VIU’s Creative Writing Program: A Graduate’s Review

I enrolled at Vancouver Island University during the summer of 2014.

I’d been diagnosed with chemotherapy-caused nerve damage – something I still deal with to this day. I was being medically released from the military and had been offered two years of postsecondary education as part of a payout package.

My disabilities from the nerve damage include sensory pain, digestive issues, fatigue, and cognitive challenges, including slower memory recovery and occasional slurred speech. I feel hung over every morning. My vision can become blurry and it can be difficult to concentrate. As fate would have it, I was also diagnosed with PTSD. Continue reading “VIU’s Creative Writing Program: A Graduate’s Review”

Why the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Could Be Genocide

An increase in tanker traffic could be the death of the Coast Salish people, not an oil spill. A review of the Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth testimony presented to the National Energy Board of Canada.

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The Origin of Fire: A Nanaimo First Nations Ghost Story

This is a short First Nations ghost story taken from Franz Boas’ 1895 text, Indian Myths and Legends from the North Pacific Coast of America, which was translated from German by Dietrich Bertz.

The city of Nanaimo – where I live – received its name from the Anglicized spelling of Snanaimuq (Snuneymuxw or Snuh-NAY-Moo), which is the name of the First Nations people whose traditional territory I live in.

First Nations Ghost Story

The Origin of Fire

In the beginning, the ghosts (of the dead) owned fire.

Continue reading “The Origin of Fire: A Nanaimo First Nations Ghost Story”

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