Lee Maracle

Maracle's work focused on the lives of Indigenous people, particularly women, in contemporary North America.

Lee Maracle studied at Simon Fraser University. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is creative and professional writing. Employment is recorded with University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Western Washington University. Works named in the authority record are Ravensong and Celia's Song. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Order of Canada.

• Name — Lee Maracle • Honorific Suffix — OC • Birth Name — Marguerite Aline Carter • Born — 2 July 1950 • Birthplace — North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • Died — 11 November 2021 • Place of death — Surrey, British Columbia, Canada • Relatives — Chief Dan George (grandfather) Joan Phillip (sister) • Spouse — Raymond Bobb Aiyyana Maracle • Children — 3, including Columpa Bobb and Sid Bobb

The granddaughter of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George, Marguerite Aline Carter was born on July 2, 1950, in North Vancouver, British Columbia. "Lee" was a nickname for "Aline". She grew up in North Vancouver, raised mainly by her mother, Jean (Croutze) Carter. Maracle dropped out of school after grade 8 and went from California, where she did various jobs that included producing films and doing stand-up comedy, to Toronto. After returning to Canada, she attended Simon Fraser University. In the 1970s, she became involved with the Red Power movement in Vancouver.

Maracle's writing explores the experience of Indigenous women, critiquing patriarchy and white supremacy. Her first book was an autobiography: Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel, published in 1975. The book began as an assignment in a course about writing life histories. Critic Harmut Lutz describes Indian Rebel as "a celebration of Native survival", comparing it to the works of Maria Campbell and Howard Adams. Indian Rebel was "one of the first Indigenous works published in Canada". I Am Woman (1988) applies feminist theory to the situation of Indigenous women, describing women's sexual victimization at the hands of Indigenous and white men alike while reflecting on her own struggle for liberation. Sojourner's Truth (1990), a collection of short stories, describes the everyday lives of Indigenous people dealing with a "Eurocentric culture". Her poetry book, Hope Matters, was written in conjunction with her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter, and was published in 2019. Sundogs, 1992, Maracle's first novel, touches on remembering Native heritage and recollecting cultural roots. Ravensong, (1993), speaks of blending oral tradition and holistic oneness with living while tackling the barriers of racism, sexism, and class.

Maracle was one of the founders of the En'owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, British Columbia. She was the cultural director of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, from 1998 to 2000. Maracle taught at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and Southern Oregon University, and was a professor of Canadian culture at Western Washington University. She lived in Toronto, teaching at the University of Toronto First Nations House. She was the writer-in-residence at the University of Guelph.

Maracle belonged to the Stó꞉lō nation and had Coast Salish and Cree ancestry. She has been described as Métis. She was married to Raymond Bobb and later to Aiyyana Maracle. She and Raymond had two daughters, including Columpa Bobb, and one son, actor Sid Bobb. She died on November 11, 2021, at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, British Columbia.

• Sojourner's Truth and Other Stories (1990) • Sundogs – 1992 • Ravensong – (Press Gang Publishers, 1993) • Daughters Are Forever (2002) • Will's Garden (2002) • First Wives Club: Coast Salish Style (Theytus Books Publishing, 2010) *

• Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel (1975, reissued 1990) • I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism (1988; Press Gang Publishers, 1996) • Oratory: Coming to Theory (1990) • Memory Serves: Oratories (2015) • My Conversations with Canadians (2017)

• Bent Box (2000) • Talking to the Diaspora (2015) ISBN 9781894037655 • (with Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter)

• My Home as I Remember (2000) • We Get Our Living Like Milk from the Land (1993) • Telling It: Women and Language Across Cultures (with Betsy Warland, Sky Lee and Daphne Marlatt) (Press Gang Publishers, 1990)

*