Indigenous author’s book kicks off national e-reading event
- EFN Staff | June 13, 2019
In the 21 century, many people are starting to choose eRead forms of books over paper copies. As a way of keeping up with the times, the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) started what they call the One eRead Canada Campaign.
The primary goal of this new program is to show the worth having digital copies of books in Canadian libraries.
For their inaugural event, Saskatoon author Dawn Dumont’s book Glass Beads was chosen.
Glass Beads was written as a play and based on characters from her other book Rose’s Run. From there she started a series of short stories which follows the same characters.
This collection of short stories is about four friends over 205 years. It talks about the about the lives of First Nations people in the 1990’s and 2000’s who are first generation to live most of their adult life off their home reserve.
“I think it sort of dovetails with the report of the national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and Girls,” said Dumont about her book. “The four characters are confronting colonialism, racism, and sexism. So, you see a lot of that dehumanizing aspects in their lives and how they struggle against that.”
Dumont, who always wants to encourage people to read more, also thought something like this was a good idea as she eReads on her phone more than picking up a paper copy of the book. She also liked the idea that it is bigger form of book club where people could come, discuss literature, and ask her questions.
Jenny Ryan, a community librarian at Saskatoon Public Library will be moderating the event.
“I think is really exiting that it is a Saskatoon author that was picked for this national thing. It’s nice to have a woman’s voice to be the one that is the book we are reading,” she said.
Given the content of the book Ryan thinks it was a good choice with the current release of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry. She also thinks it might be a good way to start a conversation about what it’s like to be a First Nations woman moving off her home reserve for people in other parts of Canada who might not understand that feeling.
The event was held at Francis Morrison Library in Saskatoon Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 6:00 PM in the gallery located on the second floor.
The event was livestreamed from the library’s Facebook page. People could send in their questions via twitter with the hashtag #1eReadLivrelCanada #question or to the email hello@saskatoonlibrary.ca.
Throughout June, unlimited digital copies of Glass Beads will be available through various service providers.
In addition to this event, many other public library systems across Canada are also hosting their own events around this initiative throughout June 3rd-30th.
CULC hopes this gets people across Canada to read a book together and share any thoughts or feelings. They also hope program continues with French title and later include books for other age groups.