Seven Sacred Truths presents a powerful exploration of an Indigenous woman’s healing journey. Seeing the world through “brown” eyes, poet Wanda John-Kehewin makes new meaning of the past, present, and future through a consideration of Love, Wisdom, Truth, Honesty, Respect, Humility, and Courage. By sharing her views on these Seven Sacred Truths and what they meant to her growing up, John-Kehewin instigates a therapeutic process of restoration and transformation. Her Seven Sacred Truths uncovers new meaning in the written word – meaning that can be shared with others who have lived trauma or who want insight into it. John-Kehewin strives to create a safe space and provide the opportunity to experience another perspective; she invites readers to embark on their own healing journeys. The closer you are to the truth, she writes, the freer you become.

Wanda John-Kehewin uses writing as a therapeutic medium to understand and respond to the near-decimation of First Nations cultures and traditions. Recipient of the World Poetry Foundation’s Empowered Poet Award for her first collection, In the Dog House.

Wanda John-Kehewin (she, her, hers) is a Cree writer who uses her work to understand and respond to the near destruction of First Nations cultures, languages, and traditions. When she first arrived in Vancouver on a Greyhound bus, she was a nineteen-year-old carrying her first child, a bag of chips, a bottle of pop, thirty dollars, and a bit of hope. After many years of travelling (well, mostly stumbling) along her healing journey, she shares her personal life experiences with others to shed light on the effects of trauma and how to break free from the "monkeys in the brain."

Now a published poet, fiction author, and film scriptwriter, she writes to stand in her truth and to share that truth openly. She is the author of the Dreams series of graphic novels. Hopeless in Hope is her first novel for young adults.

Wanda is the mother of five children, two dogs, two cats, three tiger barbs (fish), and grandmother to one super-cute granddog. She calls Coquitlam home until the summertime, when she treks to the Alberta prairies to visit family and learn more about herself and Cree culture, as well as to continuously think and write about what it means to be Indigenous in today's times. How do we heal from a place of forgiveness?

Wanda John-Kehewin's profile page

• Short-listed, Indigenous Voices Award

“In terms of grappling with the who am I and what are my concerns, questions emerging authors tend to answer in their first books, Seven Sacred Truths collects the author’s learning and places it right on the page, beautifully, confidently, and with the type of stare-you-in-the-face storytelling that can only be accomplished with the wisdom of self-awareness. These texts do not dress up or pretend. What is more sacred than a woman knowing herself, accepting herself and moving forward into a place of self-determination?” —Elee Kraljii Gardiner, PRISM International

“Seven Sacred Truths collects the author’s learning and places it right on the page, beautifully, confidently, and with the type of stare-you-in-the-face storytelling that can only be accomplished with the wisdom of self-awareness.” —Elee Kraljii Gardiner, PRISM International

"The abandonment by her family seems unforgiveable to those who have the privilege of a parent’s care yet John-Kehewin finds a way of looking that invites us to see how established discrimination is ingrained in our society"—Mary Barnes, Prairie Fire magazine

“Part of what makes this collection interesting is in the mix of styles and approaches, from lyric fragments to prayer to prose sections, each moving with different purpose and direction but all with similar goals, that of attempting to acknowledge, respond and finally thrive, despite a personal and cultural legacy of brutality.”
—Rob Mclennan