Cree author talks book

By Isaac Wurmann

Cree lawyer and writer Harold Johnson says he hopes to start a conversation about alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities when he speaks at Centretown United Church on Feb. 28.

Johnson is the author of Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (And Yours), a book that considers the history and effects of alcohol in First Nations communities.

His talk is part of this year’s Freedom to Read Week, an annual nationwide celebration of intellectual freedom that runs from Feb. 26 to March 4.

Johnson says his talk will challenge the narrative about Indigenous peoples and alcohol that has been perpetuated throughout history.

“We’ve got these stories about alcohol that we tell ourselves and they’re not necessarily all true,” he said. “So we have to reexamine the stories we tell.”

In particular, he said, the stereotype of the “lazy, dirty, drunken Indian” has had a harmful impact on First Nations communities.

“You tell people that they’re lazy, dirty drunks long enough and they’ll begin to believe it.”

While working as a Crown prosecutor in northern Saskatchewan, Johnson said he saw first-hand the effects of alcohol on members of his community.

“Ninety-five per cent of the people who came to court were intoxicated at the time they committed the offence,” he said.

Johnson has also suffered personal impacts from alcohol. Two of his brothers were killed after being hit by drunk drivers, and he said it was the death of his younger brother that spurred him to write Firewater.

“In my community, when a relative dies you dig the grave,” he explained. “And when I was digging my younger brother’s grave I realized, ‘Shit, I know how to do this. I know how deep six feet is, I know how wide three feet is, I know what’s seven feet long. I’m getting too damn good at this.’ ”

“Harold Johnson is an important voice that needs to be heard,” said Pei-Ju Wang, the event coordinator at Octopus Books, the local bookstore that is bringing Johnson to Ottawa.

She said she hopes people who attend Johnson’s talk will leave with a better understanding of “the resilience of Indigenous communities to overcome the consequences of colonization.”

Johnson emphasized the aim of Firewater is not to diagnose the issue but rather to find solutions.

Stories that have been told in the Canadian media have perpetuated negative stereotypes about Indigenous people and alcohol, Johnson said. However, he said writers and artists have been part of shifting the narrative.

That’s why Johnson said he has enlisted other Indigenous writers to help him tell this story. Dene writer Richard van Camp and Cree writer Tracey Lindberg are two other storytellers who have contributed to Firewater.

“The artists have a huge influence on the stories the population tells itself,” Johnson said. “We need to get the artists to start telling sober stories and start telling Aboriginal stories where we’re the heroes.”