November 24th, 2014

One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
Reviewed by Arlene Anderson

For himself and for Canada! Richard Wagamese says he wrote his memoir, One Native Life, in part for personal reasons: to find  light in the shadows of the abuse and abandonment he experienced as a child, but also to let Canadians see the "character, the spirit, and the soul of native people all across the country." On both counts, it would appear, he has succeeded. 

It takes time for Wagamese to unfold the story of his childhood.  He was born in Northern Ontario and separated from his family when he was only two. He lived his early years in the fickle clutch of foster care until he was adopted at the age of nine by a non-native family who knew nothing of his background and enforced strict rules backed  by physical force.  He ran away from them at the age of fifteen and was living on the streets and in flop houses for the better part of the next decade.
It is in the spaces between the telling of these events that we come to understand the source of Wagamese's healing. Libraries were his salvation - they offered warmth and a place to satisfy his immense curiosity about the world.  It was in libraries he learned not only about the power of literature but also music and art.  Eventually, Wagamese made his way back to his people and through them regained his identity. 

"One Native Life" is much less an account of the facts of the author's life than it is a telling of his life's philosophy.  It is grounded in his tribe and the land.  His words paint a landscape that holds the mystery of our existence.  It is here, on the land, we sense, he is most at home with himself. "When you walk the territory of your being," Wagamese says, "the truth is everywhere around you."