International Women’s Day!

#IWD2024 | #InspireInclusion | #Indigenous

International Women's Day is a day to highlight and celebrate the multifaceted and indispensable contributions that women make each day to enrich lives and communities, foster inclusive spaces and drive ground-breaking research. Through resilience and leadership, the unique contributions of women across social, political, academic, literary, creative, and community landscapes underscores the vital impact of women in shaping a more equitable and vibrant global community during International Women's Day and beyond. Celebrating women’s accomplishments and valuable contributions creates a foundation to foster positive change and inspire future generations to break barriers and contribute to a more inclusive world.

Join us in celebrating the exceptional contributions that women make today and every day.

MELISSA SCHNARR

PhD Candidate, Western University

Boozhoo, she:kon. I am an Anishinaabe and Kanien'kéha:ka writer, scholar, educator and caregiver from Bkejwanong Territory (Walpole Island First Nation), with family ties in Six Nations of the Grand River. As an Indigenous woman, I walk through many worlds – professionally, I am both a creative and an academic. I write poetry and fiction, research and work within Indigenous land education and teach at Western University. I am also a big sister and caregiver to my younger sibling, Nick, and dogmum to the best listener in the world, Pixie the chihuahua.

As a writer, my poetry engages the land and ancestral memory to share my experiences and my family’s experiences, from my lens as a Anishinaabekwe/Mohawk woman, while my stories, often in the vein of speculative fiction, imagines worlds championed by complex, resilient women and gender-diverse people. My writing speaks truths about the world we live in and envisions different realities simultaneously and neither would be possible if it wasn’t for all of the strong women who stand behind me. My writing is a gift that was nurtured by my mother; her strength is evidenced in my words. I don’t know if my writing is empowering, but I always strive to honour the authenticity and ferocity of Indigenous women’s experiences in the poems and stories I create. In my poetry, I strive for that visceral truth we can feel in our guts; in my stories, I strive to create characters and places within which other young Indigenous readers can see themselves reflected – especially fantasy stories. We need more Indigenous fantasy. Good writing always involves tropes – well worn story beats and arcs we all know too well – but great writing involves subverting those tropes, which, to me, is also empowerment. Every story we write where the brown girl is the hero helps to show others what the real possibilities are.

I used to be a game designer and when I was working in the industry would often get asked “But, what do girls want in their games?”. My answers usually surprised those who asked. I imagine they expected me to say something like ‘romance’ or ‘less violence’ or something even more stereotypical like ‘shopping’, but my answer was always “A good story, tight mechanics, compelling characters.” A girl-gamer wants the same thing any gamer wants: a good game. We get so hung up on and bombarded by ideas of who we are supposed to be, it’s easy to forget that outside definitions are just that – some box someone else drew, not you. I grew up often being the only girl in the comic book shop, in the game shop, at the D&D table and I could be in those spaces confidently because of the women, like my mum, who supported me to be me, regardless if it fit within any predefined box. I wouldn’t be anything that I am today – writer, scholar, teacher – if it wasn’t for that loving and ongoing affirmation.

Interviewed by Rachelle Coleman

Northern Lights

Pitch black cold ...

December?

Nogojiwanong.

I remember the warmth of your hand.

The warmth in our throats.

Women making

thunder.

We are not afraid, you told me.

This is us reclaiming.

That deep night protest –

voices, electric

buzzing,

willful.

When late hours caught up with little legs, you put me on your shoulders.

Breaching the crowd ...

surfacing

bright hats and scarves, people

undulating.

Pinks, yellows, greens – dancing light meant to ward away wendigos. We were

vibrations, sundering silences.

I was too young

to understand then,

why we needed medicine

the foreboding of the night.

To me,

You conjured Wawatay and set me on its back.

That's how I knew,

You

were magic.

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If you’d like to support this author and pick up a copy of their chapbook, please visit Anstruther Press by clicking the image below.