Margins
Bear Bones & Feathers book cover
Bear Bones & Feathers
1994
First Published
4.10
Average Rating
140
Number of Pages
In this powerful book of poetry, First Nations Cree writer Louise Bernice Halfe sets out to heal the past. Employing Native spiritualism, black comedy and the memories of her own childhood as healing arts, she finds an irrepressible source of strength and dignity in her people. Bear Bones and Feathers is rooted in Louise Bernice Halfe's own life. She offers moving portraits of her grandmother (a medicine woman whose life straddled old and new worlds), her parents (both trapped in a cycle of jealousy and abuse), and the people whose pain she witnessed on the reserve and at residential school.
Avg Rating
4.10
Number of Ratings
58
5 STARS
38%
4 STARS
36%
3 STARS
24%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

Louise Bernice Halfe
Louise Bernice Halfe
Author · 6 books

Louise Halfe is known in Cree as Sky Dancer. She was born on the Saddle Lake First Nation reserve in Alberta in 1953. At the age of seven, she was sent away to Blue Quills Residential School in St. Paul, Alberta. She left home of her own accord when she was sixteen, breaking ties with her family and completing her studies at St. Paul's regional high school. It was at this time that she began writing a journal about her experiences. Halfe's first book of poetry, Bear Bones and Feathers, won the Milton Acorn People's Poet award, and was a finalist for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award, the Pat Lowther Award and the Gerald Lampert Award. Her second book, Blue Marrow was short-listed for the Governor General Award as well as the Book of the Year Award, Saskatoon Book Award, and Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, and she has been on Peter Gzowski's Morningside, CBC's The Arts Tonight and Ambience. Halfe has travelled extensively across Canada and abroad doing readings and presentations of her work and conducting writing workshops. She has a Bachelor or Social Work from the University of Regina and certificates in addictions counseling from the Neechi Institute. Halfe lives in Saskatoon.

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