Description
Avis Blackbird is Secwepemc and Sto:lo and of mixed European heritage, living in Coast Salish territory in British Columbia. She is an author, visual artist and photographer and belongs to the Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada. Avis is completing her graduate courses for counselling. Lightning in Our Roots is her first published work.
A timeless expression of ancestors’ voices as they transmit stories and witness truths for future generations.
In Lightning in Our Roots, Avis Blackbird invites the reader on a journey to feel Indigenous fluidity of space and time, the impact of colonization, enduring connections to the land, lived urbanized experience, and finally the rising hope of Indigenous communities and cultures to thrive. Blackbird’s poetry is wholehearted and defiant. She soars in the company of birds and reconnects to her ancestral Coast Salish heritage. As she imagines a rightful place for youth waiting in the wings, the ancestors dance with her.