Dallas Soonias and Jessica Johns talk about Cree culture, genre bending stories and the importance of dreams
The athlete and CBC Sports analyst is championing Bad Cree on Canada Reads 2024
When Dallas Soonias first read Bad Cree, he felt like he had an immediate connection with author Jessica Johns and the book's characters.
Nehiyaw/Cree himself, Soonias was transported by the landscapes of the prairies, the power of dreams and the everyday family life described in the horror-infused novel — and he can't wait to champion it on Canada Reads 2024!
Ahead of the debates, Soonias had the chance to speak with Johns on The Next Chapter and even ask her some of his own questions with the help of Canada Reads host Ali Hassan.
The starting lines of Bad Cree are the following: "Before I look down, I know it's there. The crow's head I was clutching in my dream is now in the bed with me." What prompted you to start your story with this severed crow's head in Mackenzie's hand?
Jessica Johns: A couple of things inspired me to start the book in this way. The first is that I wanted to be transparent with the audience of readers of what they were in for. So it's a bit of a shocking first sentence. And there are horror elements weaved throughout this novel quite intentionally in various ways and I wanted them to know that this is what this book was about.
I attach myself as a reader to books that grab me within the first paragraph. So I was being intentional about how I grabbed my readers. And yeah, I wanted to throw them right in the middle of the lake. And I hope that that did that.
What has brought Mackenzie to this point of having these terrible dreams where she can bring things back into her waking world?
JJ: I think more than anything, isolation really brought her there. She has been separated from her family for a number of years — voluntarily — she left her home, community and her family because they experienced a death and they all grieve in very different ways. Once you meet the rest of the characters, you see that Mackenzie is incredibly avoidant. And you know one of her coping mechanisms is to run.
I think that isolation really made the perfect situation for these terrifying nightmares and dreams to come to her. And not only that, the way they affect her in her waking life and how she navigates them is also affected by the isolation she's put herself in.
Dallas, Bad Cree gives us this suspenseful mystery with elements of horror. But there's also a softer, more vulnerable side to this story as well, a side that involves grief and love. And now that you're representing this book for For Canada Reads, how would you describe it to people who haven't read it yet?
Dallas Soonias: It's a tough one because it's kind of a genre bender in the sense that it's not a horror that's just smacking you in the face with wild, fantastical things over and over. As you mentioned, there's a story of family in it.
And for me, those are the elements that resonated the most. The stuff where she's talking to her auntie on the phone and her auntie's playing bingo and she's smoking and there's people coming in and out of the Friendship Centre.
There's so much of this book that everybody can just chew into and then learn about this other way of life, this other way of living.- Dallas Soonias
I was lucky that I felt like I had a shorthand with the people in the book and the author right away. Not everybody's going to have that. But there's so much of this book that everybody can just chew into and then learn about this other way of life, this other way of living.
Jessica, I understand that during your MFA, you were at UBC and one of your professors told the whole class not to write about dreams. First of all, why would he say that? And secondly, why did you then decide to do the exact opposite and basically centre this entire novel around dreams?
JJ: Well, to answer your first question, he said that because he thought he was giving good advice. He was trying to say, "Don't write about dreams," because they'll lose your reader. And that was incredibly antithetical to my cultural understanding of dreams and their significance in Cree culture.
And so the reason why I decided to write what started as a short story that entirely centred dreams is because I'm a nehiyaw iskwew, I am also an Aries and so I am vengeful. And I was like, "I'm going to prove this man wrong. Not only am I going to write about dreams from a nehiyaw iskwew perspective, it is going to be exciting and interesting and it will keep readers captivated no matter what background they're coming from."
I knew that in centering family and love and dreams as well, that it had to come from a place of compassion and true joy of storytelling.- Jessica Johns
I did it at first to spite and to prove something. But as it developed into the novel that it is now, my perspective on that really changed. And I knew that in centering family and love and dreams as well, that it had to come from a place of compassion and true joy of storytelling.
DS: Can I ask Jessica a question? I've been thinking about this the whole time. Your book is almost completely void of men, there's no male characters. And I realized that when I was almost finished the book. And it's awesome. I love that about the book. Was that a choice you made or did that just end up happening?
JJ: No, it was certainly intentional.
Cree people, Dallas, as you know, we're traditionally matriarchal. So I really wanted to highlight a generational look at matriarchy and powerful women and femmes as well, because Joli is a two-spirit person who was also really important to represent queer Indigenous people as well.
And women are our organizers. They're how I understand how to be in community by watching my aunties and my mom move through the world and organize our family and that's how I understand politics and governance from a nehiyaw perspective. So I really wanted to honour that and honour them. And in saying all that, men have a really important role in in Cree society as well.
And it's actually why I was really excited about Dallas championing this book because as a napew, as a man, one of the roles is to stand beside and uplift women. It is to champion us. And so I think this is actually a really traditional arrangement that Dallas is championing a book by nehiyaw iskwew.
DS: I'll stand behind your work anytime. I'll be in the background anytime you need.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
