Richard Wagamese
1955 -

"Real Indians use the teaching tools of our way to travel inside themselves." - for Joshua, 219.

Born near Minaki, Ontario in 1955, Richard Wagamese became a ward of the Children's Aid Society and was taken from his family and Ojibway culture while he was still a toddler. He spent a number of years in foster homes in northwestern Ontario before being adopted by a family in southern Ontario. He explains the experience of cultural alienation that was at the root of an unhappy childhood in for Joshua (2002). In many respects his own life is mirrored in the life of Garnet Raven, the protagonist in the novel Keeper 'n Me who returns to his native roots as a refuge from life on the streets and in jail.