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The Pemmican Eaters
by
A picture of the Riel Resistance from one of Canada’s preeminent Métis poets
Winner of the 2016 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry
With a title derived from John A. Macdonald’s moniker for the Métis, The Pemmican Eaters explores Marilyn Dumont’s sense of history as the dynamic present. Combining free verse and metered poems, her latest collection aims to recreate a ...more
Winner of the 2016 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry
With a title derived from John A. Macdonald’s moniker for the Métis, The Pemmican Eaters explores Marilyn Dumont’s sense of history as the dynamic present. Combining free verse and metered poems, her latest collection aims to recreate a ...more
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Paperback, 96 pages
Published
April 14th 2015
by ECW Press
(first published April 7th 2015)
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I guess I'm the only one here that didn't win this book in a giveaway. I never win any thing!
The Pemmican Eaters is a nice collection of poems and short prose pieces concerning the Metis and its turbulent history with the Canadian government. My favourite pieces concerned Louis Riel directly, but I also enjoyed the ones that focused on the Metis culture - its love of the earth - and freedom from the meticulous accounting and measurements that the organized government forced upon them. ...more
The Pemmican Eaters is a nice collection of poems and short prose pieces concerning the Metis and its turbulent history with the Canadian government. My favourite pieces concerned Louis Riel directly, but I also enjoyed the ones that focused on the Metis culture - its love of the earth - and freedom from the meticulous accounting and measurements that the organized government forced upon them. ...more
I think my favorite poems here are the ones about beadwork, in which Dumont moves between the fine detail of a woman’s patient crafts to the world and life it evokes:
she considers blue beads as holding a piece of the sky
reflected in berries
her same fingers gather saskatoons draping from branches bent blue with fruit
and release them to the lard pail tied to her waist
their dropping, the sound of small drumming in the pail
her same fingers scoop saskatoons, the fruit of feasts
from a bowl in the swe ...more
she considers blue beads as holding a piece of the sky
reflected in berries
her same fingers gather saskatoons draping from branches bent blue with fruit
and release them to the lard pail tied to her waist
their dropping, the sound of small drumming in the pail
her same fingers scoop saskatoons, the fruit of feasts
from a bowl in the swe ...more
I'm teaching this book to my high school IB English class and keep finding more to admire and enjoy. As a collection, it is masterfully constructed with so many poems that speak to other poems throughout the book. Dumont also does such interesting things with traditional forms like the pantoum she blasts apart with Gabriel Dumont's gun and the sestina in which she deftly weaves and reweaves fiddle and dance with government treatment of Métis people. The poems about Métis beadwork are my current
...more
Needs some serious proofreading.
I was troubled by "I wanted to treat them as we would have treated buffalo" and thought to myself "so much for the idea of the sacred buffalo if Gabriel Dumont equates the bison with the Middleton's colonial army." I'm not sure that these poems are fully thought out. But who am I to say, right? ...more
I was troubled by "I wanted to treat them as we would have treated buffalo" and thought to myself "so much for the idea of the sacred buffalo if Gabriel Dumont equates the bison with the Middleton's colonial army." I'm not sure that these poems are fully thought out. But who am I to say, right? ...more
Marilyn Dumont is an incredible poet, and The Pemmican Eaters lives up to my high expectations. She infuses vital history with vivid emotion in a way that just feels... painful and perfect.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
"Pemmican Eaters" is rich with with imagery, culture, and emotion. I've found it's rare to find a poetry collection that bridges poetics and narrative, that engages multiple genres effortlessly. This is a book I'll keep coming back to.
...more
Wonderful collection of poems.
I actually gave up on this one (I read the intro and some of the poems) when I decided to teach Thomas King's 77 Fragments, so I'm counting them together as a finished book.
...more
loved this collection of poems - mostly looking at the Metis history in the times of Louis Riel.
This year, I am reading CBC’s “12 Books by Indigenous Women You Should Read”. North End Love Songs is one of them.
"The Pemmican Eaters" is a collection of poetry by Métis poet, Marilyn Dumont. In this collection, she explores Métis history, culture and life, primarily during the time of the Riel Resistance. Marilyn Dumont is a distant relation of Gabriel Dumont, Riel’s general. Her poetry is an exploration of personal, as well as cultural identity. I was moved by the rich culture she reveals to ...more
"The Pemmican Eaters" is a collection of poetry by Métis poet, Marilyn Dumont. In this collection, she explores Métis history, culture and life, primarily during the time of the Riel Resistance. Marilyn Dumont is a distant relation of Gabriel Dumont, Riel’s general. Her poetry is an exploration of personal, as well as cultural identity. I was moved by the rich culture she reveals to ...more
I was lucky to win this book as a Goodreads giveaway. A look at the Metis traditions and the Riel rebellion through poetry. The poet is able to use her words so that you can hear the fiddles and see the dancers or you can imagine the colorful beadwork being done or you can see the rebellion through the eyes of the Metis people. I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.
This book taught me a few things about Metis history and the history of western Canada. Learning something new makes me value a book, so I value this one simply for that. I like this prose poems and little short story in it too.
Concrete, complex, allusive, playful. Re - ignited my love of poetry.
Loved it again!
Goodreads win. Will read and review once received.
This was a good read. It was a short and quick read. I would definitely read this again. I would also recommed it. It was very enjoyable.
This was a good read. It was a short and quick read. I would definitely read this again. I would also recommed it. It was very enjoyable.
Enjoyed this little book thoroughly and learned something about the Manitoba Metis people as well. I especially appreciate and relate to the pieces based on women's experience.
...more
I won this book on Goodreads!
I wish to thank Marilyn for the opportunity to read her thoughts and collection of prose/poems. It ws a most enjoyable read.
I wish to thank Marilyn for the opportunity to read her thoughts and collection of prose/poems. It ws a most enjoyable read.
Loved the different forms of poetry used to tell the story of the Northwest Rebellion, Dumont, and the Métis. They lended themselves well to their specific poems.
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Marilyn Dumont’s poetry has won provincial and national awards. She has been the writer-in-residence at five Canadian universities and the Edmonton Public Library as well as an advisor in the Aboriginal Emerging Writers Program at the Banff Centre. She teaches sessional creative writing for Athabasca University and Native studies and English for the University of Alberta. She lives in Edmonton, Al
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