The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
WE HAD THE MAGIC, the orenda, before the crows came. We’d never questioned this before their claws first grasped our branches and their beaks first pecked our earth.
Most of us will admit we were taken aback by how quickly the crows adapted. When you fall asleep laughing in the evening, it’s difficult to awake crying in the sun. But this isn’t just about sadness, or pity, or blame. We’re all party to our own wants as well as to our own shortcomings.
Aataentsic, the Sky Woman and mother of the Wendat, she still sits by the fire watching with her eyes of polished shells. Aataentsic doesn’t like to give much away, but if you watch her expression close enough, sometimes she does.
And so when the crows arrived to caw that our orenda was unclean, at first we laughed. Aataentsic did, too. But she didn’t laugh for the same reasons. She’d already foreseen the nests the crows had begun to build as they plucked the odd feather from our hair or begged a strip of hide from our bundle even as we looked into their eyes. Aataentsic laughed because she is just as imperfect as we are. She laughed because we couldn’t see our own demise coming.
But hindsight is sometimes too easy, isn’t it? And so maybe this is what Aataentsic wants to tell. What’s happened in the past can’t stay in the past for the same reason the future is always just a breath away. Now is what’s most important, Aataentsic says. Orenda can’t be lost, just misplaced. The past and the future are present.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This novel has been deeply enriched by the work of many scholars, historians, and elders. The list of books I’ve consulted over the years is too long to share here but I do need to name some: John Steckley’s incredible Words of the Huron, and Allan Greer’s concise edition of The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America, specifically his chapter dealing with Jean de Brébeuf’s description of the Feast of the Dead offered me insight and sometimes the words I needed. Bruce Trigger’s masterpiece, The Children of Aataentsic and Elisabeth Tooker’s An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615–1649 were very helpful to my early research. In addition to this, Emma Anderson’s The Death and Afterlife of the North American Martyrs, Conrad Heidenreich’s Huronia, and Georges Sioui’s Huron Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle are must-reads for anyone wishing to fully understand the era and the people.
On a personal note, I wish to deeply thank John Steckley, Allan Greer, Emma Anderson, Conrad Heidenreich, and Georges Sioui for reading different drafts of this novel and so generously offering their insight. Chi miigwetch.
Writing can be pretty lonely most of the time, but I feel very fortunate to have had the company, support, and kindness of David Gifford, Gord Downie, Jim Balsillie, Mark Mattson, Jim Steel, John Wadland, Chrys Darkwater, Nick Mainieri, Julian Zabalbeascoa, David Parker, Mike Pitre, Buddha Blaze and A Tribe Called Red, Robbie and Leslie Baker, Brian Charles, Gerald Kennedy, Kim Samuel Johnson, and William and Pamela Tozer. Also, many thanks to the Banff Centre and its Indigenous Arts program. I will thank you all personally by showering you with exotic gifts. And to those I’ve undoubtedly forgotten to mention, thank you, too.
I continue to be blessed by working with the most passionate and astute people in the publishing industry today. For all of you at Penguin, especially Stephen Myers, David Ross, and Lisa Jager, I love working with you.
Nicole Winstanley, thank you for recognizing something in me a long, long time ago. We’ve worked together from the beginning, and there’s still so much more to come.
Gary Fisketjon and Sonny Mehta at Knopf, thanks for believing in me. Gary, I had more than a few nightmares where green ink played a central role, but this novel is so much stronger because of your insanely keen eye.
Francis Geffard at Albin Michel, you’ve also believed in me from the very beginning. Merci beaucoup, mon ami.
Eric Simonoff, wonder agent and agent provocateur, I’m thrilled to be working with a man who loves the written word so much.
And always, to my great big loud and beautiful family: without you, I’m not much.
Mom, you never cease to amaze all of us.
My son, Jacob, as well as all of my nieces and nephews, you keep me relatively young.
Amanda, you’ve always brought out the best in me. This is a splendid journey we’ve chosen together, yes?
HAMISH HAMILTON
an imprint of Penguin Canada Books Inc.
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published 2013
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (RRD)
Copyright © Joseph Boyden, 2013
Endpapers map: “Champlain (Samuel): Le Canada,” 14 × 21 inches, published in Paris, 1664,
by Pierre Duval, courtesy of Kim Samuel.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Boyden, Joseph, 1966-, author
The orenda / Joseph Boyden.
ISBN 978-0-670-06418-2 (bound)
I. Title.
PS8553.O9358O74 2013 C813’.6 C2013-904054-4
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
One
Hunted
A Man Should Feel Happy
Dreams
Protection
Like Prayers
Sparkling Father
When the Bear Has Her Young
Chastisement
The Western Door
She Knows I Watch
Is Anything in the World That Simple?
The Kettle Has Begun
Feast of the Dead
Wash You With My Tears
There Is No Middle Out Here
The Other Finger Is Mine
Lost Wampum
I Saw You, Lord
Shining Wood
It Will Not Prepare You
Quickening Current
My Blood
The Horror of It
Two
They Come
I Don’t Want It
The Creator’s Game
Glittering Eyes
I Want
All Things To All Men
House of Crows
Something Must Be Done
Be Strong For Your Own
An Abomination in God’s Eyes
Mourning Warfare
I Didn’t Want To Be
Caressing
A New Mission
Season of Witches
What’s Right For You
Captain of the Day
The Beast That Tracks Us
Three
This Is Not My Father’s Dream
Jesu, Dulcis Memoria
Confession Is Absolutely Appropriate
We Have Very Few of Our Own
Blossoming
It Was Nice of You
Go Now
Are You All Right?
The Mission Thrives
It’s Time
It’s a Wise Choice You Made
Ghosts From the Trees
Flitting in Dream
It’s Too Late Now, Isn’t It?
A Comet’s Light
I Heard Him
Plugging the Breach
I Beseech Thee
Ready Beside Me
Will Him To Wake
A Very Dangerous Place To Be
The Dead Below
In This Time of Great Trouble
They Will Soon Show Us
Now We’re Even
This Is My Body, Which Is For You
Did I Do This To You?
Drumming Into the Other World
That Place Dancing With Fire
The Stolen Fruit
A Raven’s Eye
Acknowledgments
Joseph Boyden, The Orenda