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Visit our all new poetry website www.bayeuxpoetry.com
Alexander Binning
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5.5" x 8.5" |
This is the story of a Lake Superior fisherman and Second World War veteran, Angus Ashabish, and a much younger man, Burl Manion, a wildlife "technician." After meeting Angus in the course of his work, Burl becomes deeply influenced by him, for Angus is not just a fisherman, but also an Anishinabe (Ojibwa) Shaman. The lives of families, friends and mutual associates are influenced by this deepening encounter as events unfold against the backdrop of The Devil's Chair, an ancient local coastal site of fable and lore associated with generations of Native people.
This site continues to be the source of a generalized anxiety amongst many people, encouraging the wider retention of various beliefs and superstitions. The young especially have difficulty in finding their correct path in life, which must now be located not just along old local trails but in the larger landscape and confusion of the modern world. Such challenges are all around them owing to roads which connect the area to far away urban centres and the gradual disappearance of vast tracts of much of the familiar old territory behind the expanding headpond of a new dam on the Mashkisibi River. Fusing old patterns with new opportunities is not easy, but Angus attempts in his gentle way to free the minds of the young rather than bind them too rigidly to the past. Late in life, Angus must seek to redefine his own position in the world. In a final gesture of defiance, he organizes the local community in a celebratory act of a most unusual kind.
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Bayeux Arts gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Government of Canada through The Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Copyright © 2007 Bayeux Arts