Published in 2023
214 pages
6 hrs and 19 mins
Helen Knott is an Indigenous spoken word poet, grassroots activist, leader and social worker from the Prophet River First Nation. She is of Dane-Zaa, Nehiyaw, Métis, and European descent. Residing in Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada, Knott has published a number of poems and short pieces of creative non-fiction in Red Rising Magazine, the Malahat Review, through CBC Arts, and in a compendium entitled Surviving Canada: Indigenous People Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal. She published her first book, In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience, in 2019.
What is this book about?
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space.
Helen Knott’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy.
Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.
Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
