SH:LAM

by Joseph Dandurand

This powerful collection, all too relevant today, tells a story that needs to be told. The author writes, "This is the truth of what has happened to my people. The Kwantlen people used to number in the thousands but like all river tribes, eighty percent of our people were wiped out by smallpox and now there are only 200 of us. As a Kwantlen man, father, fisherman, poet and playwright I believe the gift of words was given to me so I can retell our stories?"

These poems tell the story of a Kwantlen man who has been given the gift of healing but is also is a heroin addict.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2019

Reviews

[DW · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses the pain and hatred that indigenous communities face and its relationship to substance abuse and systemic racism. This racism still exists just as strongly today as it did when settlers arrived.

It's worth noting, this was the most powerful book of poetry I've read in 2019. It's style and structure conveys the never-ending nature of various struggles faced by the community. Also, this cycling aesthetic also invokes the iterative nature of healing and forgiveness as a process.

In the interest of truth and reconciliation, particularly if you are white or from a settler culture (as I am) and live in Canada, I highly encourage you to read this book.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author says of writing these poems that there was "a film quality to it". I believe it because reading them is the same. The poems are narratives that take time as just another dimension..."and I sat and I sat for another century as the world changed". It's both a soothing wonder and a devastating book. Compassion and rage. Both mundane and filled with ancient wonder.

"Within the cedar forest / there are little people / and they collect all that the / world has lost." That's what the book feels like reading it. Like its let loose inner little people, loosened them from stone and they are deep, gathering ways of being and feeling I thought I had lost.

I've already looked up another couple of his books to read and found out that this book has been shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2020. I can see why.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, that is intense. Poems about the Kwantlen people on the west coast of Canada. There is a lot covered in these poems, history, pain, and so much more. Each poem is a lot and as a whole... well, just be ready for all of the emotions, and it packs a punch.

[Erin || erins_library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gunalchéesh to Mawenzi House for the free review copy. I don’t usually review poetry, so I was nervous going into this one. However, I’m glad I read it. Each poem was powerful on its own, but as a collection it packed a punch. The book told the story of a Kwantlen healer (sh:lam) who is also a heroin addict. It blurs the linear construct of time as you go deeper into the story. The first few poems alternate between telling a story of the healer in the past and the present, before eventually the healer is drifting between the two in one poem. It evokes the trauma of colonization from the beginning to now for the Kwantlen people. It is still ongoing. And it makes you wonder what has really changed between then and now. One of the most memorable and visual poems of the collection for me was “Pledge the Depth”, although I think it’s best to read the book in its entirety. It’s more like one long poem in that way. I think everyone should read this, but I highly recommend Sh:Lam by Joseph A Dandurand to those living on colonized land.

Here are a few of my favorite lines:
-“she would look into my eyes and seek the word ‘peaceful’ but I had not been able to speak my language in a long time”
-“my body aches for my beginning”
-“I sometimes go into the forest searching for the spirits who are only known by their myths and they become carved masks and sit on a wall in a place that no longer knows who they were”