KAMLOOPS — Richard Wagamese was an award-winning Ojibway author, storyteller, and journalist. He passed away on Friday, at the age of 61.
The son of residential school survivors, and a child of the foster care system, Wagamese’s works of fiction often mirrored his own life.
“He was so determined to tell his story and to write stories that were fictional,” said his ex-wife, Debra Powell, “but they were based on reality in many cases and talking about young First Nations people who don’t know their identity, were taken away in the 60s scoop, and, you know, his parents were both residential school survivors, and so his whole life was really hard.”
Despite Wagamese’s struggles with addictions and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Debra Powell remembers her former husband as a boyish and joyful man, who simply want to make a difference.
“That’s really the saddest part of all this is that he had to go down before his time was up.”
Over the last seven years Wagamese was getting to know his son, Jason Schaffer, who says his father’s demons didn’t define him.
“(I’m) really proud of him,” Schaffer said, “proud of the man who he was, not the bad, you know, it was all the good. That’s who my dad was, that to me was Richard.”
As he built a relationship with his son, Wagamese was also able to get to know his 10 grandchildren, who continue to learn from him through his writings.
“My kids, they read his books in school,” Schaffer said. “It makes me really happy. I want to continue to see kids learn from that. I have a son that is going through some stuff. It reminds me a lot of my dad, and I think if I can get him to actually sit and read his books, it may be a real eye-opener for him.”
In addition to writing numerous stories, Wagamese used to submit a weekly television editorial for CFJC-TV called One Native Life.
“He had such a tremendous gift for telling stories, and being able to relate stories that were not just relative to Aboriginal people, but people as a whole,” said CFJC news director, Doug Collins.
Now that Wagamese is gone his loved ones cling to the legacy he left behind, one of hope and perseverance.
“I think that he’s looking down right now at Jason, and at all the people that he hoped to help, and I think that he would have a knowledge that he’s made a difference and finally be at peace with a life that he couldn’t repair himself,” Powell said.
