Plains Cree multidisciplinary artist Eden Fine Day named 2022 Vancouver Public Library Indigenous Storyteller in Residence
The singer-songwriter, guitar player, writer, and painter uses self-expression as a form of self-healing
Eden Fine Day.
WITH A MUSICAL career spanning more than 25 years, Eden Fine Day is a Plains Cree artist who, beginning in February, will take on the role of the 2022 Indigenous Storyteller in Residence at Vancouver Public Library.
Raised in East Vancouver, Fine Day has six albums to her name, including three with local rock band Vancougar. Fine Day has studied music, linguistics, literature, and history in the U.S. and France and earned a bachelor’s of arts in language studies from University of California, Santa Cruz.
Fine Day was 14 years old when she met her father for the first time, reconnecting with her family and her roots in Sweetgrass First Nation in Saskatchewan.
Eden Fine Day.
“My father took me to the place where I was born and together we picked sweetgrass,” Fine Day says in a release. “He taught me the laws of giving and receiving from the earth and, for the first time, I realized there were people who held the same values I held, even though I had never met them.
“The world is changing and Canadians are starting to realize that the very culture they tried to beat out of us is the one thing that will help us survive the global crisis,” she says. “I’m ready to share what I know with the people of Vancouver, and the rest of Canada, so that we may move forward together.”
During her VPL residency, Fine Day plans to engage with the community through various workshops, programs, and events while also working on several creative projects, including the writing and recording of a new album of original music. She plans on sharing the disc via an online listening party at the end of her term. Fine Day is also working on a graphic novel series for young adults, among other initiatives for kids and adults.
“I especially feel called to share our worldview with children – all children – because in them I see a light that has not yet been doused,” Fine Day says.
The VPL Indigenous Storyteller in Residence was launched in 2008 as a way to highlight, honour, and share Indigenous traditions and contemporary cultures and to promote intercultural understanding and communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
More information is at vpl.ca/storyteller.
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