By Sammy Hlinak, Class of 2027
On October 24, Lakes invited acclaimed author, Angeline Boulley, to speak in front of the sophomores and give a little bit of information about her newest novel, “Warrior Girl Unearthed.” She talked about her experiences as a biracial woman of color and how her Native American heritage inspired her to create meaningful stories with more diverse representation. As Boulley is from the Ojibwe tribe in northern Michigan, both of her novels take place here. She also talks about how character development was a large part of how she made her writing more complex and how she really made it flow. She describes her process using the hero’s journey method, and relating this to an Ojibwe medicine wheel, helping her shape her characters throughout the story. The main character, Perry Firekeeper-Birch, is a complex, tough, and exhilarating protagonist with a strong character arc. Perry’s ethnicity is half black and half Native American from the Ojibwe tribe, similarly to Boulley. As Perry’s connection to her culture strengthens, she will overcome different obstacles in order to bring home her ancestors. She also described much about her writing process. Initially Boulley states that her idea for the book began with Native American Nancy Drew meets Oceans 8. Then, she added the political conflict of museums around the country unethically being in possession of native remains and the sacred objects they were buried with. Overall, Angeline Boulley’s engaging conference showed people how to tell the world their story and got the students excited and ready to begin their new novel.
