Larry Loyie

Larry Loyie (Oskiniko) (1933 – April 18, 2016) was an award-winning Canadian author and playwright of Cree ancestry. He was known for works about his residential school experience as a child.

Larry Loyie
Loyie at a book launch at the Shingwauk Gathering in 2015
Native name
Oskiniko
Born1933 (1933)
Slave Lake, Alberta
DiedApril 18, 2016 (2016-04-19) (aged 83)
Edmonton, Alberta
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian, Cree
PartnerConstance Brissenden
Website
firstnationswriter.com

Personal life

Loyie was born in Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada.[1] His grandfather Edward Twin of Kinuso was a tribal elder who gave Loyie his Cree name of Oskiniko, meaning “Young Man.”[2]

At age nine Loyie was taken to the St. Bernand Indian Residential School in Grouard, Alberta. He attended St. Bernand's until age 14.

Loyie worked in the fishery industry, logging and counselling.[3] He also served in the Canadian Forces as a paratrooper.[4]

In 1992, he met his future partner Constance Brissenden at free creative writing class in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In 1993 the couple founded the Living Traditions Writers Group with his partner .

In 2010 Loyie was diagnosed with cancer.[5] He passed away at the age of 82 in Edmonton, Alberta on April 18, 2016.[6] He had three sons: Edmund, Lawrence, and Brad.[6]

In 2019, the archives documenting work of Loyie was donated to the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia.[7]

Writing

Loyie and Brissenden wrote eight books together based on Loyie's traditional Cree childhood and his six years in residential school.[8]

Loyie described his residential school experience in Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for Us), 2006's When the Spirits Dance, 2014's Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors.[9]

Loyie's children's book As Long as the Rivers Flow recounts his last summer before entering residential school. It won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's non-fiction.[10] Loyie was the first First Nations author to win this award.[11]

Publications

Plays

  • Ora Pro Nobis, Pray for Us, first performed in Vancouver, British Columbia (1994).
  • Fifty Years Credit (play), first performed at Carnegie Community Centre, Canada, (1998).
  • No Way to Say Goodbye (play), first performed for Aboriginal AIDS Conference, Alberta, Canada, (1999).

Books

  • Loyie, Larry (2005). As Long as the Rivers Flow. Illustrated by Heather Holmlund. Groundwood Books. ISBN 9780888996961.
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2006). When the Spirits Dance: A Cree Boy's Search For the Meaning of War. Theytus. ISBN 978-1-926886-02-2.
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2005). The Gathering Tree. Illustrated by Heather D. Holmlund. Theytus Books. ISBN 978-1-894778-42-8.
  • Loyie, Larry (2011). Tant que couleront les riviéres (in French). Editions Des Plaines.
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2013). Welcome to the Circle. Illustrated by John Mantha. Pearson Education Canada. ISBN 9780133855227.
  • Loyie, Larry (2013). Moon Speaks Cree: A Winter Adventure. Illustrated by Bill Cohen. Theytus. ISBN 978-1-926886-18-3.
  • Loyie, Larry (2014). Residential Schools with he Words and Images of Survivors. Brantford, Ontario: Indigenous Education Press. ISBN 978-0-9939371-0-1..
  • Loyie, Larry; Brissenden, Constance (2016). Goodbye Buffalo Bay. Theytus Books. ISBN 978-1-894778-62-6.
  • Loyie, Larry (2018). Two Plays About Residential School (20th Anniversary ed.). Indigenous Education Press. ISBN 9780993937132.

Chapters in Books

  • Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1979–2000. Edited by Margaret L. Archuleta, Brenda J. Child and K. Tsianina Lomawaima. Phoenix, Arizona: Heard Museum, (2000). Includes excerpts from Oka Pro Nobis.
  • Loyie, Larry “First Nations People” in First Nations People in Vancouver Area. Vancouver BC: Linkman Press, Vancouver, (2000).

Editorial Work

  • The Wind Cannot Read (Province of British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, Training and Technology, 1992).

Awards
  • Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement, British Columbia (2001).[11]
  • Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for As Long As The Rivers Flow (2003).
  • Moonbeam Children's Silver Book Award for Health Issues, for The Gathering Tree (2012).[12]

Reception

Larry Loyie's works have frequently been used in classroom instruction around residential school history in Canada.[13] Reviews of Goodbye Buffalo Bay have praised Loyie's open and candid writing style in a work while exploring his experiences in Canada's residential school system and after.[14]

References
  1. Loyie, Larry. "A Cree Life Lived- Highlights of the life of Larry Loyie". Living Traditions Writers Groups. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  2. Loyie, Larry. "A Cree Life Lived – Highlights of the life of Larry Loyie". Living Traditions Writers Website. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  3. Loyie, Larry. "My History". Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  4. "Larry Loyie (1933-) Biography – Personal, Career, Honors Awards, Writings, Work in Progress, Sidelights". biography.jrank.org. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  5. "Larry Loyie [footprints]". Ammsa.com. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  6. "Popular author Larry Loyie passes away -". 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  7. "Loyie | Residential School History and Dialogue Centre". Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  8. Brissenden, Constance. "Constance Brissenden |". Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  9. "Obituary: Cree author Larry Loyie". Quill and Quire. 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  10. "Remembering Larry Loyie". bcbooklook.com. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  11. "Larry Loyie, Authors at The 49th Shelf". 49thshelf.com. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  12. "2012 Moonbeam Childrens Book Awards Results" (PDF). Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  13. Our rural selves : memory and the visual in Canadian childhoods. Mitchell, Claudia, Mandrona, April. Montreal. ISBN 978-0-7735-5699-7. OCLC 1065894233.CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. Perren, Susan (June 5, 2009). "New in Children's Books". Globe & Mail Review of Books.
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