Maracle, Lee, 1950-2021 : Lee Maracle is an author, instructor and activist. She was born July 2, 1950 in North Vancouver, British Columbia to a Métis mother and Salish father. She grew up in a working-class environment. After high school Maracle travelled to Porterville, California to work as a nomadic farmer and later found herself submerged in Toronto's hippy culture. She documented these experiences in her memoir 'Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel' (1975). Maracle attended Simon Fraser University and University of Victoria studying literature and sociology.
In 1989 Maracle co-founded the En'owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, British Columbia. She taught creative writing at the school from 1989-1990. Maracle has experienced much success as an instructor at many institutions across North America. She was the Stanley Knowles Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at the University of Waterloo (2001), the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University (2002-2004), and the Writer in Residence at the University of Guelph. She currently holds a faculty position in the Aboriginal Studies department at the University of Toronto and is the Traditional Cultural Director at the Indigenous Theatre School in Toronto.
As well as being an instructor in an academic setting, Maracle is also known for her cultural workshops and lectures in aboriginal communities. She has led many workshops on personal and cultural reclamation and healthy living. She has given countless speeches on topics related to native communities through a combination of oratory theory and historical, political and feminist sociological perspectives.
Maracle has published ten books and has contributed to over twenty anthologies. Her first published work, 'Bobbi-Lee Indian Rebel' (1975), is a memoir of her childhood and adolescence. 'I am Woman' (1988) is a collection of autobiographical essays. Her works are social commentaries on contemporary Native issues. For example, 'Ravensong' (1993) discusses the impact of doctors ignoring a native community during the onset of a flu epidemic in the 1950s. Other works include 'Sojourner's Truth and Other Stories' (1990), 'Sundogs' (1991), 'Will's Garden' (2000), 'Daughters are Forever' (2002) and 'First Wives Club: Coast Salish Style' (2010).
Maracle is a member of the Stoh:lo nation. She is a mother of four and grandmother of four.
Lee Maracle died in 2021.
