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Born January 13, 1947 in Kingston, Ontario, Brissenden is a freelance writer and editor and teacher. She formed the Living Traditions Writer's Group, with Larry Loyie, to encourage Indigenous people to write about their traditions and experiences. She is the author of numerous history and travel books and has co-authored As Long as the Rivers Flow (Groundwood Books, 2002) with Larry Loyie, illustrated by First Nations artist Heather Holmlund. Their collaboration earned the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction. It recounts Loyie's family life and adventures as a Cree in Slave Lake, Alberta before he was deported to a residential school. See Larry Loyie entry. Brissenden also contributed the text for "The Greater Vancouver Hall of Fame"; for The Greater Vancouver Book (Linkman Press, 1997) edited by Chuck Davis. In 2007 she moved to High Prairie, Alberta, with Larry Loyie to build a log house.
The Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden Collection is the first collection of materials donated to the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (RSHDC) at UBC. The collection highlights the work of Larry Loyie his partner, editor Constance Brissenden. For more than 24 years, the couple researched Indigenous history, and wrote nine books together, including Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors (Indigenous Education Press). They travelled extensively, giving more than 1,600 talks together at schools and libraries across Canada. Larry Loyie passed away on April 18, 2016. Constance continues to fulfill Larry’s legacy through their archival collection. For more on Larry Loyie, visit www.firstnationswriter.com or see his ABCBookWorld entry.
BOOKS:
(Editor) Now in Paperback: Six Canadian Plays of the 1970s, Fineglow Plays (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1973.
(Editor) The Factory Lab Anthology (plays), Talon-books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1974.
(Editor) West Coast Plays, New Play Centre (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1975.
(Editor) Carol Bolt ("Playwrights in Profile" series), Playwrights Co-op (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1976.
Info to Go: For Women on the Go, Young Women's Christian Association (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1989.
Triple-O: The White Spot Story, (Vancouver: Opus Productions, 1993)
Whistler and the Sea to Sky Country, Altitude Publishing (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1995.
A Portrait of Vancouver, Altitude Publishing (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1995, abridged edition, 1996.
(Author of text) Vancouver and the Lower Mainland from the Air, photographs by Russ Heinl, Whitecap Books (New York, NY), 1999. / Over Vancouver (Whitecap Books, 1999). With photos by Russ Heinl.
Colorguide to Vancouver and Whistler, James Lorimer, 2000.
(Editor) Vancouver and Victoria, photographs by Hamid Attie, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2001.
Frommer's Portable Guide to Whistler, 2002.
Memories of a Métis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement (Theytus $14.89), editor
ALSO: (With Larry Loyie)
As Long as the Rivers Flow (juvenile), Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002. Illustrations by Heather D. Holmlund.
The Gathering Tree (Theytus, 2005). With Larry Loyie. Illustrations by Heather D. Holmlund. $19.95 978-1-89477-842-8
When the Spirits Dance (Theytus, 2006). $16.95 978-1-92688-602-2
Goodbye Buffalo Boy (Theytus, 2008) $16.95 978-1-89477-862-6
Portrait of Vancouver (Heritage House, 2008)
The Moon Speaks Cree: A Winter Adventure (Theytus 2014) $14.95 978-1-926886-18-3
(with Wayne K. Spear). Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors (Indigenous Education Press 2015) $34.95 978-0-9939371-0-1
Contributor to books, including The Greater Vancouver Book, Linkman Press, 1997; and DK Eyewitness Travel Guide to the Pacific Northwest, 2003. Contributor of numerous articles to magazines and newspapers, including Toronto Globe & Mail, Maclean's, Toronto Calendar, Western Living, BC Business, Personal Finance, BC Woman, Georgia Strait, and Chinese-Canadian.
***
Memories of a Métis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement by Constance Brissenden, editor
(Theytus Books $14.89)
Review by Angie Tucker
Early East Prairie settler and bachelor George Harvey was a veteran of the First World War. He lost an eye in the war and was wounded in other parts of his body; thereafter he wore a glass eye.
