Larry Loyie

Larry Loyie (Oskiniko) (November 4, 1933 – April 18, 2016) was an award-winning Canadian author and playwright. He was known for several children's books about his residential school experience as a child and for his plays. His books were written with his partner Constance Brissenden. In 1993 the couple founded the Living Traditions Writers Group, to encourage Indigenous writers in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Larry Loyie
Loyie at a book launch at the Shingwauk Gathering in 2015
Loyie at a book launch at the Shingwauk Gathering in 2015
Native name
Oskiniko
Born1933 (1933)
Slave Lake, Alberta
DiedApril 18, 2016 (2016-04-19) (aged 82)
Edmonton, Alberta
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian, Cree
PartnerConstance Brissenden
Website
firstnationswriter.com

Early life and education

Loyie was born into a Cree family in Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada.[1] His maternal grandfather Edward Twin of Kinuso was a tribal elder who gave Loyie his Cree name of Oskiniko, meaning “Young Man.”[2]

At age nine, when his father was serving in World War II, Loyie was sent to the St. Bernand Indian Residential School in Grouard, Alberta. Separated from his family for long periods, he attended St. Bernand's through age 14.

Work and career

After leaving school, Loyie started working. He first worked in the fishery industry and logging. Later he studied to become certified as a counsellor.[3] He served in the Canadian Forces as a paratrooper.

By 1992, he had moved from the interior to Vancouver, British Columbia. There he met his future partner Constance Brissenden, a writer and editor, at a free creative writing class in the city's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. In 1993 the couple founded the Living Traditions Writers Group, to encourage Indigenous writers.

In 2010 Loyie was diagnosed with cancer.[4] He died at the age of 82 in Edmonton, Alberta on April 18, 2016.[5] He had three sons: Edmund, Lawrence, and Brad.[5]

In 2019, Loyie's archive was donated to the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia. It has become a major resource for oral and written histories, and creative works related to the residential schools.[6]

Writing

Loyie and Brissenden wrote eight children's books together that were drawn from Loyie's traditional Cree childhood and his six years in residential school.[7]

Loyie explored his residential school experience in a variety of genres: his play Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for Us) (published in 1998 with one by Vera Manuel), When the Spirits Dance (2006), and Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors (2014).[8]

Legacy and honours

Loyie's children's book As Long as the Rivers Flow (2005) recounts his last summer before entering residential school. It won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's non-fiction.[9] Loyie was the first First Nations author to win this award.[10]

Published writing

Plays
  • Ora Pro Nobis, Pray for Us (1994), first performed in Vancouver, British Columbia.
  • Fifty Years Credit (play, 1998), first performed at Carnegie Community Centre, Canada.
  • No Way to Say Goodbye (play, 1999), first performed for Aboriginal AIDS Conference, Alberta, Canada.

Books
  • Loyie, Larry (2005). As Long as the Rivers Flow. Illustrated by Heather Holmlund. Groundwood Books. ISBN 9780888996961.
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2006). When the Spirits Dance: A Cree Boy's Search For the Meaning of War. Theytus. ISBN 978-1-926886-02-2.
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2005). The Gathering Tree. Illustrated by Heather D. Holmlund. Theytus Books. ISBN 978-1-894778-42-8.
  • Loyie, Larry (2011). Tant que couleront les riviéres (in French). Editions Des Plaines.
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2013). Welcome to the Circle. Illustrated by John Mantha. Pearson Education Canada. ISBN 9780133855227.
  • Loyie, Larry (2013). Moon Speaks Cree: A Winter Adventure. Illustrated by Bill Cohen. Theytus. ISBN 978-1-926886-18-3.
  • Loyie, Larry (2014). Residential Schools with the Words and Images of Survivors. Brantford, Ontario: Indigenous Education Press. ISBN 978-0-9939371-0-1..
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2016). Goodbye Buffalo Bay. Theytus Books. ISBN 978-1-894778-62-6.
  • Loyie, Larry (2018). Two Plays About Residential School (20th Anniversary ed.). Indigenous Education Press. ISBN 9780993937132.

Chapters in Books
  • Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1979–2000. Edited by Margaret L. Archuleta, Brenda J. Child and K. Tsianina Lomawaima. Phoenix, Arizona: Heard Museum, (2000). Includes excerpts from Oka Pro Nobis.
  • Loyie, Larry. “First Nations People”, in First Nations People in Vancouver Area. Vancouver BC: Linkman Press, Vancouver, (2000).

Editorial Work
  • The Wind Cannot Read (Province of British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, Training and Technology, 1992).

Awards
  • Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement, British Columbia (2001).[10]
  • Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for As Long As The Rivers Flow (2003).
  • Moonbeam Children's Silver Book Award for Health Issues, for The Gathering Tree (2012).[11]

Reception

Larry Loyie's works have frequently been used in classroom instruction related to the history of residential schools in Canada.[12] Reviews of Goodbye Buffalo Bay have praised Loyie's open and candid writing style in a work that explores his experiences in Canada's residential school system and after.[13]

References
  1. Loyie, Larry. "A Cree Life Lived- Highlights of the life of Larry Loyie". Living Traditions Writers Groups. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  2. Loyie, Larry. "A Cree Life Lived – Highlights of the life of Larry Loyie". Living Traditions Writers Website. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  3. Loyie, Larry. "My History". Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  4. "Larry Loyie [footprints]". Ammsa.com. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  5. "Popular author Larry Loyie passes away -". South Peace News. 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  6. "Loyie | Residential School History and Dialogue Centre". Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  7. Brissenden, Constance. "Constance Brissenden |". Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  8. "Obituary: Cree author Larry Loyie". Quill and Quire. 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  9. "Remembering Larry Loyie". bcbooklook.com. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  10. "Larry Loyie, Authors at The 49th Shelf". 49thshelf.com. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  11. "2012 Moonbeam Childrens Book Awards Results" (PDF). Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  12. Our rural selves : memory and the visual in Canadian childhoods. Mitchell, Claudia, Mandrona, April. Montreal. ISBN 978-0-7735-5699-7. OCLC 1065894233.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  13. Perren, Susan (June 5, 2009). "New in Children's Books". Globe & Mail Review of Books.
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