Common ground of stories

The Arts Council begins its fall program of author readings on Oct. 13 with J. Edward (Ted) Chamberlin. Ted has had a brilliant career as a professor of comparative literature and as an international consultant on Aboriginal land claims, advising Aboriginal communities and governments in Canada, the US, Australia, and Africa.  Ted says it has been “like working two jobs,” yet he views the remarkably divergent fields as “two sides of the same coin,” where the “currency” is stories. He brings the two together in “If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?” (2003) where he argues that stories, especially the stories that “tell us who we are and where we belong,” can offer common ground between contending cultures.

In Ted’s latest book, “The Banker and the Blackfoot”, he also raises a voice of hope in the ongoing debate about the collision of cultures which is too often dominated by recrimination and shame. Ted lives in Halfmoon Bay with his wife, the celebrated Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison.

The reading is in the Arts Centre in Sechelt, 8pm, Oct. 13. Admission is by donation, courtesy of the SC Arts Council.

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