Lee Maracle (1950–2021)

Bobbie Lee Indian Rebel is a memoir of Lee Maracle’s first twenty years in Vancouver and Toronto. Twenty years filled with racism, poverty, violence, drug and alcohol use, and family dysfunction. “Colonialism stole everything”. Maracle courageously shares the darkest and most difficult times of her early years. It is easy to understand her shutting down emotionally and her acknowledged lack of self worth amidst the trauma of living in a racist society. “The umbilical cord of terror we inherited from our imprisoned parents.”

Right from the start though, Maracle had a hunger for meaning and this is likely what kept her going through her darkest times in Toronto and back home in BC. Maracle details her interest in Marxism and leftist politics and outlines her involvement in the Indigenous resistance movement Native Alliance for Red Power (NARP) modeled after the Black Panther Party. In a 1990 update at the end of the book (the original story was recorded in 1975) Maracle brings us forward another 15 years in her life including the birth of her children.… (mehr)

The first hundred pages of this book are amazing.

The story follows a shape-shifting witness called mink who observes Celia and her family deal with the horrific effects of colonialism. Meanwhile, a two headed spirit-serpent grows restless from the community's rejection of the old way of loving. The serpent tries to feed upon and tear apart the community while the community tries to learn to live with their trauma and the changes in their lives. The beginning of the book of filled with interesting characters, thoughtful meditations, and a unique form of magic realism grounded in indigenous mythology. Towards the end of the story, the framing device of the witness falls away much to the detriment of the quality of the book. The end of the book feels quite hurried and doesn't seem to quite fit with the rest of the book.

I still really loved reading this, and I think it's an important book in spite of the writing toward the end.… (mehr)