We have lost one of Canada’s greatest advocates for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility with the passing last week of Canadian author, poet, and activist Lee Maracle. One of the first indigenous authors to publish her work, she will remain in our hearts and her legacy will continue to guide us. On behalf of the Library board, staff, and volunteers, I would like to extend our deepest condolences at this sad time.

Lee Maracle is the author of a number of critically acclaimed works including Ravensong, Bobbi Lee Indian Rebel, Daughters Are Forever, Celia’s Song (longlisted for CBC Canada Reads and a finalist for the ReLit Award), I Am Woman, First Wives Club, Talking to the Diaspora, Memory Serves: Oratories, and My Conversations with Canadians, which was a finalist for the 2018 Toronto Book Award and the First Nation Communities READ 2018-19 Award, and continues to be a nonfiction bestseller. She is also the co-editor of the award-winning My Home as I Remember. Her latest book, Hope Matters, is a poetry collection she wrote in collaboration with her daughters, Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter. Maracle has served as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Western Washington. Maracle received the J.T. Stewart Award, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Blue Metropolis Festival First Peoples Prize, the Harbourfront Festival Prize, and the Anne Green Award. Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from St. Thomas University, is a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and is an Officer of the Order of Canada. In July 2019, she was announced as a finalist of the prestigious Neustadt Prize, popularly known as the American Nobel. A member of the Sto:lo Nation, Maracle most recently lived in Toronto and taught at the University of Toronto.

The information above is shared with the permission of Book*hug Press.

To learn more about Lee Maracle, click here to listen to a tribute on CBC Radio’s The Current.