• Age: 15
• Grade: 10

Finalist for the Saskatchewan Book Awards

Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney is a compelling study of an intriguing character - a white man who assumed a First Nations "voice" to promote his ideas and ideals to an international audience. In turn, the book raises difficult questions about identity and voice, Indigenous culture, human rights and the environment.

Ruffo draws on extensive archival research and family memories - Grey Owl lived for three years with Ruffo's grandmother's family in the small northern Ontario community of Biscotasing - to offer new insights about the man and his mission. With clear, direct and evocative language, Ruffo writes from Grey Owl's own perspective as well as from the viewpoints of women he loved and men with whom he worked. The poems detail both his professional achievements and his personal failures.

Ruffo brings a deep understanding of Indigenous thought, excellent research skills and a mature craft to this collection. Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney marks a significant contribution to Indigenous writing and to Canadian literature.

 

Garnet Ruffo Ruffo's profile page

Armand Garnet Ruffo was born and raised in northern Ontario and draws upon his Ojibwe heritage for much of his writing. A multi-genre writer, he is the author of Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney and Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird, a finalist for the 2015 Governor General's Literary Awards. Other projects include "Sounding Thunder: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow," a musical drama that premiered in the summer of 2018, and "On the Day the World Begins Again," a short film about Indigenous incarceration that premiered in October 2018. His writing most recently appeared in ARC Poetry, GRANTA: Canada issue, EVENT and 150, Canada's History in Poetry (Nimbus Publishing). Ruffo is the recipient of a Honourary Life Member Award from the League of Canadian Poets and an inaugural Mayor's Arts Award from the City of Kingston. He is currently the Queen's National Scholar in Indigenous Literature at Queen's University in Kingston. He lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Armand Ruffo is definitely a writer with a future, a writer to be watched." - Tomson Highway

"A powerful evocation of Canada's most famous fake. In a virtuoso orchestration of poetry, fiction, reminiscence, letter, news report, Armand Ruffo captures the contradictions of this ne'er-do-well who recreated himself out of his own impossible romantic childhood dreams." - Rudy Wiebe

Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney

This biography provides a colourful portrait of the mysterious man and life in Canada’s wilderness during the early 20th century. Although Belaney’s story is based on archival records and reminiscences, it is told largely through narrative poetry and fiction. Belaney grew up a misfit in strict Edwardian England and later moved to Canada to become a guide. Ruffo examines Belaney’s transformation into Grey Owl, a masquerade in which he presented as a First Nations person adopted by the Ojibway. He focuses on the contradictions of Belaney’s character, a man who neglected his own family, yet spoke passionately for the protection of wildlife.

This book was a Saskatchewan Book Awards Finalist.

Ruffo, a respected Ojibway poet, teaches Native literature at Carleton University.

Caution: Includes references to alcohol abuse.