Margins
wîhtamawik / Tell Them book cover
wîhtamawik / Tell Them
On a Life of Inspiration
2026
First Published
4.83
Average Rating
288
Number of Pages

Cree poet and kêhtê-aya Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer chronicles her childhood in a cabin on reserve, through the Indian Residential School system, and into her reclamation of her nêhiyaw language, culture, and spirituality. My parents taught us the art of observation. I learned to hunt, skin, and butcher game through non-verbal methods. I also watched my grandparents work on the land and live their spirituality. I helped gather, dry, and grind their medicines. I inhaled the medicines’ power and ingested it. When I left for residential school all this fell asleep. In never-before-collected essays and new poems, poet and kêhtê-aya (Elder) Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer tells the story of how she woke up from the trauma of separation and found the source of her inspiration: her culture and the land. In Cree, inspiration is described as a sudden insight. It can come from visits from spirit, from the charged reciprocal experience of being taught by Elders and teaching the next generation, from speaking Cree, which allows the poet to “somersault into memory,” and from the practice of observing and being in relationship with the land as it “constantly gives birth to itself.” wîhtamawik / Tell Them is a stunning love song to nêhiyaw ways of knowing―ways which Halfe has spent her life working to reclaim from the violence of colonization, in order to celebrate their survival and share their enduring teachings with future generations.

Avg Rating
4.83
Number of Ratings
6
5 STARS
83%
4 STARS
17%
3 STARS
0%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Louise Bernice Halfe
Louise Bernice Halfe
Author · 7 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.

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2026 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved