I think welcoming newcomers now is more important than ever because we brought all these white men in and gave them land and now they say no to peopl… - Lee Maracle

I stand between my infinite grandchildren and my infinite grandmothers. The farther... backward in time I go, the more grandmothers I have. The farther forward, the more grandchildren. And I am obligated to that whole lineage: this lineage holds up the spirit of all things - trees, flora, fauna, human. That's what that word ["God"] means. And it's likewise the same in their language when they were translated.

I think of everybody as my audience. I write to be read in the year 2525, you know. I write forever. When I lay a word down on that page, some tree had to perish, and that tree is my relative, and I believe that. (interviewer: "So you better make the word good.") LM: Words are sacred, just like that tree. I took a life so that this book could exist. So everybody is my audience and all of their ancestors...I have a huge caring for the direction that humanity's currently travelling in, I care about that direction. And my writing serves that. Serves to alter that direction. All we've got to do is make an about-face and turn this wheel the other way. It's not just us that's heading for destruction, you know? The world is a terrible place right now, but it's also a wonderful place (knock on wood) because there's so many people coming forward trying to alter the direction and the course we're currently on, and it's only terrible for human beings. The Earth will survive; she knows how to take care of herself. But we may not.

(You write about how reconciliation is a misnomer, that Indigenous people are still dying — what should we be talking about instead?) LM: The first part — truth. No truth, no reconciliation.