Nicola I. Campbell's memoir Spílexm weaves poetry and prose to tell 'remembered stories' of resilience

Nicola I. Campbell is a Nłeʔkepmx, Syilx and Métis author from British Columbia. Her stories weave cultural and land-based teachings that focus on respect, endurance, healing and reciprocity.

She's written five books for children including Stand Like a Cedar and Shin-chi's Canoe.

Her latest book, Spílexm, is a memoir that reflects on the connection between culture and family. Intended for older readers, Spílexm mixes poetry, stories and letters to reflect on life experience and hard-fought wisdom. Spílexm means 'remembered stories' in the Nłeʔkepmx language and each story presents the people, places and languages that have touched Campbell's life. 

Campbell, based in Sardis, B.C., spoke with Shelagh Rogers about writing Spílexm.

Why did you choose the word spílexm as the title for your book? 

I was at a loss for what to call it. The only thing that kept coming to my mind was Spílexm because it's a memoir and it's all remembered stories in poetry. That seemed fitting. And I don't have fluent knowledge of my language — I know words. So that was a word that I knew. 

The word spílexm was relevant because it wasn't all events that involved me. It was events that my elders spoke of, that my family spoke of that I wrote about. 

After the success that you've had with your children's books, why did you choose to write this book, which is so personal? 

Well, it actually started to unfold itself over 25 years ago, parts of these had started coming together in my early stages of writing. Some of my earlier poems are Salish Dancer and poetry about the loss of my brother. And they weren't intentionally part of a memoir when I wrote them.

Continue reading this article at CBC.ca.