Harvey had a war disability pension and helped others when they were in need. In return, they looked out for him, bringing him his “bachelor bannock.”
When I first received Constance Brissenden’s Memories of a Métis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement, I earmarked Theresa Auger’s recipe for Bachelor Bannock. In preparation for reading, I made a batch.
Shortly after taking the bread out of the oven, I slathered butter and gooseberry jam over its warm surface, embraced a cup of hot tea, and sat down to meet the residents—both past and present—of East Prairie Métis Settlement, northwest of Edmonton.
Published by Theytus Books in Penticton, Brissenden’s latest book speaks to the beginnings and transformations of numerous families within the East Prairie Métis Settlement. Generational stories of the Bellerose, L’Hirondelle, Auger, Beaudry, Desjarlais, Dumont, Patenaude, Supernault, and Haggerty families address larger themes of resilience and collaboration, while the book also outlines the specific failures and successes of the settlement.
Clearly the land sustains Métis people—physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually—and informs our basis for natural laws. This book also brings attention to the camaraderie and connection that the residents have continued to practice over the past eighty years, not only with their human kin, but also with their non-human relations.
Community members experienced flooding, shortages of food and provisions, financial inadequacies, and a lack of roads and schools for their children. However, by living and working together as a community, the residents shared their harvested crops, meats, medicines, and labour. Despite their hardships, they worked together to create a successful and enduring community.
Over time, floorless log cabins turned into modern housing, a bridge, school and church were erected, and the road into the settlement was built. Electricity was brought into the settlement in the late 1960s. According to elder Margaret Supernault, life is now much easier but the closeness of the community has diminished now that people are losing their “old-ways” for survival.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Métis diaspora that now extends throughout British Columbia and western Canada. 9781926886503
Angie Tucker is Red River Métis from the Poplar Point/St. Anne’s area in Manitoba. As an Indigenous feminist and cultural anthropologist, she is currently enrolled as a Ph.D student in the Department of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.
[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2020]
The Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden Collection is the first collection of materials donated to the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (RSHDC) at UBC. The collection highlights the work of Larry Loyie his partner, editor Constance Brissenden. For more than 24 years, the couple researched Indigenous history, and wrote nine books together, including Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors (Indigenous Education Press). They travelled extensively, giving more than 1,600 talks together at schools and libraries across Canada. Larry Loyie passed away on April 18, 2016. Constance continues to fulfill Larry’s legacy through their archival collection. For more on Larry Loyie, visit www.firstnationswriter.com or see his ABCBookWorld entry.
BOOKS:
(Editor) Now in Paperback: Six Canadian Plays of the 1970s, Fineglow Plays (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1973.
(Editor) The Factory Lab Anthology (plays), Talon-books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1974.
(Editor) West Coast Plays, New Play Centre (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1975.
(Editor) Carol Bolt ("Playwrights in Profile" series), Playwrights Co-op (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1976.
Info to Go: For Women on the Go, Young Women's Christian Association (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1989.
Triple-O: The White Spot Story, (Vancouver: Opus Productions, 1993)
Whistler and the Sea to Sky Country, Altitude Publishing (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1995.
A Portrait of Vancouver, Altitude Publishing (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1995, abridged edition, 1996.
(Author of text) Vancouver and the Lower Mainland from the Air, photographs by Russ Heinl, Whitecap Books (New York, NY), 1999. / Over Vancouver (Whitecap Books, 1999). With photos by Russ Heinl.
Colorguide to Vancouver and Whistler, James Lorimer, 2000.
(Editor) Vancouver and Victoria, photographs by Hamid Attie, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2001.
Frommer's Portable Guide to Whistler, 2002.
Memories of a Métis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement (Theytus $14.89), editor
ALSO: (With Larry Loyie)
As Long as the Rivers Flow (juvenile), Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002. Illustrations by Heather D. Holmlund.
