Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity
With Darrel J. McLeod
Hosted by CBC’s Shelagh Rogers
McLeod boldly reconnects and reflects upon decades of lived experiences from familial, Cree traditional life of living off the land, to a professional (ultimately international) life dedicated to Indigenous rights and wellbeing. By reconnecting stories torn apart by poverty, tragic deaths, racism, homophobia and bureaucratic white privilege, McLeod performs a sacred act.
Join us for a conversation between Shelagh Rogers, host of CBC’s The Next Chapter, and Governor General’s Literary Award-Winner, Darrel J. McLeod.
In Peyakow, the eagerly anticipated follow up to his bestseller Mamaskatch, McLeod continues the poignant story of his impoverished youth, beset by constant fears of being dragged down by the self-destruction and deaths of those closest to him as he battles the bullying of white classmates, copes with the trauma of physical and sexual abuse, and endures painful separation from his family and culture.
With steely determination, he triumphs: now elementary teacher; now school principal; now head of an Indigenous delegation to the UN in Geneva; now executive in the Government of Canada—and now a celebrated author.
Brutally frank but buoyed throughout by McLeod’s unquenchable spirit, Peyakow—a title borrowed from the Cree word for “one who walks alone”—is an inspiring account of triumph against unimaginable odds. McLeod’s perspective as someone whose career path has crossed both sides of the Indigenous/white chasm resonates with particular force in today’s Canada.
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