From dealing cards at a casino to working in oilfield camps in northern Alberta, addictions counsellor Justin Buffalo turns sorrow into stories permeated with comedy and urban legend.
Buffalo, 34, was raised by his grandmother on the Samson Cree First Nation south of Edmonton. He lived a quiet childhood in an isolated part of the reserve, he says, and spent most of his time reading books that two of his grandmothers gave him.Buffalo is in the second year of Audible’s Indigenous Writers’ Circle, a six-month workshop and mentorship program for First Nations, Inuit and Métis writers in Canada.
“I saw a lot of parallels of him growing up as a poor Irish boy and then moving to the big city,” said Buffalo. “This completely different identity, completely different perspective, was actually so in line with mine.” His time in casinos and camps paved the path to addictions counselling. While Buffalo doesn’t write about his clients, he does use their experiences to inform the perspectives of his work.Indigenous author Clayton Thomas-Muller has been mentoring Buffalo over the past few months. Thomas-Muller is known for his memoir "Life in the City of Dirty Water," which is a national bestseller and is a CBC Canada Reads finalist.
He says he and the other mentors in the program shape it to match the needs and interests of the writers.
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'Rich with perspective': Writing program mentors emerging Indigenous authorsFrom dealing cards at a casino to working in oilfield camps in northern Alberta, addictions counsellor Justin Buffalo turns sorrow into stories permeated with comedy and urban legend. Buffalo, 34, was raised by his grandmother on the Samson Cree First Nation south of Edmonton. He lived a quiet childhood in an isolated part of the […]
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