Calling Down the Sky

Rosanna Deerchild (She/Her) is Cree, from the community of O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation. She has been a storyteller for more than twenty years; as a journalist, broadcaster, poet, and playwright. She is the host of CBC Radio One’s Unreserved. Her debut poetry collection this is a small northern town shared her reflections of growing up in a racially divided place. It won the 2009 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Her second book, calling down the sky, is a collaboration with her mother who was forced to attend Indian Residential School. Her first play with the Royal MTC’s Pimootayowin Creators Circle was called The Secret to Good Tea and was produced for their mainstage in their 2022/23 season. It will be produced for the 2025/26 season with the National Arts Centre and the Grand Theatre in London Ontario. Solomon Ratt was born to parents who were trappers and fishers. He learned nîhithawin (Woods Cree) at their knees. At the age of six Solomon was abducted from his home and taken to the residential school where he began his schooling. After the residential school he attended Riverside Collegiate High School. He attended the University of Regina earning two BAs and an MA. His significant work teaching Cree has been recognized with the Saskatchewan Order of Merit (2021), the Queen’s Platinum Medal (2022), and he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada (2024).He began teaching Cree language and storytelling at First Nations University in 1984, retiring in 2022. Solomon’s publications include nîhithaw âcimowina – Woods Cree Stories (2014), mâci-nêhiyawêwin – Beginning Cree (2016), and âhkami-nêhiyawêtân – Let’s Keep Speaking Cree (2022), both published by the University of Regina Press. Another book published by the University of Regina Press, kâ-pî-isi-kiskisiyân / ᑳᐲᐃᓯᑭᐢᑭᓯᔮᐣ / The Way I Remember, won two Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2024.

“Rosanna Deerchild’s poems roll off the tongue as easy as old country songs. With her deft hand, Deerchild finely tunes every word and weaves them together as intimately as she braids her girls’ hair. Together, these poems create a story that sings with beautiful tension, amazing resilience, and love as big as the sky.” – katherena vermette, author of The Break"This poetry collection is fierce, raw and candid. It is also visceral, intricate and, above all, illuminating. By recounting her mother’s residential school experience in a powerfully poetic narrative, Deerchild expertly illustrates the heartbreaking trauma of that tragic saga and how it complicates relationships over generations. By beautifully and elaborately exploring those relationships and that devastating history, she finds and celebrates the resilient and hopeful spirit that many residential school survivors, like her mother, have managed to retain in the face of horror and torment. As a result, calling down the sky is an essential read in understanding the true modern history of this land and in honouring the people who survived it.” – Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Crusted Snow