Basil H. Johnston O.Ont

Order of Ontario

The Order of Ontario is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...

, Anishinaabe

Anishinaabe

Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...

 writer, storyteller, language teacher and scholar, was born on the Wasauksing First Nation

Wasauksing First Nation

Wasauksing First Nation is an Ojibwa, Odawa and Pottawatomi First Nation located near Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada....

 in Ontario, Canada, on July 13, 1929, to Mary (Lafreniere) and Rufus Johnston. He is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation

Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation

Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation formerly "Cape Croker" is an Ojibway First Nation living on unceded territory in the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. Along with the Saugeen First Nation, they form the Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory...

 (formerly known as the Cape Croker Band of Ojibwa).

He graduated from Loyola College

Loyola College (Montreal)

Loyola College was a Jesuit college in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It ceased to exist when it was incorporated into Concordia University in 1974. A portion of the original College remains as a separate entity called Loyola High School....

, Montreal, Quebec, cum laude in 1954. In 1969, he joined the ethnology department of Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...

, Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, until his retirement. From 1970 onward, as an ethnologist, non-fiction writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, essayist, short-story writer, autobiographer, and educator, Johnston became a prolific writer. His topics are predominantly concerned with the preservation of his native Ojibwa

Ojibwa

The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...

 culture.

Biography

He attended elementary school at the Cape Croker Indian Reserve school until the age of 10, after which he attended St. Peter Claver's Indian Residential School in Spanish, Ontario

Spanish, Ontario

Spanish is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located on Trans-Canada Highway 17 in the Algoma District near the border of the Sudbury District...

. He left school for a time before finishing the ninth grade, but soon learned that it would be difficult to support himself without further education. In the meantime, St. Peter Claver's had gained a new Father Superior who reorganized the school as Garnier Residential School for Indian Boys to deliver a secondary school education, instead of as a trade school. In 1950, Johnston graduated valedictorian from Garnier and then attended Loyola College in Montreal where he graduated with honors, earning a B.A. in 1954. An account of his school years can be read in Indian School Days.

From 1955 through 1961, Basil Johnston was employed by the Toronto Board of Trade

Toronto Board of Trade

The Toronto Board of Trade is Toronto's chamber of commerce, the largest local chamber of commerce in Canada, representing more than 10,000 business and individual members with about 500,000 employees across Canada and annual revenues of more than $200 billion .It is a non-profit organization with...

. He received his Secondary School Teaching Certificate from the Ontario College of Education in 1962, and took a position teaching history at the Earl Haig Secondary School in North York

North York, Ontario

North York is a dissolved municipality within the current city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the central part of the northern section of Toronto. As of the 2006 Census, it has a population of 635,370. The official 2001 census count was 608,288...

 until 1969. He then joined the Ethnology Department of the Royal Ontario Museum where he worked for the next 25 years with a mandate to record and celebrate Ojibwa (Anishinaabe) heritage, especially language and mythology. His writings began appearing in print in 1970. The first essay, "Bread Before Books or Books Before Bread," which appeared in The Only Good Indian: Essays by Canadian Indians, recounts events contributing to the deterioration of the Native American culture. For the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for policies relating to Aboriginal peoples...

, Johnston wrote the Ojibway Language Course Outline and the Ojibway Language Lexicon in 1978. Basil is a fluent speaker, scholar, and teacher of the Anishinaabe language who writes in both English and Anishinaabemowin. He is often sought as a translator, perhaps because his translations display a sensitivity to both the Ojibwa and English languages. Since the key to understanding culture is language, to provide this key, Basil Johnston has developed audio programs on cassette and CD.

Back in 1968 a grade 5 student, after studying Indians in-depth for five weeks, asked Basil Johnston, a visitor to the school, "Is that all there is to Indians, Sir?" Since that time Basil has written 15 books in English and 5 in Ojibwemowin to show that there is much more to North American Indian life than social organization, hunting and fishing, food preparation, clothing, dwellings and transportation. In addition, he has written numerous articles that have been published in newspapers, anthologies and periodicals. In 1978, he developed the script for the film, The Man, the Snake and the Fox, still available from the National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

. Basil travels extensively throughout Canada and the U.S. to speak about the Ojibwa culture and language. He often visits Canadian and U.S. Ojibwa reserves and reservations and schools where he continues to pass down the stories, customs, and history of the Ojibwa people in the Ojibwa oral tradition.

Awards

For his work in preserving Ojibwa language and culture, he has received the Order of Ontario

Order of Ontario

The Order of Ontario is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...

 and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 and Laurentian University

Laurentian University

Laurentian University , was incorporated on March 28, 1960, is a mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada....

. Basil has also received the 2004 Aboriginal Achievement Award for Heritage and Spirituality.

Filmography

• The Man, the Snake and the Fox. National Film Board of Canada (Montreal: 1978). Directed and produced by Tony Snowsill, written by Basil Johnston.
• Native Indian folklore. National Film Board of Canada (Montreal: 1993). By Alanis Obomsawin; Wolf Koenig; Brian McLeod; Tony Westman; Tony Snowsill; Basil Johnston; Les Krizson; Francois Hartman; Eunice Macaulay; Tex Kong; National Film Board of Canada.

External links

• Basil Johnston entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Basil H Johnston entry in Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada
• Winter Spirit Creations
• Excerpt from the Introduction to Honour Earth Mother
• Author page at Kegedonce Press
• National Aboriginal Achievement Awards
• Basil Johnston on the Beverley Slopen Literary Agency
• Online Guide to Writing in Canada's information on Basil Johnston
• Whetung Ojibwa Centre's biography of Basil Johnston and book sales