George Rich's Struggling With My
Soul is a story of growing up caught between two worlds. The author is a
Labrador Innu whose family and people gave up their nomadic way of life to
settle in Davis Inlet. But the promises of a better life in the new place
quickly turned to alcoholism, despair and tragedy. Rich's story is one of a
people coming apart, but it is also a story of healing-and of the hard work it
takes to put one's life, one's soul and one's community back together. Readers
who are not familiar with the Innu language will come across new words here.
There is Natuashish-the wonderful winter encampment where the caribou
come. There is Kuekuatsheu, who in Innu legend creates the earth with
the help of animals. Readers should not worry about how to pronounce the words,
but enjoy the stories behind them instead. The language of any culture is an
entrance to a new world. Readers who speak one language may want to think about
what it would be like to always live between two languages, two cultures.
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