Harold R. Johnson (August 30, 1957–February 9, 2022)[1] was a Canadian indigenous lawyer and writer, whose book Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (And Yours) was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 2016 Governor General's Awards.[2] The book, an examination of the problem with alcohol consumption among Canadian First Nations, draws on Johnson's work as a Crown prosecutor in northern Saskatchewan.[3]
Harold R. Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 30, 1957 Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Died | February 9, 2022 (aged 64) Mount Forest, Ontario |
| Occupation | Lawyer, writer |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Notable works | Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (And Yours) |
| Notable awards | Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction |
Johnson told CBC Radio interviewer Shelagh Rogers in 2016 that his father was a Swedish immigrant and his mother a Cree woman in Saskatchewan, where he was born. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and worked as a logger, trapper and miner before going to university as an adult, completing his education in law with an MA at Harvard.[4] He was a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation.[5]
After being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, Johnson died on February 9, 2022, at the age of 64.[6] His twelfth and final book, The Power of Story was released posthumously in October of the same year.
Bibliography edit
Fiction
- Billy Tinker (2001)
- Back Track (2005)
- Charlie Muskrat (2008)
- The Cast Stone (2011)
- Corvus (2015)
- The Björkan Sagas (2021)
Nonfiction
- Two Families: Treaties and Government (2007)
- Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours), Regina, Sask.: Univ of Regina Press, 2016
- Clifford (2018)
- Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2023
- Cry Wolf: (2020)[7]
- The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era, Windsor, Ont.: Biblioasis, 2022
References edit
- ^ "Harold JOHNSON (Ray)". May 14, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ "Two Sask. authors up for Governor General's awards". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 5, 2016.
- ^ "Indigenous people need to tell their stories of sobriety, says lawyer". The Current, September 27, 2016.
- ^
"Harold R. Johnson on changing the narrative around alcohol in Indigenous communities". CBC Radio. 2017-01-30. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
Harold R. Johnson is a Harvard-educated lawyer and crown prosecutor who works in Northern Saskatchewan in Treaty 6 territory. He's also a fiction writer, a trapper and a member of the Montreal Lake Cree nation.
- ^ "Author, lawyer, trapper Harold R. Johnson passes away". February 9, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ "Harold JOHNSON (Ray)". May 14, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^
"The CBC Books spring reading list: 40 great books to read this season". CBC Books. 2020-04-09. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
Johnson takes on wolves and the mythology around them in Cry Wolf. He explores Carnegie's death and other wolf attacks and suggests that we should take wolves more seriously.
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