b'ARTS & CULTURETOOLS FOR IMAGINATIONBilly-Ray Belcourt explores themes of colonialism and language through poetryBy Nikita DayB illy-Ray Belcourtis a writerBook of Poetry in English by anHis sophomore book, NDN Coping and academic from DriftpileEmerging Indigenous Writer at theMechanisms: Notes from the Field, Cree First Nation in north- 2018 Indigenous Voices Awards anddescribed on his website as a genre-western Alberta. Alongside being thebecame a finalist for the 2018 Governorbending constellation of poetry, photog-author of four books, Belcourt earnedGenerals Literary Award for Poetry. raphy, redaction and poetics, was a his PhD in English from the Universitynational bestseller. It was longlisted of Alberta and is currently an assistantBelcourt covers a variety of themesfor CBC Books Canada Reads 2020 professor in the School of Creativeand topics in his writing. My work isand shortlisted for the 2020 Lambda Writing at the University of Britishalways interested in examining theLiterary Award for Gay Poetry. It also Columbia. He was a 2016 Rhodesways that Indigenous people negotiate,won the 2020 Stephan G. Stephansson Scholar and holds an M.St. in Womensin their everyday lives, various histor- Award for Poetry.Studies from the University of Oxfordical inheritances. By which I mean, and Wadham College. In 2019 Belcourthow the various brutalities of the 20thBelcourt hopes that his readers will received an Indspire Award in the Firstcentury continue to reverberate intoultimately share in a desire to imagine Nations Youth category, which honoursthe present. Belcourt is also interesteda new world. I think my work is Indigenous professionals and youthin language in and of itself, and as heconcerned with how it is all of our who have demonstrated outstandingputs it, in how the English language,responsibility to refuse the logics of achievement across Turtle Islanddespite being something imposed oncolonialism and also the merging of andbeyond. us as Indigenous people, is still a tool tothe future that is bleak and difficult to Belcourt was 19 when he first beganimagine a new world. live in. I think I want my work to call on writing poetry. As an undergrad at University of Alberta, taking classes in womens studies, Indigenous studies and literature, Belcourt realized that the kind of writing he was being asked to do didnt allow for much opportunity to grapple with his own lived experiences or with colonialism more broadly. It was around this time that he stumbled across poetry on the internet. I saw poets doing exactly thatwriting really moving and vulnerable poems, he says. I wanted to do that too, and I read a lot and figured out, by playing close atten-tion, how to write poems.Belcourts debut book of poems, This Wound Is a World, went on to win the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize, making him the youngest ever winner, as well as the 2018 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. Part manifesto and part memoir, This Wound Is a World was named the Most Significant 26 INDIGENOUS INNOVATORS, ICONS & INFLUENCERS |ISSUE 1, 2023'