Illustration by Afshin Sabouki

Canada’s story is far from being a fairy tale, and this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest allows authors like Arjun Basu and Richard Wagamese to express their views on Canada as a country and literary nation.

These two writers not only hail from different parts of the country, they also hold distinct and definitive views on where we are as a people who carry the same passport. The festival also allows readers to postulate their own views and opinions of how Canadian literature is shaping the country.

Beer, hockey and twisters

Although Arjun Basu was born in Canada to Indian parents who immigrated and settled in Montreal, he identifies more as the classic, contemporary Canadian. He talks little about his Indian heritage and more of what it means to be Canadian. To him, it is a privilege, one that is a passport to freedom.

“It means I play hockey every Thursday in a beer league. And like to head off to someplace warm and sunny in February,” says Basu.

His modern and contemporary notions are reflected in his work. Basu is the inventor and publisher of 140-character long short stories he calls “twisters” (the length of a tweet) and published through his personal blog.

Waiting for the Man, his latest work presented at this year’s festival, is influenced by changes in the media and what he calls “the democratization of voices wrought by the internet.” His novel is a story centred around social media, which leads the protagonist to over-share his life online, causing a media frenzy.

Although Basu is an accomplished writer, he prefers to leave it to others to decide what kind of influence, if any, his work has on Canadian identity.

“I don’t know that I have worked long enough to influence national identity. Nor am I conceited enough to ever think I will,” says Basu.

Still, Basu’s views of Canada come from a sense of belonging. To him Canada is modern, and based on sharing. A place where people from many nations and backgrounds come and participate in the building of a national identity.

“From foundation myths to history, from the oral traditions of the First Nations to the words that fill our libraries, Canada – like other countries – is built up as a collective of all our stories,” says Basu.

Indigenous ink

From just outside the mountains in Kamloops, British Columbia, writer Richard Wagamese has published 12 novels and several memoirs. From an Indigenous point of view he sees our national identity differently than others.

Wagamese says that Canada’s story should be of its relationship with Aboriginal people, and as long as this is denied there is no Canadian identity.

“The [story] that persists is built upon a lie – that there [are] two founding nations here. From the very beginning Aboriginal people were a Canadian motif – but now only we have the beaver and hockey,” says Wagamese.

He thinks that inclusion is what Canadian identity is lacking. He wants Canada to be recognized as a treaty nation – its development contingent on the participation of Indigenous people. So, Wagamese’s work tries to better educate and inform people of Indigenous lives and culture.

Online reviews of his latest novel, Medicine Walk, reveal that a cursory read of his latest novel might read like it is based on a simple father-son relationship, but a deeper analysis reveals a look at the formation of identities and how ancestry plays a role.

“I try to show sides of our Indigenous realities to bring mainstream Canadians more understanding of history, politics, racism and misinformation,” says Wagamese.

Festival volunteers and readers are all eyes and ears

Jane Slemon, 57, is not only the longest serving volunteer of the Vancouver Writers Fest, she’s an avid reader. Without knowing it, she’s also a part of Wagamese’s intended audience.

Her time poring through literature, proximity to notable authors, and her yearly exposure to new writing allows her to form her own view of Canada’s identity.

“I don’t see any clear identity emerging in Canadian literature,” says Slemon. “No handsome hero lives here. No brute is coming at the last minute to save the damsel, wherever she has gotten to in the vast genderless landscape,” says Slemon.

Slemon says that there is much to learn from Indigenous people. She admits that some of our literature reflects this, but not enough. More non-Aboriginal people should be asking questions, so as to continue to shape our identity and discover true inclusivity.

“Are non-Natives smart enough and humble enough to ask ‘How did you care for this land for so long without wreaking havoc, anyway?’ [Or] ‘what First Nations writers and storytellers haven’t I yet read or heard?” says Slemon.

With these questions possibly absent from many people’s minds and mouths, Slemon concludes that “our search for our identity, is our identity.”

She says that Canadian literature celebrates both questioning and responsibility in the face of Canadian history.

“The story that unfolds creates the storyteller, that creates an audience, that creates a national community,” says Slemon.

Although she has not read any of Wagamese’s or Basu’s work, she is eager and open to what they will have to say at this year’s festival.

“Still, we who try our best to listen must remain open as each new novel and book of poetry emerges in print to challenge and revisit what has come before,” says Slemon.