Publisher who built on oral tradition honoured (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Publisher who built on oral tradition honoured

Last Updated Fri, 18 Mar 2005 12:24:22 EST
CBC Arts
http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/03/17/Arts/randyfredVA050317.html

VANCOUVER - A First Nations publisher who helped turn oral history into
compelling reading is being honoured by the British Columbia publishing
industry.

Randy Fred founder of Theytus Press, will receive a Distinguished
Service Award on April 7 in Vancouver.

Established in 1981, Theytus was the first aboriginal-owned and operated
publishing company in Canada.

Like many native kids in the 1950s and '60s, Fred was taken from his
family to be sent to residential school. The children were forbidden to
speak their own language, and abuse at the schools was common.

Fred described how he learned to cope: "It was a great escape to travel
to these places just through reading, and I really learned to love
books."

That passion for reading was complicated by the fact that Fred was
slowly going blind.

Fred began developing publishing and video courses for native people at
Malaspina College in Nanaimo, B.C. That led to the creation of Theytus
Books in 1981. Theytus is a Coast Salish word which means "preserving
for the sake of handing down."

The challenge for Fred was how to capture an oral storytelling tradition
on the printed page.

One of the first books published by Theytus was Kwaulasalwut: Stories
from the Coast Salish, by Ellen White.

"She has such a presence, and when she speaks, everybody has to listen.
But to take her oral stories and put them on paper, oh man, was that
ever a challenge," he said.