by Shannon May

Thomas King – author, scholar, Dead Dog Café creator and photographer – will visit the University of Calgary Nov. 12 for the 2003 Massey Lectures.

While at the U of C, King will deliver part four in the five-part series “One Million Porcupines Crying in the Hills.”

In his lecture, King explores some of the differences between Native stories – which are oral – and the mainstream stories of the western world – which are largely written. One of the differences is that written stories have a way of setting a version of the past in stone.

“ I think that by the time Native writers began to write in earnest and in numbers, we discovered that the North American version of the past was too well populated, too well defended.”

But stories, he points out, have other purposes as well. We tell stories for ourselves - to help keep us alive.

King is renowned for looking at the breadth and depth of native experience and imagination, weaving his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest in an effort to make sense out of North America’s relationship with its aboriginal peoples.

Inaugurated in 1961 and heard on CBC Radio’s Ideas since the program’s creation in 1965, the Massey Lectures were created to honour Vincent Massey, former Governor-General and an energetic advocate of public discourse in Canada. The 2003 Massey Lectures will air Nov. 17 - 21 on Ideas at 9:05 pm on CBC Radio One.

Tickets are $10 from the U of C Campus Ticket Centre, MacEwan Student Centre in person or by phone 220-7202.

The Calgary lecture is co-sponsored by CBC Radio One and the University of Calgary.