Disconnection and the yearning for connection have long propelled my writing.
As a settler Canadian, I am currently exploring my implication in disconnecting the Indigenous peoples of this country from their home lands.
Heather Menzies
Seeker
Probing the ancestral roots of disconnection first took me to Scotland.
Reconnecting with my ancestral land and dispossession from it prepared me for the work I’m doing now.
Writer
My writing chronicles my journey of transformation, healing and reconnection: with myself, with others and with the living earth.
My award-winning work includes 10 books and 100s of newspaper & magazine articles.
Speaker
I have spent decades speaking authoritatively to large national and international audiences.
Increasingly, I am drawn to the connections of smaller groups and talking circles.
I am listening and trying to learn what healing our treaty relations with each other and the earth might mean. I am sharing this journey with you, building on Reclaiming the Commons praised by Noam Chomsky as “an admirable, even noble vision”.
Heather Menzies awarded Order of Canada
Heather Menzies awarded Order of Canada to honour her contributions to public discourse.
His Excellency presents the MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF CANADA insignia to Heather Anne Menzies, C.M.
Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, presided over an Order of Canada investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall, on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. The Governor General, who is chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order, bestowed the honour on 35 Members and 10 Officers.
The Order of Canada was created in 1967, during Canadas centennial year, to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. Since its creation, more than 6 000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order.
Photo Credit: MCpl Vincent Carbonneau, Rideau Hall, OSGG.
Heather Menzies received the honour of the Ottawa Book Award for Non-Fiction.
Jury Statement:
“In this eloquent memoir written from the heart, Menzies takes the reader on a fascinating trip to the Scotland of her ancestors to examine and retrace life on the Scottish Commons.
With a light and at times poetic touch, she offers her insights into how the venerable wisdom of sharing and caring for the land might be applied today.
A unique combination of memoir and manifesto, Reclaiming the Commons urges us to become participants in changing our world for the common good.”
~ Dr. Richard T. Clippingdale, Suzanne Evans and merilyn simonds
Read more about the city’s Book Award and Announcement.
Ottawa Citizen featured the winners, so read more.
Heather’s Blog
Today I Stand upon the Shore
'Today I Stand Upon the Shore' original music written and performed by Pat Mayberry 2014 Video by Heather Menzies Blog Series: A journey of reckoning and reconnection I went looking for my ancestors after writing No Time: Stress & the Crisis of Modern Life, which...
The Treaties | Ottawa negotiated in bad faith
printed in Literary Review of Canada Magazine in October, 2019 Read our lips: we agree to share the land, not surrender it. That, according to this fine, careful study, is what Indigenous parties were trying to say during the negotiations of Treaties One through Seven...
Honouring the Peace
printed in the Watershed Sentinelon Sept 14, 2017. The river, the beauty of the valley, the treaties With the drums and chants of “Makh Chi” (by Ulali) blasting on the car stereo, we descend into the Peace River Valley – we being Rita Wong and Valeen Jules with Poets...