Laura Cranmer

On reflection, my BA in English, MA in Curriculum Studies, and my PhD in Language and Literacy Education was a halting two steps forward, one step back journey to self-empowerment from the development of my writing voice to a theatrical expression of voice which led me back to where I began, the language of my paternal lineage in which I was first raised—Kwak’wala. Blending my therapy with my creative writing I was able to express my response (to Canadian colonial history writ large) through the non-linear art form of a dramatic script “DP’s colonial cabaret: A play in two acts” (University of Victoria, 2002).

Continuing my pattern of autoethnographic writing, I documented my language reclamation process in my dissertation, “Reclaiming Kwak’wala through co-constructing Gwanti’lakw’s vision” (University of British Columbia, 2016). As a professor of Indigenous / Xwulmuxw Studies at Vancouver Island University, and VIU Honorary Research Associate, I am interested in how the literary and performing arts in the mode of auto-ethnographic inquiry can contribute to Indigenous language revitalization. As a Namgis/Haida residential school survivor, I am also interested in how the literary and performing arts create a transformational space for all those engaged in Indigenous language reawakening.

Contact Info:

lauracranmer@gmail.com

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