October 1, 2024
Kluane First Nation Elders win Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution
Elders Dr. Alyce Johnson (left) and Mary Jane Johnson (right) were presented the award by Yukon Commissioner Adeline Webber (centre).
We are thrilled to share that the 2024 Borealis Prize, the Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution, was awarded to a group of Kluane First Nation Elders for their contributions to the territory’s storytelling and publishing communities.
The jury statement reads:
“Individually and together, members of the Kluane First Nation Elders have contributed to the storytelling, literary, and publishing community in Yukon for decades. They have provided stories, knowledge, and teachings to several academic, heritage, linguistic and scientific publications.”
“For six years, they collaborated with editors to do the challenging and time-consuming work of transforming oral stories to the written word for the book, Lhù’ààn Mân Keyí Dań Kwánje Nààtsat: Kluane Lake Country People Speak Strong (2023). The 22 Elders who contributed to this publication have made a significant contribution to Yukon literature, expanding the space for Indigenous voices in the literary community.”
Two KFN Elders, Dr. Alyce Johnson and Mary Jane Johnson, accepted the prize, presented by Yukon Commissioner Adeline Webber, on the group’s behalf at the 40th Annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes Gala on September 28th, 2024.
Lhù’ààn Mân Keyí Dań Kwánje Nààtsat: Kluane Lake Country People Speak Strong is a poignant display of the resilience of language, culture, and community in the face of the profound changes brought by settlers, in which Kluane First Nation Elders share stories from their lives, knowledge of their traditional territory (Á sì Keyi, “my grandfather’s country”), and insights on the building of their self-governing First Nation.
The title was also recently awarded the Indigenous History Book Prize.