The Gathering Tree (Theytus, 2005). With Larry Loyie. Illustrations by Heather D. Holmlund. $19.95 978-1-89477-842-8
When the Spirits Dance (Theytus, 2006). $16.95 978-1-92688-602-2
Goodbye Buffalo Boy (Theytus, 2008) $16.95 978-1-89477-862-6
Portrait of Vancouver (Heritage House, 2008)
The Moon Speaks Cree: A Winter Adventure (Theytus 2014) $14.95 978-1-926886-18-3
(with Wayne K. Spear). Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors (Indigenous Education Press 2015) $34.95 978-0-9939371-0-1
Contributor to books, including The Greater Vancouver Book, Linkman Press, 1997; and DK Eyewitness Travel Guide to the Pacific Northwest, 2003. Contributor of numerous articles to magazines and newspapers, including Toronto Globe & Mail, Maclean's, Toronto Calendar, Western Living, BC Business, Personal Finance, BC Woman, Georgia Strait, and Chinese-Canadian.
***
Memories of a Métis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement by Constance Brissenden, editor
(Theytus Books $14.89)
Review by Angie Tucker
Early East Prairie settler and bachelor George Harvey was a veteran of the First World War. He lost an eye in the war and was wounded in other parts of his body; thereafter he wore a glass eye.
Harvey had a war disability pension and helped others when they were in need. In return, they looked out for him, bringing him his “bachelor bannock.”
When I first received Constance Brissenden’s Memories of a Métis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement, I earmarked Theresa Auger’s recipe for Bachelor Bannock. In preparation for reading, I made a batch.
Shortly after taking the bread out of the oven, I slathered butter and gooseberry jam over its warm surface, embraced a cup of hot tea, and sat down to meet the residents—both past and present—of East Prairie Métis Settlement, northwest of Edmonton.
Published by Theytus Books in Penticton, Brissenden’s latest book speaks to the beginnings and transformations of numerous families within the East Prairie Métis Settlement. Generational stories of the Bellerose, L’Hirondelle, Auger, Beaudry, Desjarlais, Dumont, Patenaude, Supernault, and Haggerty families address larger themes of resilience and collaboration, while the book also outlines the specific failures and successes of the settlement.
Clearly the land sustains Métis people—physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually—and informs our basis for natural laws. This book also brings attention to the camaraderie and connection that the residents have continued to practice over the past eighty years, not only with their human kin, but also with their non-human relations.
Community members experienced flooding, shortages of food and provisions, financial inadequacies, and a lack of roads and schools for their children. However, by living and working together as a community, the residents shared their harvested crops, meats, medicines, and labour. Despite their hardships, they worked together to create a successful and enduring community.
Over time, floorless log cabins turned into modern housing, a bridge, school and church were erected, and the road into the settlement was built. Electricity was brought into the settlement in the late 1960s. According to elder Margaret Supernault, life is now much easier but the closeness of the community has diminished now that people are losing their “old-ways” for survival.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Métis diaspora that now extends throughout British Columbia and western Canada. 9781926886503
Angie Tucker is Red River Métis from the Poplar Point/St. Anne’s area in Manitoba. As an Indigenous feminist and cultural anthropologist, she is currently enrolled as a Ph.D student in the Department of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.
[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2020]
Articles: 1 Article for this author
As Long as the Rivers Flow (Groundwood $18.95)
Article
To salve his conscience, American industrialist Andrew Carnegie donated $50,000 to Vancouver in 1901 to build a library. The Carnegie-built library at Main and Hastings slowly lost its lustre as the city's elite moved westward. The building languished as a museum until 1967. Seven years of lobbying by Bruce Eriksen, Libby Davies, Jean Swanson and the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) slowly convinced the city council to transform the building into the Carnegie Centre-a community centre for Strathcona residents such as Larry Loyie.
In the late 1980s, Larry Loyie went to the Carnegie Centre to upgrade his writing skills, and to learn typing. One of his instructors, Constance Brissenden, quickly realized she was learning as much from him as he was learning from her. A partnership emerged-and paid dividends. In September, Brissenden and Loyie won the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction.
