Accession 2015-18 - Helen Hawley

Helen Hawley was born in 1937 and grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. After a fine arts course at Regina College studying under Ken Lochhead, Art McKay and Roy Kiyooka, she studied art history at universities in Toronto and Paris, France.

Since 1962 she has been a resident in England and is a professional artist who has exhibited widely in several countries.

As a poet, she has had several books published from which poems have been reprinted in anthologies. Some of her work tries to form bridges between Native and Non-Native Canadians, and in 1987 she was invited to send certain poems to that year’s North American Indian Conference of Elders where they were read aloud as part of the programme. The poem Concerto was published in her poetry book Gathering Fire by Thistledown Press in 1977. Although it was written before Caribou Factory was thought of, the themes are consistent. Caribou Factory was co-authored with Mary Thomas, whose contribution to the book where it regards First Nations people was invaluable.