Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation (MNCFN) Chief Stacey Laforme may not be who you’d expect to be a poet. His childhood was filled alcoholism and abuse, he said.
He left home, aged about 15, to live on the streets for more than a year. He didn’t attend college until his late 20s and then he took general business. It’s an unusual background for a writer, but Laforme has been making waves on the poetry scene nevertheless.
“I just got back from a trip to visit the King (Charles) in Scotland. You know, so it’s been an interesting journey, and most of it is based on my ability to build relationships,” he said. “And a lot of that is based on my ability to connect with people, which comes through the arts.”
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LaForme has published one book, “Living in the Tall Grass: Poems of Reconciliation,” with Durvile Publications in 2018 (he also self-published two books of poetry). He also collaborated with Kevin Hearns from Barenaked Ladies for a video and song called “215: Reconciliation.”
He has read his poetry at the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. The Indigenous newspaper Anishinabek News has called his writing style one of “profound and passionate simplicity.”
“Living in the Tall Grass” touches on many themes including Indigenous trauma, residential schools, climate change, healing, racism, drug abuse, incarceration, violence, praying and healing.
It is structured around the “Seven Grandfathers Teachings” of the Anishinaabe people: truth, love, honesty, courage, humility, respect and wisdom. The first chapter; however, is titled “Shkaakaamikwe” (Mother Earth), because that connection is most important to us, said LaForme.
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”(Poetry) connects us and we’re all connected in some form,” he explained. “Don’t forget that we’re all dealing with trauma. We’re all connected just as we are to this planet. And people can see themselves through my stories or my poetry. And so it’s immensely powerful.”
Born and raised on MNCFN, Laforme started his first job at the age of 12, cutting weeds in a make-work program. Then he dug wells by hand and worked on building homes for people. He was an ironworker for 10 years. In 1999, he was first elected to council, then became chief.
As chair of the Pan Am Games Secretariat Committee, LaForme was instrumental in raising the profile of all First Nations through the recognition of the MNCFN as the first-ever official Host First Nation of the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.
Poetry was part of his life as a small child. He wrote his first poem age 13, but his Grade 8 teacher changed it without asking. He was so hurt that he stopped writing until he was aged 30.
By then, poetry had become a necessity. It allowed him to say difficult things that needed to be said without hurting others and to connect in the face of ignorance and apathy, he said.
He performs across the nation, and at memorandum of understandings, exhibitions, and schools. One of his poems, “Remember,” is engraved on a veterans memorial, while others have been featured in the short film, A Sacred Trust, and at Fort York in Toronto.
“There are ways for us to start communicating better using the arts,” said Laforme. “I’m a poet, storyteller, and I use a lot of that to converse with people. I do this to build the foundation of respect and trust.”
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In the poem “From Hell to Here,” Lafrome writes “No! My people survive and learn how to cope / While there is life there is a future, there is hope.”
