Six Questions interview #52 : Joseph A. Dandurand

Joseph A. Dandurand is a member of Kwantlen First Nation located on the Fraser River about 20 minutes east of Vancouver. He resides there with his 3 children Danessa, Marlysse, and Jace. Joseph is the Director of the Kwantlen Cultural Center. Joseph received a Diploma in Performing Arts from Algonquin College and studied Theatre and Direction at the University of Ottawa. He has just completed his residency as the Storyteller in Residence at the Vancouver Public Library. He sits on a committee for the Canadian Museum of History and is tasked with consulting on the redesign of the new Children’s Museum. He has published 13 books of poetry and the latest are: I WANT by Leaf Press (2015) and HEAR AND FORETELL by BookLand Press (2015), The Rumour (2018) by BookLand Press in (2018), SH:LAM (the doctor), Mawenzi Press (2019), The Corrupted by Guernica Press (2020), his children’s play: Th’owixiya: the hungry Feast dish by Playwrights Press Canada (2019), his book of short stories and short plays for children: The Sasquatch, the fire, and the cedar basket will be published by Nightwood Press along with his poetry manuscript: Here we come (2020-21) He also is very busy Storytelling at many events and Schools.

Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away? 

I was into Ottawa for about 20 years. My old man was in the air force and this was his last posting before he retired. Writing took me away. I was writer in Rez at the Museum of Civilization and then I was Playwright in Rez at Native Earth in Toronto. Then I got in my car 25 years ago and drove home to where I am now where my mom is from.

Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here? 

I was studying theater at Ottawa U and wasn’t really devoted to it, so I kept writing and that seemed to open doors for me. I first joined up with other radical Native writers like Kateri Damm and Allen Deleary and Armand Ruffo and we were going to change the world…but we didn’t but I leaned a lot from them.

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since? 

Again it was good to meet other writers and I kept at it and today I find myself and today I write every morning and there has been a shift and I believe now I have finally found my voice as a poet, a playwright, and a story teller.

Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow? 

Not sure. I think I was surrounded by other writers who were on their way to be published so I took their direction and self-published my first book of poems: the upside-down raven. Ottawa provided me a safe place to write.

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work? 

I wrote plays and produced them at Saw video which was also a safe place for me, and I spent a lot of time there writing and also producing videos. The plays  I produced there gave me the opportunity to create a black box into worlds that I had created. The community of creative people around me gave me the chance to create what I had written for stage and it allowed me to move forward and move on to other projects.

Q: What are you working on now?

Right now I am 30 pages into a new manuscript of poetry. I am also teaching in schools and giving readings online to promote 2 new books of poetry: I will be corrupted, by Guernica, and The eastside of it all, by Nightwood Editions. My children’s play: Th’owx’iya the hungry feast dish, is to be translated into Portuguese.