Abstract
The paper investigates the notion of community, its present and past forms, disruptions and dysfunctionalities, and possible renewals as described in the works by Richard Van Camp. Usually set in the Northwest Territories, Van Camp's stories tell about the life on and off the reserves and in cities in the Canadian north.
His characters struggle with all kinds of consequences of settler colonialism and cultural oppression - alcohol and drug abuse, criminality, high suicide rate, shattered families, identity crisis. Despite the harshness of the environment, they try to re-establish the relationships within their communities and reunite their identities.
The aim of the paper is to examine the ways the community can be restored and what is the role of stories and literature in the process. The challenges of the life in the north and tragedies in personal life create a deep sense of isolation, loneliness, and alienation, painfully felt by the characters in Van Camp's work.
Emotional, mental, and existential struggle is, on the other hand, in many stories balanced with a profound sense of hope as characters find the way out of their solitude and begin to build human relations again. Words are vessels of hidden emotions which must be expressed for the healing to begin.
Stories create ground for human-to-human relations which are nourished and developed by sharing. Building and maintaining community, a concept inherent to Indigenous knowledge systems, has been immensely harmed by years of colonization, leading to a cultural genocide, as stated in the final report of the TRC.
Richard Van Camp is one of the authors from the emerging literary generation who discuss openly the pain and harm that have been suffered by Indigenous communities, simultaneously looking for possibilities of resurgence and reconciliation.