog comes to you in the form of a video! I think I might do more of these in the future. They will likely be shorter in the future, but all in all, I really enjoyed making this :).
Happy creating everyone!
S.
Read moreLanguage Books at Last!
Every once in a while, I feel the urge to change course and do something different from what I’m doing. To write a different genre of book than I currently do or to write in an area I come across as I research Indigenous education—in which there are so many potential areas. Sometimes this happens because I read an article or thread someone posted on social media and I realize how far we still have to go for even the faintest possibility of reconciliation and shared understanding to occur. And because there is an endless stream of ideas and information appearing every day—it can become very easy to get distracted.
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