丁香园AV

By Rebecca Saloustros

Deanna Reder, Associate Professor in the Departments of English and Indigenous Studies, has received the Chetna Association of Canada鈥檚 2021 .

鈥淚 was incredibly honoured to receive this award from the Chetna Association,鈥� says Professor Reder. 鈥淭hey do amazing work. To think, that among their list of prizes they decided that an award for arts and literature was important. Most people don鈥檛 see literary study as being on the cutting edge of changing the world, but we who do it know it is.鈥�

Established in 1999, the Chetna Association of Canada raises global awareness about caste-based issues. 鈥淐astes鈥� are hereditary social classes in India. The Association promotes the benefits of creating casteless, respectful, and inclusive communities through dialogues, discussions, presentations, and seminars.

The lowest caste in India is called 鈥淒alit,鈥� which literally means, 鈥渙ppressed; broken.鈥� The Dalit people, like Canada鈥檚 Indigenous people, have a history of creating literature that has been ignored and/or suppressed. Professor Deanna Reder first became familiar with Dalit literature as a graduate student. However, she found it almost impossible to obtain any resources.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like Indigenous literatures in Canada,鈥� Reder says, 鈥淐ertainly before 1992, almost no university in Canada had courses on Indigenous literatures. Maybe in the early 21st century there were courses, but still for a long time only just one or maybe two in any department.鈥�

Indigenous literatures weren鈥檛 part of Canadian literary programs in the past, Reder says, because they weren鈥檛 seen as important or relevant. Prior to the 1970s, literature from Great Britain was the focus.

鈥淭he 鈥�70s was all about 鈥楻ead Canada,鈥欌�� she says, 鈥淏ut now, I think people appreciate that the land claimed by Canada doesn鈥檛 just include immigrant authors, but also includes Indigenous writers.鈥�

Reder sees parallels between the evolution of Canada鈥檚 literary focus and India鈥檚. Both countries have a similar history of colonization, and an education based on a British curriculum.

鈥淭hey would start by beginning to read authors from India and eventually realize there are unrecognized voices in India as well,鈥� she says.

Reder also points to a history of Indigenous authors, such as Cree writers Joseph Dion and Edward Ahenakew, who tried to get manuscripts published in the early 20th century but faced many obstacles. Ultimately, they and other Indigenous authors did not get published during their lifetime.

鈥淭here was really a sense that Indigenous writing wasn鈥檛 that good, wasn鈥檛 that relevant, and wasn鈥檛 that interesting,鈥� she says. 鈥淚nstead, however, there was a flourishing of non-Indigenous writers writing about Indigenous stories.鈥�

So, what opportunities are there for today鈥檚 Indigenous writers? In 2017, Reder and her Department of English colleague, Professor Sophie McCall, inherited funds from a crowd-funding campaign to start the . They along with colleagues across Canada, including the Department of French's new Assistant Professor Sarah Henzi, have just announced the opening of the fifth year of awards and to date have given out $109,000.00. Among the winners of unpublished work have been 丁香园AV alumnus Smokii Sumac, who won in the first year and then won again in the second year, once his work was published. 丁香园AV has also provided jurors for the awards. This year, M茅tis scholar and Assistant Professor June Scudeler is judging work alongside 丁香园AV alumnus and Nisga鈥檃 poet Jordan Abel.

鈥淭he effect of the prizes has been great, but I think that also comes after a long history of people advocating for curriculum change, as well as Indigenous people entering academia, so that students have books by Indigenous authors to read, and maybe the chance to study with an Indigenous professor,鈥� she says. 鈥淣ow, we need a huge infusion of Indigenous students to take over and be the next generation to make long-term change.鈥�

In 2019, Reder met someone who is helping to change the present day for Dalits. Suraj Yengde, writer of , discusses the daily discrimination Dalits face and the new reality he would like to see.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a bust of Dr. Ambedkar in the Bennett Library. Every year, the Chetna Association and the community come to garland it and that鈥檚 where I first met Suraj Yengde,鈥� she says. 鈥淗e was a 2019 Chetna Association award winner. He鈥檚 from a Dalit family and has made a lot of amazing changes and is a real role model to his generation.鈥