Finalist for the 2019 Rasmussen, Rasmussen and Charowsky Indigenous Peoples' Writing Award
Hiraeth is about women supporting and lending strength and clarity to other women so they know that moving forward is always possible-- and always necessary. It documents a journey of struggle that pertains to a dark point in Canadian history that few talk about and of which even fewer seem aware. Poems speak to the 1960's "scoop up" of children and how this affected the lives of (one or thousands) of First Nations and Métis girls-- girls who later grew to be women with questions, women with wounds, women who felt like they had no place to call home. That is, until they allowed themselves to be open to the courage others have lived and shared. "Hiraeth" is a word that is Celtic in origin and it means looking for a place to belong that never existed. But this place does exist -- in the heart.
Carol Rose Daniels (GoldenEagle) is Cree/Dene with roots in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan. She is a published novelist, poet, playwright, visual artist, and musician. She is the author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary (2015). A second novel, Narrows of Fear, is forthcoming in 2018. As a visual artist, her work has been exhibited in art galleries across Saskatchewan and Northern Canada. As a musician, a CD of women's drum songs, in which Carol is featured, was recently nominated for a Prairie Music Award. Before pursuing her art on a full-time basis, Carol worked as a journalist for more than 30 years in television and radio at APTN, CTV, and CBC. She lives in Regina.
"Hiraeth offers a generous, genuine, heartbreaking gift. Loving, defiant, dark, and triumphant, Carol Rose Daniels sings our homesick spirits out of harm's way. This collection is for all of us, but most especially for those taken, those found, and those still searching. Our nations need this book now more than ever. kinanaskomitin."
&mdashLisa Bird-Wilson, author of the award-winning Just Pretending
"Ripped from her culture as a child, Carol is haunted by the call of the drum. Full of heart and hard-won wisdom, these poems are a cry for a home that never was. Raised monias in an in-between world, Carol Rose Daniels comes to embrace her Nehiyaw roots."
--Lorri Neilsen Glenn, author of Following the River: Traces of Red River Women
"a fine offering from a woman whose life was deeply affected by the 1960's displacement of First Nations children and families. It is a poignant eposé of the invisible scars that remained on these young innocent hearts."
--Canadian Poetry Review