Honour the Sun.

SLIPPERJACK, RUBY.

ISBN 10: 091914344X / ISBN 13: 9780919143449

Published by Winnipeg. Pemmican. 1990., 1987

About this Item

Paperback. 211,(1)pp. 3rd printing. Large 8vo. Covers slightly yellowed. Owners inscription on endpaper. Slightly used. ISBN 091914344x.

Seller Inventory # 553411

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Honour the Sun.
• Publisher: Winnipeg. Pemmican. 1990.
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 091914344X
• ISBN 13: 9780919143449
• Binding: Soft cover

About this title

Synopsis

In northern Ontario, dotted along the C.N.R. line, are many small, isolated, Native communities. A long time ago, some of them had been trading posts and had attracted past generations of Indian people from different reserves. Among them, were those people who had intermarried and had never returned to their respective reserves. In Honour the Sun, Ruby Slipperjack creates one such community where her character, a ten-year old girl called The Owl, writes seasonal diaries, beginning in the summer of 1962. She writes of the warm, moving, carefree, often humourous, events of her childhood. Upon reaching her teen years, she feels the first sorrow as an ominous climate of change seems to overwhelm her circle of friends, and then, a deep despair, as it includes even her mother, once her source of strength and security. With helpless frustration, she watches, unable to understand why her mother seems to suddenly succumb to alcohol. As a sixteen-year-old who has had to leave her community for further schooling, she returns for a summer visit, and realizes that despite all the changes, despite the alienation, her mother's words will always be with her: "Honour the Sun, child. Just as it comes over the horizon, honour the Sun, that it may bless you, come another day..."

About the Author

Ruby Slipperjack was born and raised at her father's trapline at Whitewater Lake in northwestern Ontario. She is a member of the Eabametoong First Nation and speaks fluent Ojibway. She uses her maiden name "Slipperjack" when she writes, in honour of her parents and ancestors for the cultural knowledge and teachings that inform her writing. Ruby is the mother of three daughters and currently lives in Thunder Bay with her husband and their two shelties.