Description
In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience by Helen Knott, Dane-Zaa and Metis/Cree is a three part memoir in her dreamless void, the in-between and the healing. The memoir follows the life of Helen Knott through her childhood, describing life during school especially after eighth grade, and as a young woman on her red road journey through rape, alcoholism and drug addiction. It is her journey of darkness through which she questions her selfhood, ancestry, faith, and existence. But is it also about her healing, ceremony, love of her son and finding strength and resolve through him and herself to recover her warrior spirit and place in the universe. Reflecting on her own family history – the Bigfoots – and generational trauma of colonial oppression, learned helplessness and powerlessness, Helen Knott re-writes her dreamless void. In My Own Moccasins, she writes with the knowledge that she was born knowing and trusts who she is as she grows and moves forward with others in a good way recognizing the value of self-work and the reclamation of medicine in the shared healing process. The Afterword by Kim Anderson is one of gratitude. Some of Helen’s poems are included in this book and The Things We Taught Our Daughters, her poem on intergenerational trauma is available as spoken poetry at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzRKC_XdKNE