Treaty #
Armand Garnet Ruffo
A treaty is a contract. A treaty is enduring. A treaty is an act of faith. A treaty at its best is justice. It is a document and an undertaking. It is connected to place, people and self. It is built on the past, but it also indicates how the future may unfold. Armand Garnet Ruffo's Treaty # is all of these. In this far-ranging work, Ruffo documents his observations on life — and in the process, his own life — as he sets out to restructure relationships and address obligations nation-to-nation, human-to-human, human-to-nature.
Now, he undertakes a new phase in its restoration. He has written his Treaty# like a palimpsest over past representations of Indigenous bodies and beliefs, built powerful connections to his predecessors, and discovered new ways to bear witness and build a place for them, and all of us, in his poems. This is a major new work from an important, original voice. (From Wolsak & Wynn)
Treaty # was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry.
Armand Garnet Ruffo is an Ojibway filmmaker, writer and poet. His other books include Grey Owl, Norval Morrisseau and The Thunderbird Poems.
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