Biography
Wanda John-Kehewin is a Cree writer who came to Vancouver, BC, from the prairies, on a Greyhound when she was nineteen and pregnant — carrying a bag of chips, thirty dollars, and a bit of hope. Wanda has been writing about the near decimation of Indigenous culture, language, and tradition as a means to process history and trauma that allows her to stand in her truth and to share that truth openly. Wanda has published poetry, children’s books, graphic novels, and a middle-grade novel with hopes of reaching others trying to make sense of the world around them, especially if they think you come from nowhere and don’t belong either. With many years of traveling the healing path (well mostly stumbling), she brings personal experience of healing to share with others. Wanda is a mother of five children, two dogs, two cats, a hamster, and three tiger barbs.
Micro-interview
I did read a few poems in high school by Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, and the poem I liked by Robert Frost and was called, "The Road Not Taken". It is open to interpretation and I still love it today. I also loved Emily's poem, "A Bird, Came Down the Walk" because of the sheer attention to detail. The one thing I find about poetry is, that you can see and feel something different in a poem with the passage of time.
As an adult, I love the poems by Vera Manuel, Layli Long Soldier, Kim Blaeser, Natalie Diaz, Jake Skeets, Richard Wagamese, Jonina Kirton, and many other talented Indigenous writers! Too many to count, which is a thing of beauty.
I wrote my first poem as a six-year-old, and I wrote throughout the years as an outlet for healing and processing but I didn't really think of myself as a poet until I met Russell Wallace and Joanne Arnott and created the AWCWC, which was the first writers collective in the lower mainland I believe. It really became solidified that I was a poet when I published my first book in 2013!
A poet's job is to create 'word pictures' that can help others feel an emotion or to think about something in a different way. A poet's job is to make sense of the world around them and explain it in a way that creates space for learning and thinking outside the box! A poet's job is to continue to write until they die.