His poignant memoir As Long as the Rivers Flow (Groundwood $18.95) recalls Loyie's last summer of freedom before he was forced to attend residential school.
Born in Slave Lake, Alberta, Larry Loyie led a traditional Cree life until he was placed in St. Bernard's Mission school in Grouard, Alberta, at age ten. He was forbidden to speak Cree and his family life ended. "Mostly what I learned there was how to pray and how to work and how to sing Latin at Mass. We got to go home once every school year, though many children stayed the whole year. It was basically worse than jail.";
Cree artist George Littlechild suggested Loyie write for children. "I told George about the truck that picked us up and took us away,"; Loyie says. "The sides were so high, we could only see the sky.";
Until he was confined at St. Bernard's, Larry Loyie didn't know about sin and heaven and hell. "Everything that was natural to a small child was a sin and we got punished for it. I was always getting beatings from the nuns. We were punished for the fact that hundreds of years earlier Jesuits had been killed by Native people.
"I ran away twice and both times I was caught and severely beaten. After that I started reading everything I could get hold of. There were classics like Huckleberry Finn but there was exactly nothing about Native people.";
At 14, Loyie left school to work on farms and in logging camps. At 18, he joined the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, stationed in Calgary, where he first met writer/publisher Chuck Davis. After living in Europe he returned to work in northern British Columbia and Alberta. For more than 25 years, he worked in fishing, logging and Native counselling. The longing for the traditional First Nations way of life stayed with him.
Loyie wanted to be a writer but his education was lacking. In 1987, he decided to upgrade his education and writing skills. He took English grammar at Vancouver Community College and he taught himself to type at the Carnegie Centre. There he was inspired by his first creative writing instructor Mary Frances Smith. The results were almost immediate.
In 1991, Loyie travelled around British Columbia to interview Native teachers for two radio documentaries. After travelling throughout Canada to gather submissions for a 1,000-page manuscript, he co-edited a 1992 anthology for novice writers called The Wind Cannot Read. His published residential school drama Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for Us) has been staged in prisons and at festivals; his second play Fifty Years Credit, based on the media's view of First Nations people, was first performed at the Carnegie Centre; his third play No Way to Say Goodbye was commissioned for an Aboriginal AIDS Conference in northern Alberta.
With Brissenden as collaborator, Loyie also contributed the entry on First Nations for The Greater Vancouver Book. Shortly after becoming a couple, Loyie and Brissenden launched Living Traditions Writers Group to encourage writing in First Nations communities. They have since taught creative writing classes in every province from B.C. to Ontario. In recognition of his work as an educator, facilitator and writer, Loyie received the Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement (British Columbia) in 2001.
To promote As Long as the Rivers Flow, Brissenden and Loyie have done 90 readings. Loyie talks about his life and culture while Brissenden acts as MC and reads the text. Children are fascinated by the story of Larry's tiny grandmother, Bella Twin, who shot the biggest grizzly bear in North America. Many listeners are moved to tears.
First Nations communities are using the book in classrooms, at conferences, and for healing purposes. "What's happening with As Long as the Rivers Flow is just phenomenal,"; says Brissenden. "The book opens so many doors for dialogue and understanding.";
In mid-September, the Cree writer was singled out for an honour dance at the Niagara Native Friendship Centre in St. Catherine's. More than 200 people lined up to shake hands with the writers, then gathered behind them as they danced slowly around the arbour while drummers sang a special song. "Being recognized by my own people this way,"; says Loyie, "was the greatest honour I could have.";
Illustrated by Ontario watercolour artist Heather D. Holmlund, As Long as the Rivers Flow reflects Loyie's perspective at age ten as he cares for an abandoned owl, watches his grandmother make moccasins, helps the family prepare for a hunting trip and receives a new name, Oskiniko-meaning Young Man-a name he still uses. 0-88899-473-7
[BCBW Winter 2003]
