The Returner’s Grass Notes: Adoptee Memoir & Tallgrass Prairie
Guest Speaker:Dr. Tanis MacDonald
Author, Adoptee, Dedicated Walker, & Professor Emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University
Writing a memoir offers the opportunity to chart a life’s journey, but what happens when that path is less traveled and lacks clear signposts? In this talk, Dr. Tanis MacDonald discusses her memoir-in-progress an exploration of returning to the prairie landscape while navigating the nuances of an adoptee’s reconfiguration of "homeplace" beyond genetic inheritance.
Moving away from a simple search for family, this presentation explores what author Diane di Prima calls a cosmology: the affective landscape that shapes our evolving self and memory. Tune in for a special reflection on the bison as a symbol of shared history and contemporary resurgence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures.
