Why Write a Memoir?Why write a memoir? I’m an average person with average intelligence. But I didn’t have an average childhood. Because of that childhood, I became an adult who wrote a book about two ordinary sisters – I thought. Like me, they did nothing heroic or newsworthy. One simply came to accept her Metis heritage. The discoveries they made along that journey aroused the emotions of readers. They connected with either April or Cheryl Raintree. Many of my characters’ discoveries had been mine. My Mother's InterviewIn 1984, Alanis Obomsawin interviewed my mother. For Mom’s comfort, I had left them alone. I had no idea what was in the interview. 
Alanis sent me the NFB audio reels and I had no way of listening to them. Because of my trepidation in learning of my mother’s life – she would have had a hard life, one filled with so much pain – I didn’t rush to find out how I could get to listen to those tapes. For many years, the tapes remained stored in the back of a closet and in the back of my mind.I was living in Toronto when my parents passed away in Winnipeg - Dad in 1997 and Mom in 1999. Finally in 2001, I had the reels transferred to cassette tapes. Reluctantly I sat in a room alone and made myself listen to them. Decision to Write a MemoirFor days after, I thought about Mom’s interview. How could I make something good happen, out of such a difficult life? My first reaction was that the interview needed to be published. Well, I’m very good at procrastinating, and for the next six years, I did nothing but think about the interview on occasion. In 2007, I decided to write a memoir, and to use Mom’s interview as my driving force. What I had found amazing was that our earlier years ran almost parallel. Because Children’s Aid Society took me when I was three and placed me in foster care, I never knew much about my family. With Mom spiritual presence close by, I began the writing in early 2008. Manitoba ReadsMy first novel, In Search of April Raintree had been chosen to launch the Winnipeg Foundation’s literacy pilot project, During the first event - a train trip to Churchill - Cathy, my publisher, raised a concern over my reluctance to talk about some of the details of my years in foster care. If I told the truth, as I knew it, the foster mother with whom I’d spent almost eleven years would be hurt. So I told Cathy, I could not finish writing the memoir. Back in Winnipeg, I concentrated on promoting the literacy program and tried not to think about my aborted project. Gradually I came to understand that my memoir could help many to understand mistakes from the past so they could help improve the future. My HopeIt’s my hope that readers would want to understand the effects of systemic racism and that we who are supposed to be on the receiving end, are not its only victims. Back in those days, the average person didn’t even know about this system that pervaded every part of the lives of Aboriginal people. This memoir covers my life to October 1987. The epilogue takes us to June 2001, when I realized how much I came to understand and appreciate my mother.
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